i6o PLEASANT WAYS IN SCIENCE. 



adopting) the southwardly motion of Parry's ice-field, must 

 therefore be regarded as in all probability an exceptional 

 phenomenon of those seas. By making the advance from a 

 more eastwardly or more westwardly part of Spitzbergen, 

 a northerly current would probably be met with ; or rather, 

 the motion of the ice-field would indicate the presence of 

 such a current, for I question very much whether open 

 water would anywhere be found north of the 83rd parallel. 

 In that case, a party might advance in one longitude and 

 return in another, selecting for their return the longitude in 

 which (always according to our present hypothesis that 

 currents caused the drift) Parry found that a southerly cur- 

 rent underlay his route across the ice. On the whole, how- 

 ever, it appears to me more probable that winds, not currents, 

 caused the southerly drift of Parry's ice-field. 



In 1868, a German expedition, under Captain Koldewey, 

 made the first visit to the seas west of Spitzbergen in a steam- 

 ship, the small but powerful screw steamer Germania (126 

 tons), advancing northwards a little beyond the 8ist parallel. 

 But this voyage can scarcely be regarded as an attempt to 

 approach the Pole on that course; for Koldewey's instruc- 

 tions were, "to explore the eastern coast of Greenland 

 northwards ; and, if he found success in that direction im- 

 possible, to make for the mysterious Island of Gilles on the 

 east of Spitzbergen." 



Scoresby in 1806 had made thus far the most northerly 

 voyage in a ship on Hudson's route, but in 1868 a Swedish 

 expedition attained higher latitudes than had ever or have 

 ever been reached by a ship in that direction. The steam- 

 ship Sofia, strongly built of Swedish iron, and originally 

 intended for winter voyages in the Baltic, was selected for 

 the voyage. Owing to a number of unfortunate delays, it 

 was not until September, 1868, that the Sofia reached the 

 most northerly part of her journey, attaining a point nearly 

 fifteen miles further north than Hudson had reached. To 

 the north broken ice was still found, but it was so closely 

 packed that not even a boat could pass through. Two 



