1870.] President's Address. 117 



Hansa." Thus unequally provided, the two vessels parted company in the 

 ice which has to be traversed in the passage from Europe to East Green- 

 land, and did not subsequently rejoin ; the ' Hansa' having been unable to 

 force her way through the ice, was finally wrecked by it, the crew escaping 

 on the ice, and being conveyed, on a constantly lessening ice-raft, to near 

 the latitude of Cape Farewell, whence they made their way in their boats, 

 which they had preserved, to the nearest Danish settlements, from which 

 they have returned without loss of life. 



The ' Germania' having forced her way through the ice by the aid of 

 steam, anchored on the 5th of August, 1869, in the small but secure bay, 

 in lat. 74° 32', and long. 18° 53' W., on the south side of the island on 

 which my pendulum experiments had been made forty- six years before. 

 They subsequently visited Cape Philip Broke in lat. 74° 55', which had 

 been the first landing-point on the coast when examined by Captain Cla- 

 vering and myself in the British Expedition of 1823. The highest latitude 

 reached by the ' Germania' was 75° 31', where she was stopped by the ice, 

 and returned to winter in the bay, in the Pendulum Island, in which they 

 had first anchored. The extreme northern point of the coast which had been 

 seen in 1823, named by Captain Clavering "The Haystack," in lat. 

 75° 42', was visited in sledges in the spring of 1870, by parties engaged in 

 the survey operations, which extended into the 77th parallel. 



One of the most noteworthy results of this expedition, and it may 

 possibly prove one of the most important, is the discovery that the lands 

 adjacent to the bays and fiords in East Greenland abound in flocks of Rein- 

 deer and Musk-oxen, and in smaller game of various descriptions. It is stated 

 that during the stay of many months on the coast the crew were rarely 

 without an abundant supply of fresh food, derived from the country itself. 

 It is possible that this abundance of game, combined with the magnificence 

 of the glaciers and of the mountain scenery accessible by the deeply intersect- 

 ing fiords, may tempt persons who in these days have trained themselves 

 to arduous mountain-ascents to visit a country in which panoramic 

 views over yet unexplored regions of the globe might be a recompense 

 for their toils and dangers. The mountains rising from one of the fiords 

 visited by the surveying parties of the ' Germania' attain a height of 

 14,000 feet. The view from such an elevation might possibly accomplish 

 more than many maritime expeditions, to shape out the yet unknown 

 geography of Northern Greenland *. The distance in a direct line from 

 the most northern point of the coast visited by the surveying parties of the 

 * Germania,' to the expanse of open ocean seen by Kane and Hayes to the 

 north of Kennedy's Channel, and described as abounding in animal life and 



* The officers of the ' Germania ' speak with enthusiasm of the scenery in the deep 

 fiord in lat. 73°, up which they steamed more than 70 nautical miles in a westerly di- 

 rection. They say :—" The further we went the milder we found the temperature ; the 

 scenery was grand as in the Alps. The true interior of Greenland showed itself with 

 constantly increasing grandeur and beauty to our admiring eyes." 



VOL. XIX. I 



