DRIFTING TO THE SOUTH. 129 



seen the first on the 1st of January. They lay near the 

 east cape of a deep bay which, from the never-to-be- 

 forgotten danger we liad passed through, we christened 

 "Bay of Horrors." In the background rose snow-covered 

 mountains, which by the rising sun were lit up with a 

 beautiful Alpine glow, and here and there in the bay 

 were small glaciers visible. The extreme land to the 

 south-west stood out as a steep cape, which we called 

 Cape Buchholz ; another to the west (Hildebrandt) was 

 close to us, only two nautical miles off ; that is the nearest 

 land. We thus found ourselves in the mouth of the 

 bay. After the dangers gone through, and as our ice- 

 raft seemed to afford us less security than formerly, 

 it was proposed that we should make an attempt to get 

 to the coast with the boats, and sufficient provisions, so 

 as to have some prospect of reaching the inhabited part 

 of Greenland, the south-westerly side, in the mild time 

 of year. But unfortunately, we found that we could get 

 no further than the edge of our field. Short broken 

 fragments succeeded, so covered over with snow, that one 

 could see neither the gaps or crevasses. To get to the 

 coast from here seemed impracticable, and, as before, our 

 ice-field was our only means of deliverance. 



The following days were pretty good. We got the 

 boats out of the snow, dug out the fire-wood, and made 

 swimming jackets and snow-shoes out of cork, to prevent 

 ourselves sinking up to the hips as we used to do. 



As we had already observed, and it now was confirmed, 

 the pressing and the quick • drifting of the ice depended 

 on the spring-tides, which happen here from ten to fifteen 

 hours after the new and full moon. 



On the 8th of January, we once more obtained an obser- 



K 



