PREPARATIONS FOR WINTERING. 325 



Wintering under Sabine Island in the small " Germania 

 Harbour," wliere on the 5th of August we had first cast 

 anchor, now seemed an absolute necessity ; and Mr. 

 Sengstacke was commissioned by the captain, in his 

 absence to make all necessary arrangements. 



It was a fine, clear spring day, the 14th of September, 

 at two p.m., when, with high hopes, we saw the well- 

 packed boat take its way through the young ice and 

 disappear behind the tongue of land. The day before. 

 Dr. Copeland and Sengstacke had gone hunting, and 

 had fired at a reindeer, when the practised eye of the 

 former saw a dark moving mass high on the Hasenberg, 

 which could be nothing else than musk-oxen. This 

 discovery set all in joyful excitement. We now knew 

 that this creature visited our island, and we therefore 

 had the prospect of successfully hunting some, which 

 would form a treasured store of meat for the winter. 

 As it was already late, the huut had to be put ofl" until 

 the morning. Fortunately, the next day was just as 

 fine and cloudless, and Dr. Copeland started early, 

 accompanied by Louis Wagner, the stoker. Let us hear 

 the events of this day : — 



" On the morning of the 13th of September, 1869, 

 Sengstacke and I, accompanied by the stoker, started to 

 follow the track of a reindeer which had been wounded 

 the evening before. The weather was clear and fine; 

 and as we had the whole day before us, we hoped cer- 

 tainly to find the object of our search, — provided, of 

 course, that it had not left the island. After half an 

 hour's walking, we came to the plateau between Hasen- 

 berg and Germaniaberg, and soon found traces of the 

 wounded creature. We followed them for some time 



