THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 577 



A German expedition was sent out from Bremen in 1868, which 

 reached hit. 81 5' N., long. 60 W., but accomplished nothing 

 of importance ; and an expedition despatched by the Swedish 

 government in the same year had no better success. In 1869 Dr. 

 Hayes made a trip to Upernavik to make preparations for a 

 journey which he hoped to undertake the following year. He 

 made a short voyage in the steamer Panther, but added no new 

 discoveries. The German government sent out two vessels in 

 1869, one of which was wrecked in Sabine Bay, and the crew 

 almost perished on an iceberg, where they had taken refuge. 

 The other vessel returned within the year with nothing new to 

 report. Several other expeditions started from the continent of 

 Europe in 1869, but none of them made any important discoveries. 



In 1871 four more expeditions started from Europe, but only 

 one succeeded in gaining any honors. Two Austrian lieutenants, 

 Payer and Weyprecht, sailed from Tromso, Norway, in a small 

 sailing vessel, and proceeded due north of Nova Zembla and 

 entered an open ocean in which navigation was only slightly 

 impeded by light and scattering ice Dr. Petermann, the German 

 geographer, regards this discovery as of the greate.st importance, 

 since the two lieutenants must have penetrated into the open sea 

 and thus found the only free passage to the pole. 



The other European expeditions of '71 were attended with no 

 important results. It was in this year that Capt. Hall organized, 

 by the aid of Congress, an expedition which departed from New 

 York June 29th, in the steamer Polaris, of about 400 tons. 



For nearly two years no important news was received from 

 Hall, but as yet there was no alarm felt for his safety, as he 

 expected to be absent three years. On April 29, 1873, the British 

 steamer Tigress struck an ice floe in lat. 53 35' N., long. 35 W. 

 On this floe were found Capt. Tyson, one of Hall's officers, and 

 eighteen members of the Polaris expedition, who had been 196 

 days on the ice, and had drifted nearly 2,000 miles. They 

 reported that while landing provisions from their vessel, which 

 was fast in the ice, the floe broke up and separated them from 

 the ship, and rapidly drifting southward, they saw her no more 

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