EARLIEST POLAR EXPLORATIONS 169 



or two; in which time, besides the advantage of a healthy walk, they could, 

 without difficulty, pick nearly a pound each of this valuable antiscorbutic, of 

 which they were all extremely fond. 



'*By the 20th of June, the land in the immediate neighborhood of the 

 ships, and especially in low and sheltered situations, was much covered with 

 the handsome purple flower of the saxifraga oppositifolia, which was at this 

 time in great perfection, and gave something like cheerfulness and animation 

 to a scene hitherto indescribably dreary in its appearance. 



"The suddenness with which the changes take place during the short season 

 which may be called summer in this climate, must appear very striking when 

 it is remembered that, for a part of the first week in June, we were under the 

 necessity of thawing artificially the snow which we made use of for water 

 during the early part of our journey to the northward ; that, during the second 

 week, the ground was in most parts so wet and swampy that we could with 

 difficulty travel; and that, had we not returned before the end of the third 

 week, we should probably have been prevented doing so for some time, by the 

 impossibility of crossing the ravines without great danger of being carried 

 away by the torrents, — an accident that happened to our hunting parties 

 on one or two occasions in endeavoring to return with their game to the ships." 



Another bold explorer was Admiral Von Wrangell, who was sent out in 

 1820 by Emporer Alexander, of Russia. The party attempted to discover a 

 northern continent, and failed after many privations. Wrangell reached 

 latitude 70:51, longitude 175:27 west. The ice they traversed was thin and 

 weak. In the distance, at the end of their journey they saw signs of open 

 water. Says the admiral : "Notwithstanding this sure sign of the impossibility 

 of proceeding further, we continued to go due north for about nine versts, 

 when we arrived at the edge of an immense break in the ice, extending east 

 and west further than the eye could reach, and which at the narrowest part 

 was more than a hundred and fifty fathoms across. . . . We climbed one 

 of the loftiest icehills, where we obtained an extensive view toward the north 

 and whence we beheld the wide, immeasurable ocean spread before our gaze. 

 It was a fearful and magnificent, but to us a melancholy spectacle. Frag- 

 ments of ice of enormous size floated on the surface of the agitated ocean, 

 and were thrown by the waves with awful violence against the edge of the ice- 

 field on the further side of the channel before us. The collisions were so 

 tremendous, that large masses were every instant broken away; and it was 

 evident that the portion of ice which still divided the channel from the open 



