i6 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Photo by W. S. Champ 



S. S. Amaika of the Ziegler Polar Expedition 



start, but probably after forcing their 

 way through the barrier I hey found open 

 water beyond. Mr Fiala's letter is as 

 follows : 



Barents Sea, July 20, 1903. . 

 Dear Mr Ziegeer : 



We are rapidly nearing a sail, and in 

 hopes of this reaching you I write 

 hastily. 



We left Archangel on the 4th of July, 

 but as Mr Champ has probably told you, 

 we were delayed by a storm in the 

 White Sea, reaching Vardo, Norway, 

 July 9. At Vardo we took on coal and 

 water, leaving there the evening of the 

 10th. Since then we have been skirt- 

 ing the edge of the ice pack, vainly look- 

 ing for a lead. We made a direct course 

 from Vardo, striking the ice at 38 30' 

 Ej. long., 75 N. lat., and then went into 

 the ice to the 75° 38' ; but it was so solid 

 that we returned and went eastward 



and southward along the edge of the 

 pack, looking for a lead, until we were 

 near the shores (in plain sight) of Nova 

 Zembla last night in latitude 72 45'. 

 Not finding a lead of any character 

 worth going into the north ice, we are re- 

 turning northward and westward, where 

 we intend to push into the ice between 

 the 46th and 47th parallels of E. long., 

 as Captain Coffin thinks it will be the 

 best place to try to force our way. 



Instead of being a particularly good 

 year as to ice conditions the indications 

 thus far seem to prove otherwise, and 

 the strange silence, from the lack of life, 

 that broods over this waste of ice is 

 peculiar. Dr Shorkley said to me that 

 it seemed to him like a graveyard of ice. 

 We have indeed struck a peculiar sea- 

 son ; numbers of dead birds strewn on 

 the cakes of ice and not one polar bear 

 has been sighted, and only a stray seal 

 once in a great while. It either indi- 



