26 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



How many of us miglit be missing, sick, or infirm ? 

 How should we find our country ? Would it still be, as 

 now, enjoying the blessings of peace, and its grey-headed 

 king still be living ? 



But we were not yet quite parted from it. Besides 

 the pilot, two staunch friends, who would not be deprived 

 of the pleasure of accompanying us to sea, were still on 

 board. One wa«5 the director of the North German Marine 

 Observatory, Mr. von Freeden, and the other the director of 

 the Observatory of Gottingen, Professor Klinkerfues, who 

 wished to take his last farewell of his pupils on the sea. 



The town was now fast disappearing from our eyes ; the 

 flat green banks on either side, with their solitary houses 

 and church towers, were receding ; and the lighthouse, 

 visible for a long distance, was looming nearer and nearer. 



In the meantime the crew had not been idle on deck. 

 Everything that had come on board in the hurry of the 

 last hour had either been put in its proper place or made 

 fast, and everywhere the last touch put. But in the 

 cabin, where a magnificent bouquet had been placed by 

 some loving hand, accompanied by a few appropriate 

 poetical words of farewell, a most pleasing surprise to 

 us, we sat with our friends over a good glass of wine, 

 once more renewing every kind wish and hope for the 

 future. One was hurriedly scribbling a last good-bye to 

 relations and friends, another entrusting his money to 

 those who were about to return (for in such an expedition 

 it would have been comparatively useless), a third had 

 only a greeting and a commission to send. Once more 

 the glasses clinked over wishes for success and a happy 

 return; and then we went on deck, for the increased 

 motion of the ship reminded us that we were nearing the 



