CHAPTER III. 



TO THE SEPAEATION OP THE SHIPS ON THE 20tH JULY. 



The ice in the Arctic Oceau, particularly ofF East Greenland. — The 

 border of the ice reached on the 15th of July. — Further voyage 

 of the Germania. — Position and nature of the ice. — Arctic birds. — 

 Meeting of the vessels once more. 



The Polar circle is termed the boundary of tlie Arctic or 

 Northern Icy Sea. For that term there is a physical 

 reason, as at every spot within this circle the sun does not 

 rise in winter for a certain number of days together, and 

 its influence being thus so circumscribed, the " everlast- 

 ing " ice is enabled to form. But the Polar circle is the 

 boundary also in a geographical point of view, as it cuts 

 directly through Behring's Straits, and the narrowest 

 part of Davis's Straits, besides stretching over both the 

 old and the new worlds, so that the whole of the enclosed 

 (so-called) Polar basin is contained within it. This has 

 but one broad approach, and that lies between Scandinavia 

 and Greenland. Here the Polar circle is least satis- 

 factory as a boundary ; for here, as in every case in which 

 the shackles of art are imposed upon nature, the arbitrary 

 line is overstepped by the irregularities of nature, and 

 nowhere more so than in the present case. From the west 

 coast of Norway to far beyond the North Cape rush the 

 waves of the Atlantic, which are never covered with ice ; 



