444 



The National Geographic Magazine 



and the temperature was zero C. On ac- 

 count of the fog and the ice, which piled 

 up thickly around us, it became necessary 

 to savagely buck it in order to force our 

 passage through to reach a stretch of 

 fairly open water and to prevent being 

 hemmed in. In this butting match we 

 undoubtedly got somewhat the worst of 

 it, as all the the ice plates on the port bow 

 of the ship were wrenched from the bolts 

 and were partly separated from the wood. 

 We made water at the rate of one foot 

 per hour, but, putting a double force at 

 the pumps and lightening her weight for- 

 ward, we were able to raise the ship 

 enough to have the carpenters repair the 

 leak. This accident, however, hindered 

 us in a great way from getting through 

 some heavy packs upon nearing the coast. 

 We might possibly have come nearer our 

 goal had it not occurred. 



On Thursday, July 19, we saw our first 

 bear — a large she bear, followed by two 

 cubs about a year and a half old. They 

 being too large to capture, we had a 

 spirited hunt after them and succeeded 

 in killing all three. The meat was fairly 

 palatable, although it was necessary to 

 cut it into very thin strips and hammer 

 it very thoroughly before broiling, in or- 

 der to get the "blubbery" taste out of it. 

 In addition to this precaution, I would 

 advise that a plentiful admixture of 

 onions be used in broiling fresh bear 

 meat, and if the onions are strong enough 

 and one has a penchant for onions, one 

 won't really mind bear steak. It is the 

 opinion of the writer and also of the ship 

 surgeon, who was the taster of all new 

 food, that young seal is a great deal more 

 palatable than bear meat. 



By the 20th we had reached far enough 

 into the ice pack to find that there was 

 no evidence of any mud-discolored floes 

 which we had observed on the outskirts 

 of the pack. The authorities — Nansen, 

 Nordenskiold, and Nathorst — all agree 

 that this ice is carried by the currents 

 from the Siberian coast. 



In this connection the following ex- 

 cerpt from our log of July 20 may be of 

 more than passing interest : 



"The floes increased in area, and the 

 surfaces, which hitherto had almost with- 

 out exception been flat, were covered 

 with a tumbled mass of irregular blocks 

 of snow and ice, heaped one upon an- 

 other, rising to heights of twenty and 

 sometimes even to fifty feet. Incessant 

 motion from currents and winds and re- 

 ciprocal ice pressure, as the ice drifted 

 from the inexhaustible storehouse of the 

 North, forced the 'ice tables' one over the 

 other and caused this condition in the in- 

 terior of the Polar pack which is t}'pical 

 of what Arctic explorers term the East 

 Greenland ice." 



The temperature was still below the 

 freezing point, the ice upon the rigging 

 being quite thick, and the crystal fringe 

 of icicles hanging from the edge of the 

 many • floes presented a very beautiful 

 sight. We later sighted a big male bear, 

 quite the largest specimen brought down 

 during the trip. This bear weighed 

 eleven hundred pounds. 



On the 23d we killed a new variety of 

 seal, called the snad (Phoca vitulima). 

 Our position at this time was latitude 

 74° 6', longitude 13° 47' west. 



On Thursday July 26, at a position of 

 latitude 73° 20', longitude 13° 39' west, 

 from the "crow's nest" we could see the 

 mountains of the coast, from Cape "Hold 

 with Hope" to Pendulum Island, a dis- 

 tance of seventy-five miles. The atmos- 

 phere was remarkably clear. At this 

 time we also shot a fine specimen of the 

 stor-kobbe (Phoca barbata), the largest 

 variety of seal ever killed in the North 

 and found only in the proximity of the 

 coast. Each seal of this class yields a 

 barrel of blubber. 



From July 26 until August 20 we were 

 either enveloped in dense fog or beset in 

 front, behind, or to either side of us by 

 tremendous ice floes, so that our efforts 

 to reach Greenland were fruitless and our 

 course was of necessity changed to all 

 points of the compass. Excerpts from 

 our log covering this period are as fol- 

 lows : 



"Held up three days by fog ; thick ice ; 

 following a lead in the ice; impassable 



