78 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



never again see our sister-sliip, and our comrades only 

 after fourteen months' time, and then so wonderfully pre- 

 served from drowning ? Our happy feelings did not allow 

 such unwholesome thoughts to arise. 



Our present object was now to follow the ice boundary 

 farther southward, at the same time looking for an open- 

 ing by which we might push on to the west. In tacking 

 in contrary winds, we came against several sharp pro- 

 minences of the thick ice-line, which here stretched in a 

 west-south-westerly direction. 



On the afternoon of the 19th of July the breeze fresh- 

 ened ; we made good way, and as much open water was 

 before us, we soon noticed the now unusual swell. The 

 weather was tolerable, the fog came and went, so that we 

 kept the Hansa mostly in sight. 



This day brought us something new. The first white 

 bear was seen, and that swimming, and for the first time 

 an Arctic dish appeared on our table. At breakfast the 

 cook astonished us with a very delicate and tender seal 

 liver, and in the evening a very savoury stew of the 

 flesh ; we were glad to get a little fresh meat, and soon 

 lost the excusable repugnance to the " oily " seal. 



We sailed farther along the ice-line towards the south- 

 west. 



On the night of the 19th and 20th we fell in with ice, 

 seemingly a part of the closely-packed floes driven from 

 the great mass. The swell had entirely disappeared, and 

 we moved amongst loose floating ice to the south-west. 

 It was mostly thick fog at night, though it cleared some- 

 what about eight in the morning. The wind was S.S.W. 

 In the south-west we still found compact floating ice, and 

 at eleven turned again to westward. The Hansa was a 



