THE SECRET OF THE NORTH POLE. 121 



exposed his weak and ill-manned vessel. Since his 

 time, others have sailed upon the same track, and hith- 

 erto with no better success. It has been reserved to 

 the Swedish expedition of last year to gain the highest 

 latitudes ever reached in a ship in this direction. The 

 steamship " Sofia," in which this successful voyage was 

 made, was strongly built of Swedish iron, and origi- 

 nally intended for winter voyages in the Baltic. Ow- 

 ing to a number of delays, it was not until September 

 16th that the " Sofia " reached the most northerly part 

 of her journey. This was a point some fifteen miles 

 nearer the North Pole than Hudson had reached. To 

 the north there still lay broken ice, but packed so thick- 

 ly that not even a boat could pass through it. So late 

 in the season, it would have been unsafe to wait for a 

 change of weather and a consequent breaking up of 

 the ice. Already the temperature had sunk 16 below 

 the freezing-point ; and the enterprising voyagers had 

 no choice but to return. They made, indeed, another 

 push for the north a fortnight later, but only to meet 

 with a fresh repulse. An ice-block with which they 

 came into collision opened a large leak in the vessel's 

 side ; and when after great exertions they reached the 

 land, the water already stood two feet over the cabin- 

 floor. In the course of these attempts, the depths of 

 the Atlantic were sounded, and two interesting facts 

 were revealed. The first was that the island of Spitz- 

 bergen is connected with Scandinavia by a submarine 



