PAYER'S DISCOVERIES. 267 



then, having proceeded some little distance, they were again condemned to five days' 

 detention. Their provisions were getting low; they had rations left for not over a 

 month. As no change took place in the ice, they resolved to drag their boats over it to 

 the island of Illuidlek, which, after delays and dangers very similar to those encountered 

 by Parry on his memorable Polar sledge and boat journey, was reached on June 4th. A 

 little later they successfully sailed to the Greenland Moravian mission station of Friedrich- 

 stal, where their troubles ended, and where they received a hearty welcome. A Danish 

 vessel brought them to Copenhagen on September 1st, and it then became evident that it 

 was time to pay some attention to their outward appearance. In their forlorn condition 

 they could not leave the ship, or they might have been compromised with the police. 

 Some were in seal-skin caps, some in furs, others in sea boots from which the toes pro- 

 truded, with ragged trousers, threadbare coats, and a general air of Arctic seediness. At 

 length Captain Hegemann fetched them away in the twilight, and took them to a clothing 

 warehouse, where they were soon made to look more like civilised beings. A few days 

 later, and they entered Bremen; not, indeed, in their own good ship, but by an express 

 train, by its east gate, from Hamburgh. The Han set, men may safely await the judgment 

 of their contemporaries, for throughout the narrative, good discipline, a hearty esprit de 

 corps, unmurmuring submission to the inevitable whatever it might be and a determina- 

 tion to do and dare whatever might appear for their mutual advantage, appear on every 

 page. Germany may well be proud of such sons Arctic heroes every one of them. The 

 fortunes of the Germania were less eventful. 



Lieutenant Payer, while out on a sledging expedition, made an important discovery. 

 On Kuhn Island he found a seam of coal, in places eighteen inches in thickness, alternating 

 with sandstone. It would be strange if in some future age our supply of warmth should 

 be furnished from Arctic fuel. Many fine zoological and botanical specimens were collected 

 by the scientific gentlemen connected with this expedition. The leading discovery was that 

 of a large inlet in lat. 73 15' N., which was named after the Emperor Franz Josef. Sur- 

 rounding it were mountain peaks ranging as high as 14,000 feet. The Germania reached 

 Bremen on September llth, 1870 but a few days after the arrival of their brethren of the 

 Hansa, and at a period when all Germany was en fete on account of their recent victories. 



