34 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXl'EDITION. 



tlie fishermen took back as tlie price a piece of salt meat 

 and bacon, together with a flask of brandy. They then 

 asked if we had a doctor on boardj and begged of him 

 to go with them, as their " captain was sick." For 

 such an adventure, and unexpected extension of his 

 practice. Dr. Pansch did not want a second invitation. 

 He paid a visit to the worthy old Dutchman, and with 

 the help of a limited stock of Dutch once gained in 

 Holland, he succeeded in holding a conversation in the 

 national gibberish with the honest fisher-people, giving 

 his best advice to the " captain," who had been struck 

 with a bar on the breast, and also to an old sailor ill 

 with scurvy, promising to send something to do them 

 good. As a fee he brought back with him a second 

 basketful of fish, and thus we had the pleasure of 

 knowing that the whole of the ship, or as the sailors 

 expressed it " all hands," both at noon and in the evening 

 could participate in the dainty food. When the sailors 

 mentioned the direction of our voyage, the Dutchmen 

 took us for whale-fishers ; but on really understanding the 

 unusual task that had been allotted to our ship, instead 

 of opening their mouths wide with, perhaps, unintelligible 

 pity, their eyes brightened. " Oh, new discoveries in 

 Greenland!" they exclaimed, and became at once quite 

 at home with us. It seemed as if the proud remembrance 

 of a time long past, when Dutch ships made millions every 

 year by the northern fisheries, and Dutch seamen enriched 

 geography by the grandest discoveries, was still alive in 

 the minds of these people. They now looked upon the 

 ship with heightened interest, put many intelligent 

 questions with regard to our wintering, and took leave of 

 us with such repeated and hearty good wishes that many 



