re Na Be ed Sh aya 
ee LNG eee 
SS SRI. ee a ee 
Swedish North-Polar Expedition. 237 
again, on the Ist of October, northward, notwithstanding a 
strong wind and a snow-fog that prevailed in the harbor we 
left. Our suspicion that this was only local seemed to be con- 
firmed when we got out a little farther north, as the weather 
became clearer and calmer, but at the same time we met already, 
in lat. 80° 40’, sporadic blocks of drift-ice, which, as we pro- 
ceeded farther north, increased in number and size. We con- 
tinued our northward course during the following day, but it 
was soon evident that no open water would be arrived at that 
way, and in the afternoon we were again steering in a southerly 
direction. During the night we lay to under cover of .a large 
sheet of ice. The temperature had now sun ° 5’ (cen- 
tigr.) so that in calm weather the surface of the water between 
the ice-masses was covered with ice of two or three inches’ — 
thickness, which considerably impeded the progress of the ship. 
But the following day we stood southward till we got into 
something like open water, and then followed the edge of the 
ice in a northerly and northwesterly direction. By this means 
we again arrived at 81° N. lat., but here the Sofia met with a 
misfortune which put an end to all further efforts to proceed 
northward. In the morning of the 4th October, during a storm 
from the southeast, and with a high sea, the ship was thrown 
violently upon a huge ice-block, or rather a small iceberg, 
whereby she sprang an extensive leak. We were therefore 
ence, raged among the thinly-scattered fields of drift-ice. Im- 
mediately on our arrival at Amsterdam Island the ship was 
almost free from ice, 
ice-blocks fallen from the 
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