CHAPTER XXV.

Philosophical Resignation-Christmas on the Drifting Ice-field— Fearful Storms - The Floe diminishing in Area - Their House ruined-The Spectre Iceberg-1,100 Miles on the Ice-raftAn Island reached-Welcome at Friedriksthal-Voyage of the Germania-Winter Quarters-Christmas on Board-Adventure with a Bear-Discovery of Coal.

HESE brave men, although now hopelessly abandoned, as it seemed to them, on a rapidly drifting field of ice, acted like philosophers. The German spirit

asserted itself. They did everything which they could to make the situation endurable; and even kept Christmas Day with some show of hilarity and cheerfulness, although howling desolation reigned around them, and their temporary refuge might at any moment break up. If their virtue was assumed, it was none the less a virtue under the circumstances. Where would their next Christmas be spent? Very sad forebodings mingled with their pleasures and forced gaiety. Nevertheless the custom of the Faderland must be kept up. A pine

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Christmas on the Ice-raft.

wood and birch-broom Christmas-tree was erected; presents from friends at home, which had been kept unopened till this time, were distributed. We have seen many of our Arctic explorers enjoying Christmas amid the dreary stillness of the polar night, but this is the first example recorded of Christmas on a drifting Greenland floe.

Early on the 26th they were alarmed by the belief that they were drifting to land; the air was thick, and about three miles ahead a dark mass could be distinguished, which looked like an island. Next day it proved to be a gigantic iceberg moving much more slowly than the ice-field.

The New Year brought fine clear weather; but on January 2nd a storm arose. A scraping, crackling, grating, jarring sound was heard under the floe, which they feared would break up at any moment. They packed their furs, and filled their knapsacks with provisions. Ropes were stretched from the house to the boats, so that in case of a catastrophe they might be able to reach them. All this time the snow was drifting so rapidly that nothing could be seen around. The wind abating, some of them went to the spot, five hundred steps from the house, where their sunken brig lay. They there found a new wall of ice, and beyond it broken, shapeless masses, indicating that the floe had given way on that side. On the morning of the 4th

A Tumult of the Elements.

239

the storm had worn itself out, and it was found that the floe had lost considerably in circumference.

Still they drifted, all the time engaged in making swimming-jackets of cork, and snow-shoes to prevent them sinking up to the hips, as they did on former occasions. The days from the 11th to the 15th of January brought them new horrors. On the first-named day a tumult of the elements, beyond anything they had already experienced, was heard without their dreary house. The floe surrounding them commenced to split up; a heavy sea arose. Between their hut and a piled-up stack of wood a huge gap opened. All seemed lost. The smaller boats were brought for safety on to the middle of the floe, now so greatly reduced in size. They were obliged to leave the large boat entirely. The community was divided into two parts, and they bade each other good-bye, not knowing whether or no the next moment would not be their last. They stood or cowered by their boats the whole day.

Next night the watch was heard exclaiming excitedly, "Turn out; we are drifting on to a high iceberg." All rushed from the house: close upon them, as if hanging over their heads, towered a huge mass of ice, of giant proportions. "It is passed," said the captain. Was it really an iceberg, the mirage of one, or the stern cliffs of the coast?

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The Ice breaks up.

They did not and could not decide the question, owing to the swiftness of the drift. The ghastly object disappeared as quickly as it had come.

On the evening of the 14th the ice was once more in rapid motion; the floe burst, and the boat Bismarck and the whale-boat were brought into the middle of the ice. Fissures opened at every point. The house was unroofed and ruined. They lay in the boats, half in water, half in snow, shivering with the cold and wet to the skin. On the morning of the 16th the second officer caught sight of a star; the driving snow had not quite left off, but it was considered a happy omen. For five nights they slept in the boats. A new and smaller house was erected from the ruins of the old one. "Throughout all the discomfort, want, hardship, dangers of all kinds," says the narrative, "the frame of mind among the men was good, undaunted, and exalted. The cook kept a right seaman-like humour, even in the most critical moments. As long as he had tobacco, he made no trouble of anything. On the 3rd of January, during the frightful pressure of the ice, which destroyed our floe, and threatened every minute to sink our house, the cook happened to be repairing the coffee kettle. If the floe would only hold together until he had finished his kettle! he wished so to make the evening tea in it, so that before our departure we might have something warm.””

One Thousand One Hundred Miles on the Drift. 241

Late in January and early in February, certain signs of life encouraged them. A hawk, a raven, and sea-gulls flew over their heads, and a glimpse was caught of some seals. A fox appeared at the house. It stayed many days, and became at last so bold that it would fetch the meat thrown from the galley, and allow itself to be stroked.

Still day after day they drifted, till by May their sextants told them they had voyaged 1,100 miles on their icy raft. At length, on June 4th, they succeeded in landing on the island of Illuidlek. They had previously nearly starved to death, but here they obtained some ducks. Two days afterwards they started in their boats, and after sundry adventures reached the Greenland Moravian Mission Station of Friedriksthal, where they met with a warm welcome. "Once more," says a great Arctic authority, "they were safe, after perils, compared with which even Barents' wondrous boat voyage from Novaya Zemlya pales, and Kane's escape from Smith Sound sinks to the dimensions of a boating excursion." In spite of all their hardships none of the crew had died.

On July 25th they left Greenland on a royal Danish ship, and safely reached Copenhagen on September Ist.

Having seen the officers and crew of the ill-fated Hansa safe in port, we turn to the fortunes of

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