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Payer at Petermann's Peak.

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expanse of country, embracing snow-covered mountains and moss-clad valleys, the blue fiord and its frowning cliffs, glistening glaciers, fearful precipices, and tumbling cascades. Towering high above the eminence on which they stood, and the lesser heights on every side, was the pyramidal summit of a mountain some fourteen thousand feet high, to which the name of Petermann's Peak was given.

The season being too far advanced for prolonged explorations, Captain Koldewey steamed out of the sound on the 15th of August, and stood to the south-east. Much ice was met between Iceland and the little island of Jan Mayen, and the vessel received some injuries from her encounters with it, and at one time leaked so much as to excite apprehensions for her safety. The damage was repaired, however, and she reached Bremen on the 11th of September, when all hands heard with joy and thankfulness that the crew of the missing vessel had arrived safely at Copenhagen.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

CAPTAIN HEUGLIN'S VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN- DISCOVERY OF KING CHARLES LAND-VOYAGES OF LIEUTENANT PAYER AND CAPTAIN CARLSEN CAPTAIN HEUGLIN'S VOYAGE TO NOVA ZEMBLA-EXPLORATIONS OF CAPTAIN WEYPRECHT.

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HILE Captain Koldewey was engaged on the east coast of Greenland in the exploration of regions till then unknown, the idea of combining a voyage of discovery with the chase of the reindeer and the bear in high latitudes occurred to Count Waldburg-Zeil, a young German officer, at that time following his favourite sports in the wildest and most remote districts of Norway. A small vessel belonging to his countryman, Captain Heuglin, being then in the harbour of Tromsoe, an arrangement was readily made for the execution of the project, and she sailed northward as soon as she could be prepared for the voyage. Passing in sight of Bear Island, which though discovered by Barentz yet awaited exploration, Captain Heuglin ran to the north-westward after crossing the seventyfifth parallel, and diverging to the north-east at the seventyseventh, steered for Ice Sound, on the west coast of Spitzbergen.

The east coast of that remote region of ice and snow is, however, much the least known, and the ice-encumbered waters beyond promised to be most productive of results in the way of discovery and exploration. The eastern shores of Edge Island

Voyage of Captain Heuglin.

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and North-East Land have not yet been examined, and farther off in the latter direction lies the still unvisited Gillis Land. Captain Heuglin and his noble passenger made, therefore, but a short stay in Ice Sound; and coasting down to the South Cape (which is now known to be an island off the southern extremity of Spitzbergen), they sailed round to the east coast, and anchored in a little bay on the north side of the strait which divides Spitzbergen from Barentz Island.

Here on a clear day they ascended to the summit of Mount Middendorf, a dome-shaped eminence which rises twelve hundred feet above the sea, whence they obtained an extensive view over land and sea, embracing the bare peaks and craggy sides of the mountains in the interior of Spitzbergen, the island dotted strait which divides that country from NorthEast Land, and the snow-covered mountains beyond. Far to the eastward they discerned a bold headland or rocky island, beyond which the white peaks of mountains were distinctly defined against the clear blue sky. To this discovery they gave the name of King Charles Land, in compliment to the King of Sweden. They then retraced their course along the western shores of Barentz Island and Edge Island, and returned to Tromsoe.

The discoveries of Koldewey and Heuglin gave a new impetus to Arctic exploration. Four expeditions sailed from various ports in the summer of 1871. Lieutenant Payer was appointed to the command of a vessel for a preliminary cruise between Spitzbergen and Nova Žembla, with a view to a more extended expedition in the following year. Captain Carlsen, who may be termed the Scoresby of Norway, sailed from Tromsoe, to explore the northern and eastern shores of Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla; Captain Heuglin was appointed to the command of a vessel for the purpose of exploring the

1 islands of New Siberia and the northern coast of Asia; and an American vessel left New York to complete the work of discovery and exploration so well begun by Kane.

Lieutenant Payer sailed from Tromsoe-the most northern port of Europe, with the exception of Hammerfest-on the 26th of June, with a vessel and crew which recall the hardy enterprises of Hudson and Baffin, the former being a tiny craft of forty tons, and the latter numbering only eight men. He directed his course due northward, and visited Bear Island, a craggy rock, which derives its name from the circumstance of a bear having been seen on it by its Dutch discoverer. He then ran to the north-east, but encountering contrary winds, sailed to the westward, as far as the South Cape of Spitzbergen. The wind becoming favourable again, he resumed his cruise, and ran to the eastward until he sighted the north-west coast of Nova Zembla. He then steered northward, meeting with no ice, and sailed nearly to the seventh-ninth parallel. It was now September, and having decided upon the course which he deemed the best to be followed in the voyage to be commenced next year, he ran to the south-west, and reached Tromsoe on the 4th of October.

Captain Carlsen had in the meantime sailed round the northern coast of Spitzbergen, and running to the south-eastward, doubled Ice Cape, the northern extremity of Nova Zembla, for the first time since it was rounded by the unfortunate Barentz in 1596. He found the house in which the Dutchmen passed the winter still standing, and everything within and about it just as they had left it. Outside the house were several large casks, and heaps of the bones of reindeer, bears, seals, and walruses. The interior was still faithfully represented by the drawing of Gerrit de Veer, reproduced in the Hakluyt Society's edition of his narrative. The row of standing bed

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Relics of Barentz.

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places along one side of the room, the fire-place and the cooking utensils over it, the old clock against the wall, the muskets and the halberds, had been undisturbed for two hundred and seventy-five years. The ashes of the Dutchmen's last fire were still on the hearth.

Captain Carlsen took away the clock, which had been stopped by the cold, the pots and pans in which the ice-bound mariners had warmed their wine and made pancakes on "Twelfth-day," the weapons with which they had slain the wild creatures of the island for food, the shoes of the poor lad who died, the flute played by Barentz on festive occasions, the books that helped to while away the monotony of that long night, and a copper dial, with a meridian line drawn upon it, supposed to be an instrument invented by Plancius, the famous cosmographer, whose pupil Barentz was, for determining the variation of the compass. The books were a 'Chronicle of Holland,' and translations of Mendoza's 'History of China,' and Medina's "Treatise on Seamanship.' Mr. Lister Ray, who was at Hammerfest on his way to Lapland when Captain Carlsen arrived at that port on his homeward voyage, purchased these relics of the Barentz expedition, and afterwards sold them to the Dutch Government at the price he had paid for them, thus securing them for the explorers' native country. They are now deposited in a room of the Foreign Office at the Hague.

Captain Heuglin sailed from Bremen on the 25th of June, with instructions to steer direct to Nova Zembla, and endeavour to pass through the narrow and unexplored Matotschkin Strait into the Kara Sea; and after exploring the Gulf of Obi, into which the great Siberian river of that name discharges its waters, to sail to the eastward, and examine the islands of New Siberia. He doubled the North Cape on the 26th of July, and on the 5th of August sighted the snow-covered mountains of

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