December 7, 1SS3.] 



SCIENCE. 



733 



rough, we found, on the morning of the 5th, tliat it 

 was impossible to proceed eastwards, but were com- 

 pelled to return to the border of the ioe, and then 

 continue to the north or north-east until finding 

 smoother ice. This first part of the ice was furrowed 

 by deep crevasses and ravines, causing us much trou- 

 ble. We covered, however, a good distance that day, 

 and pitched our tent near a land-ridge in the ice, two 

 hundred and forty metres above the sea.i On .luly 6 

 I sent the Lapp Lars forward to reconnoitre; and he 

 reported that it was still impossible to proceed east- 

 wards, but, if we marched for a day or so to the north, 

 we would find the country accessible to the east. As 

 I feared, however, the impossibility of dragging the 

 sledges with thp weight on them over the rough ice, 

 I selected provisions, etc., for forty-five days, and 

 left the rest in a depot in the ice. We now resumed 

 the march. It was very interesting to witness the 

 great ease with which the Lapps proceeded among 

 the ice-ravines, how easily they traced a road dis- 



a circle by Pistor and Martin, a small sextant (in case 

 of the former being damaged), a mercury horizon, 

 three aneroid barometers, thermometers, magnets 

 (for the study of the clay deposit in the snow), a 

 topographical bo.ard, a photographic apparatus, blow- 

 pipes, flasks, nautical tables, etc. The sledges, ' kal- 

 kar,' six in number, were of the same kind as those 

 on which Swedish peasant women bring their wares 

 to market. The harness was made so strong that 

 it would hold a man, in case of his falling into a cre- 

 vasse. In addition to these things, we had a Manila 

 rope specially spun for the expedition at the Alpine 

 purveyor's in Paris. The food supplied per day may 

 perhaps interest explorers. It w.as, — breakfast, cof- 

 fee, bread, butter, and cheese (no me.at or bacon); 

 dinner, forty-two cubic centimetres Swedish corn 

 brandy [briinrin), bread, ham or corned beef, with sar- 

 dines; supper, preserved meat, Swedish or Australian. 

 Sometimes preserved soup was served with dried 

 vegetables. Five men were teetotalers, but there 



.b4 ENGLISU MILES 



covered, and with what precision they selected the 

 least difficult tr.ack. 



The Lapp Lars carried, instead of an alpenstock, a 

 wooden club, with which he had slain more than 

 twenty-five brown bears, full of marks from their 

 teeth ; and his eyes sparkled at the thought of encoun- 

 tering a white one. On the night of the 6th we held 

 our third camp on the ice; and now several officers 

 and men from the .Sophia, who had accompanied us 

 ^hus far, left us. Besides the most advantageous 

 rei|uisiles for such a journey, we had with us a cook- 

 ing-apparatus for petroleum: and here I beg to say 

 that I found this kind of oil far more suitable than 

 train or vegetable oils, which I had used on my for- 

 mer expeditions; and I recommend the same most 

 warmly to arctic explorers. Of scientific instru- 

 ments I may mention compasses, two chronometers, 



' The altitudes were ascertained by comparing three aneroid 

 baromelers, while observation was slmultjineously made at Kije- 

 dcsminde with a splendid sea-barometer I had left there for that 

 purpose. As the figures have, however, not yet been verified, 

 they may be slightly altered. They seem, on the whole, too low. 



was no need of supplying them with extra rations. 

 For cooking, 0." litres of spirits were consumed per 

 day. Our whole baggage weighed a ton, — a weight 

 which might easily have been drawn across a smooth 

 snow or ice field, but which was very difficult of 

 tr.ansporting over the rough and cut-up surface we 

 had to traverse. Our daily march between .July 7 

 and y was therefore not great, viz., five kilometres 

 a day. In addition to the crevasses and ravines, 

 we encountered innumer,able rivers, swift, and with 

 steep banks, which were difticult of crossing, which 

 was generally accomplished by laying three alpen- 

 stocks across them. If I had not selected these of 

 the toughest wood obtainable, we should often have 

 liad to make di'lourn of many kilometres. 



On these days we found, on several occasions, large 

 bones of reindeer on the snow; and it was but a 

 natural and pardonable conclusion to arrive at, that 

 they were those of animals who had fallen in their 

 wandering over the ' Sahara of the arctic regions.' 

 But that good signs are not always true ones we soon 

 discovered. 



