Seventy-Five Days in the Arctics 



443 



as we had fair sport, bagging twenty- 

 seven deer, thus giving us a fine supply 

 of fresh meat, much better and at less 

 cost than it would have been possible to 

 obtain at Tromso. 



' Advent Bay, another of our stops, con- 

 tains the only two permanent settlements 

 in all Spitzbergen — two coal companies, 

 operated by American and English com- 

 panies respectively. The coal appears of 

 very good quality, much like our Ameri- 

 can Pocahontas. We filled our bunkers 

 at a cost, approximately, of one pound 

 sterling per ton. Coal croppings are very 

 abundant all over the island. Lamont, 

 during his Arctic trips, and many of the 

 whalers have made a practice of taking 

 their ships' boats ashore and recoaling 

 from practically surface coal. 



Spitzbergen, providing so many speci- 

 mens of birds, kept us working overtime 

 keeping up with our skinning, preserving, 

 etc. 



At a dinner given to both parties on 

 the night before sailing from Tromso we 

 had promised to try to spend the Fourth 

 of July with the Wellman party, so it 

 was with pleasurable anticipation that 

 we next proceeded to the Wellman camp 

 at Virgo Haven. 



Patriotism ran high in our American 

 hearts as we lifted our hats on Independ- 

 ence Day to the Stars and Stripes, which 

 were waving, not only over our own boat, 

 but over the houses already in a fair way 

 of construction by the expedition. Glor- 

 ious Fourth of July was celebrated in a 

 manner befitting true sons and daughters 

 of Uncle Sam in that far-off land in the 

 North. Not having fireworks or fire- 

 crackers. Major Hersey, U. S. A., second 

 in command of the expedition and repre- 

 senting the National Geographic Society, 

 commanded a squad armed with pistols, 

 guns, or anything else that would, in line 

 with Major Hersey's orders, "make a 

 noise !" 



At a conference with our officers, com- 

 posed of , the captain, Jens Oyn ; first 

 mate, Kristien Petersen, and second mate, 

 Daniel Johansen, all of whom were vet- 

 erans of the Arctic, having served as offi- 



cers in the Nathorst, the Baldwin-Ziegler, 

 and Antarctic expeditions, it was decided 

 to try to reach the coast of Greenland be- 

 tween 74° and 76° north. The experi- 

 ence of former expeditions had shown 

 this to be the most advisable route and 

 promised the best chances of success, no 

 ship ever having penetrated to the coast 

 south of 73° and only one north of 76°. 

 The last ships making any authentic at- 

 tempt that had reached Greenland at that 

 latitude were those of a Swedish govern- 

 ment expedition under Nathorst, in the 

 year 1900, and one other expedition, 

 which attempted to get in at Franz Josef 

 Fjord in 1905. It failed in that attempt, 

 but succeeded in reaching land north of 

 Shannon Island. 



Small pieces of drift ice were first met 

 in latitude 70° 5', longitude 4° west. 



Thursday, July 12 (latitude 70° 5', 

 longitude 0.21' west), we encountered 

 large but rather scattered drifts of ice and 

 also had some heavy snow flurries. The 

 temperature ranged 1° R. 



July 15 we found ourselves on the edge 

 of the main ice pack guarding the coast 

 of Greenland. The sea was rolling so 

 heavily, however, that we were in danger 

 of being driven into the ice. Our course 

 at this time was east southeast 54 and our 

 position latitude 76° 19' 5", longitude 

 1° 54' west, but we changed our course 

 to southeast in an endeavor to find a lead 

 through which to force our way into the 

 pack toward Greenland. 



On the 1 6th we were fortunate in find- 

 ing an ice bay which sheltered us from 

 the force of the waves, and, following this 

 lead, we were enabled to advance into the 

 pack, where we were comparatively 

 sheltered. Gigantic swells, however, 

 showing the ferocity of the storm outside, 

 followed us for a distance of over fifty 

 miles through the ice. Our position at 

 this time was latitude 74° 59', longitude 

 3° 56' west. 



In this locality we secured our first 

 specimen of hooded seal (Cystophora 

 cr is tat a). 



Heavy fogs were also met with. The 

 rigging was covered with a coating of ice 



