138 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



At four p.m. we passed Cape Dan, but the coast was 

 too far distant for us to discern its outline distinctly. 



For tlie next few days we drifted at the speed of one 

 nautical mile an hour, passing numerous huge icebergs, 

 some more than 100 feet high, witlioiit receiving any 

 injury to our floe. Before such a mountain the currents 

 of course divided, the water rushing on either side. With 

 this current our floe regularly went from twenty to 

 twenty-five paces either to the right or left of the 

 monster, and thus happily passed it. Bade and Hilde- 

 brandt made an attempt to climb one of these icebergs, 

 but under ever increasing difficulties only succeeded in 

 getting half way up. " Then the smooth, white walls 

 rose so steep, that we might just as well have tried to 

 climb the bare outer wall of a church tower." Fragments 

 of the mighty glaciers of Greenland forced out to sea 

 " calves " of the same, these icebergs resemble huge 

 basaltic rocks in all shades of white and blue. 



On the 6th of February, according to our reckoning, 

 we ought to be near Dan Island. As, however, we could 

 not see it, we naturally concluded that it had no exist- 

 ence, and that the marking of it on Graah's chart must 

 rest upon the fact that, icebergs being so numerous here, 

 they must have mistaken one for an island. 



February passed quietly ; the weather throughout was 

 fine. Floating ice and icebergs, which were more nume- 

 rous than ever, left our floe undiminished ; we supple- 

 mented many of our arrangements, and above all gained 

 more confidence in our future. With regard to our 

 possessions and effects, we have become very indiff'erent. 

 The most costly books are torn up for the most trifling 

 purposes. Tlie gilded frame of our cabin looking-glass has 



