308 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



from the cape, and gradually rising to the mountain 

 chain, though we only saw one single living specimen, 

 which, although eagerly hunted, escaped our shots. We 

 returned late in the evening to the Germania. 



The report regarding the ice of First Lieutenant Payer, 

 who returned with Dr. Copeland about eleven p.m., was 

 as unfavourable as the description of the above excur- 

 sion. The pack-ice, as far as one could see to the 

 eastward, was completely blocked. Northwards from the 

 Shannon nothing but ice to bo seen. It was clear to all 

 that the time for ship cri'iising was over, and that we 

 must think of placing our vessel in some secure winter 

 harbour before we were cut off from her, and thus be 

 exp£>sed to certain destruction. The only fit harbour, as 

 already mentioned, was under Sabine Island, the one in 

 which we had anchored for the first time on the 5th of 

 August. Although the captain would willingly have 

 wintered more northwards, about Shannon Island, in 

 order to hold a more advanced position, no more secure 

 position offered itself here ; and upon the security of the 

 ship, particularly as the Hansa had failed in reaching the 

 coast, hung the whole success of the expedition. It may 

 here be mentioned that in Arctic regions, when wintering 

 upon a coast, which is not always free from ice even in 

 summer, if circumstances, or, above all, choice permit, the 

 harbour shonld be chosen opening to the south, having 

 land to the north ; also a creek into which falls a glacier 

 stream, as such a harbour is, in the course of the summer, 

 most likely to become free from ice. In any case it must 

 be protected from the heavy pack-ice. The small bay on 

 the south-east side of Sabine Island combined all these 

 advantages in a high degree, but, on account of its little 



