144 TPIE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



served meat made into soup, ham, kidney beans, peas, 

 and a bottle of sherry, which we had carefully kept until 

 this day. On the second, we were to be released from 

 our unwelcome position between the steep reddish-brown 

 retreating cliffs of Cape Moltke and the low island of 

 Nukarbik. A storm from the north gave to the motion 

 of our floe a seaward direction, and we once more floated 

 southward. The next three weeks brought us a long 

 way forward, for this part of our voyage began on tlie 

 18th in 63° 30' N.L., and on the 6th of May we found 

 ourselves in 61° 4', almost in the latitude of Bergen. 

 During this stage, as speedy as it was free from danger, 

 the evolutions of the ice-floes afforded us much interest, 

 and our spirits rose immensely. The coast, with its many 

 branching mountain chains, which on the southern side 

 were mostly free from snow, its Fjords, creeks, islands, and 

 capes formed a highly pleasing prospect. Grand was the 

 appearance of the "Puisortok" glacier, a mighty ice- 

 field extending thirty nautical miles along the coast, from 

 which protruded the yellowish rocky masses of Cape 

 Steen Bille. On the 25th, we saw a seal lying on a floe, 

 whilst from the land a bear with stealthy steps was 

 nearing it; but the seal soon detected the threatened 

 danger, and quickly disappeared. Linnets and snow- 

 buntings are no longer rare. Fearless and confiding, 

 these small birds seem to hke the approach of men. 

 " Some of them," so says Bade's day-book, " will almost 

 perch upon our noses, and in five minutes allowed them- 

 selves to be caught three times." 



Still no open water ! During the first days of May it 

 rained heavily ; the snow melting, the path to our house 

 became a ruin ; its roof leaked like a sieve, and the house 



