INTRODUCTORY CHARTER. 
31 
islands until lie readied tlie ice-fields to the east of 
the easternmost island; and, although the weather 
was clear, he could see no land to the north. This is 
not the Gillis Land of old geographers, which is pro¬ 
bably identical with another group of islands about 
sixty miles farther north. In the summer of 1872, 
Captain Johnsen also cruised in this region. He 
sighted land in 78° 18' 46" N. and 30° E., which he 
reports as belonging to a large island forty-four miles 
long, the shore of which is covered with drift-wood. 
He sailed along the east and south shores of this land, 
which were free from ice ; there was ice at the north 
end. In this year also the second cruise of the 
Sampson schooner yacht took place to the Spitz- 
bergen Seas, of which an account is given in the 
present volume. Although it was an unusually close 
season, she reached 80° 30' N., 12° E. ; her further 
advance being checked by a leak caused by ice nips. 
She sailed from the Shetlands, May 29 ; left Widde 
Bay on her return, August 17, and reached Hull, 
September 26. In 1871 she reached 81° 15' N. 
The above sketch shows that except at a few points 
we know very little respecting the seas and lands 
situated to the north of about 75°. The degree of 
flattening in the polar region, and hence the true form 
of the earth can only be ascertained by the measure- 
