Seventy-Five Days in the Arctics 



445 



ice ; changing course ; following another 

 lead ; trying to break through ice ; solid 

 pack ; trying to get in north ; trying to 

 get in south." 



The above entries in our log practically 

 cover all our notes of moment until the 

 20th of August. It was first hope ; then, 

 as chance appeared better, it was high 

 hope of reaching Greenland ; then an ob- 

 struction of ice stopped us ; now more 

 fog, followed by still larger floes of ice; 

 then a heavy fog again. We made no 

 better than two knots an hour, and when 

 tied up to an ice floe we drifted away 

 southeast a knot to a knot and a half an 

 hour. All in all, it was discouragement 

 and expectation, apprehension and re- 

 newed hope, varying constantly by the 

 sight of bear or seal and further en- 

 livened during the time of our imprison- 

 ment by the capture of three polar bears 

 alive. At one time we succeeded in reach- 

 ing a point within twenty-odd miles of 

 the coast, near Shannon Island, and at 

 another time we were within thirty miles 

 of the coast, near Franz Josef Fjord, but 

 an impenetrable pack of ice blocked our 

 further progress. 



We also noted a very interesting fact 

 in the presence of some uncharted cur- 

 rents, believed by us to be the Gulf 

 Stream, in the pack at latitude 72° 2' 34", 

 longitude 14° 39' 30". Here the water 

 was of quite a different color, a strata 

 about two feet from the surface showing 

 a light green, and repeated tests showed 

 it to be one to one and one-half degrees 

 warmer than the darker water below. 



On August 2d, at a time when our 

 chances for reaching the coast were fast 

 ebbing away, we noticed that new ice 

 was beginning to form between the floes 

 during the night, reaching a thickness 

 of half an inch. This formation was 

 caused by the older ice melting, thus 

 creating fresh water, which was frozen 

 much more readily than salt water. 



On the 20th of August, our coal run- 

 ning somewhat low and there appearing 

 to be no chance of improvement in con- 

 ditions, we decided to give up hope of 

 reaching the coast, and in consequence 



set our course toward the Island of Jan 

 Mayen, reaching there the 24th of 

 August. Jan Mayen is a peculiar island, 

 shaped like a spoon, 33 miles long and 

 23 miles wide at the broadest point and 

 13^ miles at the narrowest. Here we saw 

 Berenberg Mountain, rising 6,300 feet 

 sheer from the ice, a glacier on one side. 

 This was probably one of the grandest 

 sights it has ever been my pleasure to 

 view or hope to view again. Berenberg 

 has never been ascended, although at- 

 tempted several times. 



It was on this island that the Austrian 

 government left an expedition for me- 

 teorological survey in 1882. All of the 

 houses of this expedition are still stand- 

 ing and they are in a good state of pre- 

 servation. Several of our party had the 

 unique experience of tasting some Ameri- 

 can canned food left there by the original 

 expedition, finding that nearly twenty- 

 five years of time had worked not a par- 

 ticle of damage to its remarkably excel- 

 lent condition. 



As a balm to our injured feelings, be- 

 cause of our failure to reach Greenland, 

 we learned that one month after we ar- 

 rived in Tromso, another ship — a small 

 steamer — had tried 'for the Greenland 

 coast for the purpose of walrus hunting 

 and sealing. This ship had been so badly 

 beset by the ice that she had been frozen 

 up in one pocket and had not gotten out 

 for six weeks. At that time the ship 

 was in such close proximity to us that 

 she heard our large siren signaling some 

 members of our party in one of our small 

 boats, who had gotten lost in the fog 

 and were trying to find their way back 

 to the ship. She tried to signal us, but 

 she was "down wind" and we could not 

 hear her. 



It was certainly a source of satisfaction 

 to find that where we had failed no other 

 ship had been able to succeed, and I do 

 not believe that it would have been possi- 

 ble for any ship to have reached the east 

 coast of Greenland during the past season. 



I had the intention of trying again this 

 year, but the master of the Laura ad- 

 vised against it, stating that it was his 



