PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION. 47 



nances, stores and outfits, which might then be in government 

 possession." 



This letter also contained estimates of the expense 

 of the expedition on a three years' cruise. 



The reference to Mr. Bennett's correspondence with 

 Dr. Petermann recalls an earlier visit to the German 

 geographer which Mr. Bennett had made in March, 

 1877, and of which he wrote to Lieutenant De 

 'Long : — 



" I have just returned from a hurried trip to Gotha, on a 

 visit to Dr. Petermann. You have no doubt heard of him by- 

 reputation. It was he who originated the two German Arctic 

 expeditions. I can assure you the three hours I spent with 

 him fully repaid me the tiresome trip to Gotha. He told me 

 he had been studying the North Pole problem for the last 

 thirty years, and that he feels certain it can be reached, but 

 never, he said, by Smith's Sound or Baffin's Bay. He agreed 

 with me that the English held to this route simply from pride, 

 and because they were the first (so to say) to go that way. 

 He also agreed with me, and if I remember correctly, it is 

 your theory also, that the Pole can only be reached by a dash, 

 and he even goes further than we do in this theory, for he 

 says it can be done in one summer, and that with a suitable 

 vessel and commander experienced in ice navigation, he would 

 himself try the experiment for a three months' cruise. Of 

 course, this bars being nipped in the ice, just as his doctorship 

 would be about preparing to return on his homeward voyage. 

 He also said that all the authorities in England agree now 

 that the Pole will never be reached by sledges. Dr. Peter- 

 mann even goes so far as to say that wintering in the Arctic 

 regions is a mistake if you can in any way help it, and that 

 if his route were taken it could be reached in the three sum- 

 mer months, or not at all. Said he : ' From all my informa- 

 tion, I find that it is the second winter, and not the first, men 

 most suffer in the Arctic regions, and strange as it may appear, 

 men from southern climes, such as Italians or Greeks, have 



