warning Captain Koldewey that he must seek a secure haven in which to winter, he sailed to the south-west, and rounding the southern extremity of Pendulum Island, anchored his ship in a small bay on the east side of Sabine Island on the 23rd of September. Following the example of former explorers of Arctic regions, he gave the name of King William Land, in nonour of the King of Prussia (now Emperor of Germany), to the neighbouring coast, though the continuity of the western coast for several degrees farther north proves Greenland to be one large island.

The chase of the reindeer afforded profitable and exhilirating sport for the explorers until the sun left them, and the winter became one long night, illuminated only by the stars and the waving and flashing light of the Aurora. Christmas was duly celebrated, and with more festivity than was possible for Captain Hegemann and his shipwrecked crew, who were at that time drifting southward on the ice. A light south wind made the climate more endurable than usual at that season, and the sojourners at Sabine Island were well provided with fresh venison and game, as well as with the abundant stores which had been shipped at Bremen.

Early in 1870, preparations were made for a sledge journey northward, in emulation of the expeditions of Parry and Kane. Tents, cooking apparatus, scientific instruments, and provisions for six weeks were placed upon a stout sledge, which was drawn by six seamen; and the party, conducted by Captain Koldewey and Lieutenant Payer, left the ship on the 24th of March. The course selected was between Sabine Island and the peninsula of which Cape Borlase Warren and Cape Berlin are the southern and northern extremities, where the frozen strait and ice-bound coast are overshadowed by the singularly-shaped Saddle Mountain, which rises to an altitude of five thousand

Discoveries of Koldewey and Payer.

279

feet above the sea. Thence they pursued a due northerly course during the first half of their journey, passing midway between Kuhn Island and Shannon Island.

Snow fell thickly on several days of their toilsome journey, and the cold was intense; but the explorers were well provided with warm clothing, and they pushed onward bravely, animated by the thought that they looked upon lands and waters which had never before been seen by man, unless by the wandering Esquimaux.

Having reached the seventy-sixth parallel, and found the coast trending to the north-west, they diverged from their direct northerly course to follow it, and discovered three small islands in a bay which they named after Herr von Roon, the Russian Minister of War. The northern side of this bay is formed by a lofty and precipitous headland, the terrific aspect of which' won for it the name of Devil Cape; and a bay of similar configuration, but larger, beyond this promontory, and in which five small islands were discovered, is bounded northward by another bold headland, to which the name of Cape Heligoland was given. Diverging to the north-east at this point, the explorers crossed a broad bay in weather so tempestuous that it prompted them to confer upon the discovery the name of Storm Bay, and left the ice for the land at a part of the coast which, forming the north-east shore of the bay, terminates in a point to which the name of Cape Bismarck was given. From this point the coast was traced northward as far as they went, the journey being made over a tongue of land projecting between Storm Bay and the ocean, and terminating a little beyond the seventy-seventh parallel. Having reached on the 15th of April a point five degrees beyond the explorations of Scoresby, and two beyond those of Sabine and Clavering, they planted the German flag, and erected a cairn, in which they

deposited a record of their presence and their previous discoveries.

Their winter haven was left on the 22nd of July, and the vessel steered south-westward until the 3rd of August, when the coast was observed to trend so much to the westward that Captain Koldewey was induced to follow it. On the 10th, he discovered a narrow inlet between Cape Franklin and Cape Humboldt, which presently widened into a magnificent sound, penetrating deeply into the country. Sailing up it with a fair wind, he discovered four islets at the mouth of a broad branch of the sound, which time did not allow him to explore, but which will probably be found to be connected with Davy Sound farther southward. Two creeks were passed on the northern shore, the broadest of which seemed to be closed at its upper end by a stupendous glacier. Beyond this point the sound, which received the name of Francis Joseph Fiord, in compliment to the Emperor of Austria, turned to the south-west, and became much narrower, flowing between rocky and precipitous banks until it divided into two branches, the most northern running from the west, and the other from the southeast.

Here the ship was anchored in the midst of granite mountains, wild and rugged in the extreme, which towered higher and higher as they receded from the cliffs, until their summits were lost among the clouds. Lieutenant Payer, who had acquired some reputation in Germany and Italy as an Alpclimber, immediately conceived a desire to ascend the highest of the peaks which was within reach, and accompanied by Dr. Copeland and a seaman named Ellinger, he made an excursion to a mountain to which his name was given, and ascended to its bare and craggy summit, more than seven thousand feet above the sea. Thence, the day being clear, they looked over a wide