TOWARDS THE NORTH POLE. 163 



ternal observations during the long night of some ninety 

 days, relieved only by the strange Northern Lights. The 

 ice accumulates all round with pressure, and assumes pecu- 

 liar and fantastic forms, emitting ever and anon ominous 

 noises. Fortunately, the Germania lay well sheltered in a 

 harbour opening southwards, and, being protected by a 

 rampart of hills on the north, was able to resist the shock 

 of the elements. The sun appearing once more about the 

 beginning of February, the scientific work of exploration 

 began. . . . The pioneers of the Germania advanced 

 as far as the 77th degree of latitude, in longitude 18 50 

 west from Greenwich. There was no sign of an open sea 

 towards the Pole. Had it not been for want of provisions, 

 the party could have prolonged their sledge journey indefinitely. 

 The bank of ice, without remarkable protuberances, ex- 

 tends to about two leagues from the shore, which from 

 this extreme point seems to trend towards the north-west, 

 where the view was bounded by lofty mountains." As the 

 expedition was only equipped for one winter, it returned 

 to Europe in September, 1870, without having crossed the 

 78th parallel of north latitude. 



Captain Koldewey was convinced, by the results of his 

 exploration, that there is no continuous channel northwards 

 along the eastern coast of Greenland. It does not seem to 

 me that his expedition proved this beyond all possibility of 

 question. Still, it seems clear that the eastern side of the 

 North Atlantic is less suited than the western for the attempt 

 to reach the North Pole. The prevailing ocean-currents are 

 southerly on that side, just as they are northerly on the 

 western side. The cold also is greater, the lines of equal 

 temperature lying almost exactly in the direction of the 

 channel itself that is, nearly north and south and the cold 

 increasing athwart that direction, towards the west The 

 nearer to Greenland the greater is the cold.* 



* It is far from improbable that a change has taken place in the 

 climate of the part of the Arctic regions traversed by Koldewey ; for 

 the Dutch seem readily to have found their way much further north two 



