AFLOAT ON AN ICE-KAFT. 263 



CHAPTER XXX. 



ON AN ICE-RAIT. 



A Floating Ice-Raft The Settlement Christmas in a New Position Terrible Storms Commotion under the Ice The Floe 

 breaks up House Ruined Water on the Floe A Spectre Iceberg Fresh Dangers and Deliverances Drifted 1,100 

 Miles Resolution to Leave the Ice Open Water Ice again Tedious Progress Reach Illuidlek Island Welcome at 

 the Greenland Settlements Home in Germany Voyage of the Germania Discovery of Coal A New Inlet Home to 

 Bremen. 



SLOWLY but steadily their ice-field drifted to the south, and by November 3rd they had 

 reached Scoresby's Sound, sometimes being near the coasts and sometimes far from them. 

 Since the ship had sunk, fourteen days before, the ice had closed in upon them, and even thp 

 blocks which had broken away from their field had frozen to it again. Their floating ice-raft 

 was by degrees investigated in every quarter, roads cleared, and marks set up for short tours. 

 The mass of ice was at this time about seven nautical miles in circumference, and seemed 

 to have a diameter in all directions of over two miles. The ice-raft, on which (as Dr. Laube 

 aptly remarked) they " were as the Lord's passengers/' had an average thickness above the 

 water of five feet, and they considered that there was a submergence of forty feet. " Our 

 settlement," says the narrative, "at the beginning of November, when we were not yet 

 snowed up, might be seen from the most distant points of our field. Near the chief building 

 lay two snow-houses, which served for washing and drying ourselves. Boats, heaps of wood, 

 barrels containing coal and bacon, surrounded this heart of our colony. To prevent the 

 entrance of the snow and wind into our coal-house, we built an entrance-hall with a winding 

 path, and a roof constructed in the same way as that of the house/' 



In November, upon a neighbouring floe, separated from them by a small interval of 

 freshly-frozen water, they saw the shapeless body of a large walrus lying motionless as a 

 rock. As soon as the boat could be launched several of them went in pursuit, and with 

 a needle-gun succeeded in killing it, although in its dying struggles it tried furiously to 

 smash the young ice on which the hunters stood, and seize them when once in the water. 

 It took ten men with a powerful pulley several hours before they succeeded in getting the 

 walrus out of the water on to the ice. Late that same evening a white bear, the first of 

 their winter's campaign, was attracted to the house by the smell of the walrus fat. Three 

 shots greeted him, the effect of which could not be seen until the following morning. " About 

 100 yards distant lay the bear, hit in the head by the bullet, as if asleep, though quite 

 dead, on the snow. It was a fine handsome beast; its well-developed head lay upon its 

 front paws ; the red drops of blood stood sharply out against the clean white snow." It was 

 a gift from heaven to them in their position. The four hams weighed 200 pounds. 



The shortest day was passed, and still they were safe. They determined that, whether 

 or no fated to see another Christmas, they would celebrate the present one. " In the after- 

 noon," says the narrative, " whilst we went for a walk, the steersman put up the Christmas- 

 tree, and on our return the lonely coal-hut shone with wonderful brightness. Keeping 

 Christmas on a Greenland floe ! Made of pine wood and birch-broom, the tree was artistically 

 put together. For the lights, Dr. Laube had saved some wax candles. Paper chains and 



