270 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



30.20° Falir., but the most striking fact was the small 

 difference between the heat of the day and night. This 

 was at the most only one degree, and frequently less than 

 that. Such an unusual state of things must have some 

 effect on the human frame. Such an equal climate is not 

 possible in the temperate and torrid zones, and only in 

 the Arctic latitudes among the ice; of course this must 

 be as beneficial to the skin as to the respiratory organs. 

 Indeed we were all in the best of health, and this was 

 astonishing, considering the low temperature, fog, and 

 other damp we had to encounter : not one of us suffering 

 from catarrh. But we must not lose sight of the fact 

 that our acclimatization was gradual, we were not sud- 

 denly set down in the ice, but approached it gradually. 



On the 27th of July, at noon, according to astronomical 

 calculations, we were in 73° 7' N. Lat., and 16° 4' W. Loner, 

 from Greenwich. The weather was fine, with a light south 

 wind ; we steamed some nautical miles westward, and 

 again came upon densely packed ice, without a sign of 

 water anywhere ; and the channel by which we had 

 just come began to close, so that we were obliged to 

 steam back to prevent ourselves from being blocked. At 

 eleven p.m. the atmosphere cleared entirely, and we had 

 the first sight of the midnight sun. Of open water we 

 could see but little, though to the north it seemed pretty 

 free. 



The floe by which we lay was, like many more around 

 us, very large and wild and jagged in appearance, resem- 

 bling a miniature mountain range. In some places the 

 surface was slightly arched, falling gently to the water ; 

 yonder were steep ridges, broken by a ravine, through 

 which ran a small brook. On one spot lay blocks of 

 different sizes thrown one upon another ; and at another 



