[5] Parry’s Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage, 1819-20, p. 298. 4to. London, 1821.
[6] Sir J. C. Ross’s Southern Antarctic Voyage, vol. ii., p. 151.
[7] Sir John Ross—Second Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Ocean, p. 180; 4to. London, 1835.
[8] The nautical mile or “knot,” which is about an ordinary mile and a sixth, is meant.
[9]Dock, an opening in the ice, artificial or natural, offering protection. Kane’s Glossary of Arctic Terms, vol. i., p. 13.
[10] Mercator was not an Englishman; he was a Dutchman, born 1512, died 1594.
[11] Three centuries ago, Plancius, the Dutch geographer, devised this for the North Pole, while Barros, the Portuguese historiographer, did the same for the South Pole.
[12] As a corrective to this rather extreme statement, see Clement Markham’s Threshold of the Unknown Region, 4th Edition, pp. 383-393.
[13] A decoction prepared by Dr. Kepes, the physician of the Tegetthoff.
[14] Lieutenant Brosch had the entire care of the victualling department, and deserved our heartiest thanks for the skill and self-sacrifice with which he performed his duty.
[15] Formerly Captain in the Austrian Merchant Service.
[16] Our position was then in 76° 22' N. Lat., 63° 3' E. Long.
[18] Parry mentions, as a fact illustrative of the increase of moisture and its condensation into ice, that about a hundred hundredweights of ice were once removed from the lower quarters of the Hecla, which had accumulated there from the breath, the steam caused by cooking, and the moisture brought down by the clothes of the men.
[19] The noise produced by such collisions cannot be more fittingly expressed.
[22] I take this opportunity of stating that the originals of nearly all the illustrations of this book were drawn on the spot from nature, and that they have been reproduced as they were drawn.
[23] On the 24th of November the thermometer marked -14° F. in the ship’s hole. The screw propeller had been fast frozen a month before.
[24] We had brought 1,400 lbs. of it from Bremerhaven.
[25] Parry’s winter night of 1819-20 lasted eighty-four days; Ross’s, in the Gulf of Boothia, fifty days; Kane’s, in Rennssalaer harbour, 113 days, and Hayes’ 123. In the latter case, however, the mountains on his southern horizon were the cause why the sun was not earlier visible.
[26] It has often been asserted that sound accompanying the Aurora has been heard in the Shetland Isles, and in Siberia; but all scientific travellers protest against this. Franklin, who at first believed in this alleged phenomenon, afterwards retracted his opinion, and was convinced that the noise proceeded from terrestrial causes.
[27] Experience acquired both in Greenland and in Franz-Josef Land convinces me that autumn is to be preferred to spring for sledge-journeys.
[28] This is the reason why the English North Pole Expedition has engaged the services of two mountaineers accustomed to glacier travelling.
[29] I take this opportunity of fulfilling a duty of gratitude, when I add that in our equipment we followed, in every respect, the tried and tested advice of Admiral McClintock, and that to this we owed for the most part such successes as we achieved.
[30] Broad runners facilitate progress through deep snow. March 7, 1874, we scarcely could move a sledge of medium size with its load, though we afterwards transported the same load easily with a sledge with broader runners; and the former became available when we fastened a pair of Lapp snow-shoes on its runners.
[31]Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, pp. 145, 146, 4to. London: 1828.
[33] See description of Parry’s Boats—Narrative, &c. Intro. pp. xi.-xii.
[34] This was the maximum of cold I observed during my three Polar expeditions.
[35] Hayes mentions a storm occurring at -27° F.; but this is probably an error of the press.
[36] In Greenland I once heard at the distance of 800 paces a conversation between BÖrgen and Copeland carried on in the usual tone.
[37] Sir John Ross frequently did this, sending the bullet through a solid board. The freezing point of quicksilver is -40° F. It varies however between -40° and -45° F., according to the purity of the metal.
[38] It may easily happen in such weather that travellers on the ice should have great difficulty in finding the ship, though they should pass by it at less than 200 paces distant. The direction of the wind contributes but little towards the ascertaining of their position; amid hummocks of ice the wind constantly changes. On the 6th of March, Haller and I wandered about for hours amid drifting snow-storms. Pekel, who came to us from the ship, guided us rightly.
[39] There are no glaciers on the coast of Siberia, and the glaciers of Spitzbergen are not, it seems, large enough to detach icebergs. May not, therefore, the icebergs which gather at Hope Island, as well as those which are met with on the northern coasts of Siberia, originate in the glaciers of Franz-Josef Land? Barentz saw, in August, 1596, on the northern coasts of Novaya Zemlya, as many as 400 icebergs.
[40] This of course does not exclude the possibility of finding appropriate winter harbours in those Sounds we were unable to visit; most probably such occur in Markham Sound, which abounds in fiords.
[41] This applies especially to the region lying to the north of 81° 10'.
[42] SchÖnau, near Teplitz in Bohemia, my birthplace.
[44] Named after Dove, the celebrated German physicist.
[45] Parry reached, on the frozen sea to the north of Spitzbergen, 82° 45' N.L.
[46] Kane’s dogs died principally in consequence of being fed chiefly on salt meat, and Hayes’s from a disease among dogs which spreads over all West Greenland. Epidemics of this kind break out among the dogs of the Eskimos and of the Siberian tribes. Middendorf mentions, however, that canine madness never occurs among the dogs of the latter.
[47] Snow-water was for two years the only water we used, and as none of us became goÎtred, we were a living refutation of the opinion shared by many that its constant use generates this disease in the inhabitants of the Alps.
[48] On board the ship the temperature at the same time was -20° F.
[49] It might have been expected that seamen would have been acquainted with the use of the compass, though the instruments they had at their command were too small to determine the declination with precision.
[50] Franklin, speaking of his experience during his first journey, says that their diet of animal food had rather weakened than strengthened their powers. An Eskimo, on the other hand, often consumes 20 lbs. of the flesh of a seal in a day, and seems to thrive on it—a proof how the mode of living of a savage is no rule for civilized man.
[51] Our food, which we always took as hot as possible, had made our tongues and gums as hard as leather, so that we could not discriminate what we ate. Our great desire was not for flesh, but for white bread, potatoes, and milk.
[52] On May 5 a bear got away from us through a bad shot, but a second was killed just as he had attacked Torossy. May 9, again, a bad shot scared away a bear; on the eleventh one was killed by Herr Orel. This bear had already received a ball in his shoulder, and a second in his head an inch and a half under the right eye.
[53] With three boats, two of which were whale-boats, each 26 feet long and 7 feet broad. His crew wore Eskimo clothing, and, strange to say, some of them had gutta-percha masks. Parry’s towards the North Pole in 1827, Kane’s in 1855, and our own, have much in common: but the greatest difficulties were on our side.
[54] “Aussingen” is a sailor’s word for a particular rhythm to which they pull in time.
[55] It was Parry’s experience also that nothing melts the ice like rain.
[56] The wind maintained its westerly character, and we drifted, as we had so often before, to the right of its direction.
[57] Baer brought home from Novaya Zemlya ninety species of Phanerogams. According to an observation of Mojssejew, June 18, 1839, the thermometer in the sun stood at 93° F., and 59° F. in the shade.
[58] On older charts it is still separated by a sound from the mainland. The layers of drift-wood, which we found everywhere at a considerable height above the level of the sea, show beyond a doubt that the coast of Novaya Zemlya has gradually risen; but as in those latitudes this wood rots only after centuries, we have no measure to estimate the rate of this movement.
[60] Thermometers should always hang freely; when they are enclosed in cases they give false values, especially if the cases should be filled with snow. In our first winter we were obliged on account of the ice-pressures to suspend our thermometers on the ship in such cases, and there can be no doubt that their readings were too high. Sometimes, however, they were too low, when the thermometers came in contact with the snow on the ship. Scoresby, Parry, and we ourselves observed that the temperature of the snow-covering sometimes sunk in clear winter nights some degrees below the temperature of the air.
