446 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



Our exceptional circumstances caused the cook to 

 wink at tlie consumption of his melted snow-water, to 

 which we apphed ourselves unmolested : to satisfy our- 

 selves was really hard work. For four hours we ate, 

 without intermission, of everything that came in our way : 

 large pieces of roasted bears' flesh (they had been visited 

 by bears in our absence, and had killed some), bacon, 

 vegetables, ship's biscuit, bread, butter, cheese, wine, 

 chocolate, black coffee, and so on. 



The change to rest was with some the beginning or 

 the climax of ailing symptoms, such as relaxation, rheu- 

 matic affections, cramp, dysentery, and gastric ailments. 

 But we were not allowed much time for repose, for a few 

 days after we started to explore Ardencaple Inlet. 



This account of one of our five sledge journeys, which 

 occupied three months on the whole, will naturally 

 raise the question whether, after all these privations, 

 science was in any way the gainer ? Such was the case. 

 The discovery of a land stretching over several degrees of 

 latitude and longitude ; the reaching the most northerly 

 point ever yet trodden in East Greenland ; the conviction 

 that the land was wonderfully broken up and might 

 possibly resolve itself into a group of islands; the certainty 

 from our geodetical work that a future measurement of 

 degrees would meet with no hindrance from climate, 

 configuration of ground, or atmospheric condition ; the 

 enriching of the geological knowledge of our terrestrial 

 globe ; the confirmation of the conjecture that the most 

 recent geological formations were certainly not wanting in 

 the far north (as people were at one time inclined tobelieve); 

 the discovery of enormous glaciers, the surroundings of 

 which perfectly agreed with Peschel's theory of the origin 



