74 TflE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



there was an imperceptible struggle with the miglity 

 powers of nature ; but now we were thoroughly prepared 

 for anything that might turn up, and looked forward with 

 impatience to our advancing westward. One after the 

 other mounted to the topmast or the " crow's-nest/' and 

 gazed out upon the masses of ice : we could not satiate 

 ourselves with the panorama. A way for the Germania 

 must and should be found. 



But there was another and more important object 

 which the sharpest eyes could not succeed in finding, 

 our lost sister-ship, the Hansa, which we had not 

 seen since leaving Jan Mayen. It was impossible that 

 she could be far away, for we were quite near the ap- 

 pointed place of rendezvous, 75° N.L., and we must in 

 any case find her now before the fog should surround us 

 once more. The prize of a bottle of wine was therefore 

 set upon the discovery of the Hansa, though we 

 scarcely required this incitement, so keen and so deep 

 was our interest in the fate of our beloved comrades. 



Soon after breakfast, to the great joy of all, a sail was 

 discovered from the topmast far away in the ice in E.N.B. 

 It was a schooner, and as the whale-fishers do not use such 

 craft, it must be the Hansa, which by a seaman's eye 

 was soon verified by her peculiar rig. The Hansa was 

 under full sail ; certainly she must have already seen us, 

 and was trying her best to reach us through the apparently 

 thick ice which surrounded her. We ourselves hoped 

 that we should be able at once to advance farther west- 

 ward together ; so the boiler was heated without delay, 

 and everything prepared for getting up steam, so as to 

 unite the two vessels before the fog returned. Meanwhile, 

 it was four o'clock in the afternoon ere we could move, 



