Chapter II

PENDULUM ISLAND. STATE OF THE ICE NORTHWARDS.
LANDING ON SHANNON ISLAND.

Accident to Dr. Pansch.--Boat voyage to the
mainland.--Scientific operations.--Attempt of the Germania to
advance northwards.--Musk-oxen.

The group of islands known under the name of Pendulum Islands were first discovered and appropriated by Clavering in the year 1823. He anchored his ship, the Griper, on the south side of the largest island, between it and the mainland. On this side of the island is good anchor ground; several glacier streams debouche here, bringing with them soil and mud, and the roads are protected from heavy ice by a small island lying in front, which, from the number of walrus seen there, we called Walrus Island.

According to our instructions, the position of Sabine’s Observatory was to be sought for and newly marked, after which we were to advance northward; this, of course, caused a stay of some days. The astronomers brought out their instruments to determine our exact position, and settling the magnetic constants on land, especially towards the tongue of land eastward from our harbour (Cairn Point), where we conjectured Sabine’s Observatory to have been, but of which, with all our seeking, we could find not the slightest trace, nor of anything else which might show that Europeans had ever visited the spot. First Lieutenant Payer made preparations for surveying the island; and Dr. Pansch roamed through it as explorer and naturalist, inspecting the remains of the Esquimaux huts found by Sabine on the tongue of land to the west of our stand-point.

In the afternoon the weather, which on our arrival had been unfriendly and snowy, became fine and clear, with a perfect calm and a temperature of 41° Fahr. From the plateau of the neighbouring mountains, the barometrical height of which was 1040 feet, we had an extensive view over the sea from the north-east round to the south, as well as over the surrounding land, and along the coast to the north.

The condition of the ice was here first distinctly seen. The straits between Sabine Island and the mainland, and also between the two largest islands, were completely blocked with apparently old land ice. Farther north, between Shannon Island and the mainland, as far as the eye could reach, the ice was firm, and, from its whole position, we might well conclude that there would be no breaking up that year. Along the coast, therefore, we could not advance further north; the only possible way remaining was by the eastern side of Shannon Island. This island was distinctly seen, and seemed to be quite surrounded with ice; though to the south side, and also to the east side of Pendulum Island, there was open water, only covered with drift-ice. The pack-ice to the east was very broad, stretching at least twelve nautical miles from the coast, but farther southward it made a considerable curve inward towards the land, and lay so dense that in 74°, and even more south than that, we should with difficulty have been able to penetrate it.

Along the coast to the south there was also much open water, and Gael Hamkes Bay appeared to be free from ice. For the next few days scientific work kept us fully employed. In the evening Dr. Pansch unfortunately shot himself in the arm while following a reindeer, and had to be brought on board; we found, however, that the ball had only gone through the muscles, and that no bone had been injured; but it healed very slowly, and through the whole of the autumn, Dr. Pansch could take but a small share in all our scientific explorations.

On the 6th it was slightly foggy, with a south wind; but the sun seemed bright and clear, and the work suffered no interruption. Lieutenant Payer roamed all over the island, topographically interested as well as bent upon hunting.

We found many traces of reindeer, and saw a few without being fortunate enough to kill one, though we killed several walrus which stopped in our neighbourhood. The fat of these creatures was mostly thrown into the coal bunk for fuel, in case the Hansa did not join us again.

On the 7th we made a boat excursion to the mainland, and took the opportunity of sounding the straits. In the middle, at eighty-one fathoms, it was muddy; towards Sabine Island and Cape Wynn the bottom was analogous to the character of the land. Indeed the soundings along the coast, as far as the Germania sailed, were uniform, and the character of the depths mostly indicated by the land. Shallows in any way dangerous did not exist along the coast that we sailed by.

On our boat excursion we had a combat with a large walrus and her young one; the young one was killed easily, but the other escaped severely wounded. We found it in the afternoon dead upon a floe, and brought it on board.

We climbed Cape Wynn, which was rather steep but not very high, and found on the top a plateau of several miles in circumference, quite free from snow, but scantily covered with vegetation. Farther inland we came to a valley watered by a glacier stream, and showing moss, grass, and many green spots. Behind this valley the mountains rose to a height of more than 1850 feet, but, even here, the summits were perfectly free from snow, which was only collected in the rifts. The snow-beds and the falls of snow in East Greenland are much smaller than we expected to find, and even less than in Spitzbergen, which lies so near.

During our whole stay on this coast we only once, and that in June 1870, saw the land with an entire covering of snow.

The view to the north was bright and clear; in 75½° N. Lat. we could distinctly see the land edged with firm ice. Over the sea lay a thick fog, which spread over all by degrees. We went hunting for a reindeer, but missed it, and had to content ourselves with a white hare. We returned on board in the evening. In the night ice formed in the bay, which is also the case in summer during a calm with a clear sky, though about the beginning of August it disappears in the daytime. The heavy ice in the straits had these last few days drifted out to sea, and the land ice was more broken up.

Thanks to the continued fine weather, work was finished by the 10th of August; the instruments brought on board, and all made ready to sail, which we did after piling a heap of stones on the eastern point of land, and, about 100 to 104 feet to the north of it, depositing a document containing the chief dates of our voyage.

At six on the following morning we weighed anchor, and steered out of the harbour, with a light southerly breeze, northwards. We passed the low cliff at eight, and steamed along the firm ice, which at first stretched to the north and afterwards to the north-east.

The land ice bordered the whole south side of Shannon Island, and also Cape Philip Broke, which was its most south-easterly point. We doubled it at noon, and found to the east of the island along the land ice, which has here an average breadth of from three to four nautical miles from the coast, a channel of from two to three miles broad, though in some places so blocked with ice that only by the help of both steam and sail could we make way through. The border of the land ice was pretty high; in many places the blocks lay piled up from forty to fifty feet high.

At three p.m. we broke through a chain of brashes, on the other side of which was again open water. Here the pack-ice had retreated quite four nautical miles. As the wind was still south, steam was let off, and we set all sail to save our coals.

At six p.m. we sighted more ice to the north, which seemed very thick. The wind shifted to the west and a dense fog came up, hiding everything from our sight; we therefore halted until the morning.

We were now upon the most northerly point reached by Captain Clavering, but still Shannon Island stretched further to the north--much further than is given on the old charts. At first we thought there must be some mistake in the log’s reckoning, so, as a calm had fallen we lay-to. Our observations gave 75° 17′ Lat., and 17° 22′ W. Long. from Greenwich by our chronometer, the stand-point of which was on Sabine Island. Later on we ascertained that the position of the north-east cape of the island was 75° 26′ N. Lat., and 18° 0′ W. Long.

The correctness of our reckoning we proved beyond a doubt, and we were therefore obliged to conclude that it was impossible for Clavering to have reached the spot indicated by Dr. Petermann on the chart at 75° 14′ N.W. of the frozen bay, and that most likely the whole boat journey rested upon some misunderstanding; and later, upon going through Sabine’s and Clavering’s original reports, we found that this supposed journey had never actually taken place.

We stayed by the ice all that day (12th August), partly to take more observations, and partly because there was so much ice in the north which could only be penetrated by a favourable wind or steam.

In the afternoon the current set the ice strong to the south, at a speed of one and a quarter nautical miles an hour in a perfect calm; but from four to ten p.m. it stopped completely, when it began to drift again. It seemed, therefore, as if there was ebb and flood, but that the current to the south decidedly prevailed.[42] And with all our late observations we could not prove a decided ebb and flood, although the tidal wave could regularly be seen along the coast.

In an ice-covered sea it is especially difficult to arrive at any right conclusion with regard to the currents. Those on the coast of East Greenland we most carefully noticed. Putting the experience of both ships together, and that of the floe on which the crew of the Hansa passed the winter, the following remarks are probably correct.

Along the outer border of the ice, and among the drift-ice even as far as the fields themselves, which extend a long way within the barrier, there exists between the latitudes 76° and 72° a south-westerly current, the average speed of which is from eight to ten nautical miles in twenty-four hours. The direction taken by this current greatly depends upon the prevailing winds, and therefore often turns the foremost portion of the drift considerably to the east or west.

Immediately under the coast, according to our observations, a southerly motion of both ice and water is not to be denied, but it is far weaker than that on the outer border; and in summer, when south winds prevail, it stops altogether, so that at times the ice fields are stationary, or only move up and down. In winter the drifting is much more considerable, owing to the prevailing north winds and storms. Regular ebb and tidal currents the Germania did not meet with in the latitudes through which she passed, but only a rising and falling of the water. In the autumn it seems certain that there is always a setting of the heavy pack-ice to the coast, and what is termed land-water disappears more and more; indeed, the question as regards the continuation of this land-water along the coast the whole of the summer cannot be entertained for a moment; its appearance depends more upon the formation of the coast, the prevailing winds, and other local influences, than on the running off of melted water.

The ice in its drift southwards had turned somewhat to the east, thus leaving more and more open water behind it to the north.

We therefore set sail on the 13th of August, and steered, with a light south wind, along the border of the firm land ice without meeting with any great difficulties. A fog bank rose in the south, which soon spread over Shannon, and the channel which we were following northward was becoming narrower and narrower; to the east lay boundless fields thick together, and to the north we soon saw more firm ice, so as the evening drew on, we lay-to.

On the morning of the 14th the atmosphere was quite clear, and we saw with dismay that our further advance northward had come to a sudden halt.

Some nautical miles ahead of us lay a monster ice field, stretching eastward as far as the eye could see, and apparently joining the land ice in the west. Far, far to the north-east behind the fields there seemed to be, judging from a small dark spot in the heavens, more water; further advance, however, was not possible until the field was set in motion and separated from the land ice.

The weather was fine and clear; we therefore took some observations, which gave the latitude 75° 30′ 5″ and 17° 30′ W. Long.; the declination of the compass, taking the mean of several azimuths, 45° 24′ W.

At night there was mostly a calm, with bright weather. To the north and north-west there was a very strong refraction, which showed us that unless a steady wind set the sluggish masses in motion, further advance to the north would be amongst the impossibilities.

We were all of opinion that in order to avoid the dangerous pressure of the ice fields, we should withdraw at once to the south side of Shannon Island, investigate it scientifically, and from the hills watch for a favourable opportunity of advancing.

As a light breeze from the north-west sprang up on the morning of the 15th, we set sail to carry out our plan; but in order to be sure that there was no opening to the north, we sailed along the northern border of the ice as far as the closely-packed end in the east, but without finding a way through.[43]

At about ten p.m. we were once more to the east of the island, and the mean height of the firm ice above the water was from two to five feet, and large blocks of from thirty to forty feet were piled upon the shore in all directions--proof of the enormous force of the pressure of the fields in their revolving motion to the south. Our strait was very narrow in many places, and we sailed round Cape Philip Broke at half-past eleven a.m. on the 16th of August, and anchored on the south side in six fathoms of water, between some stranded blocks of ice. Everything was at once prepared for the land expedition, and the captain and Lieutenant Payer started first to reconnoitre.

We found the remains of some Esquimaux summer-huts on the shore, with a great deal of moss and weeds. We climbed a height of about 230 feet, and were busy fixing a point for observation and building a cairn, when in the distance we saw a remarkable-looking animal which could be neither bear nor reindeer. Of musk-oxen we never thought for a moment, and, when at length we discovered that such was the creature before us, we were indeed surprised. It was hunted down, however, and killed by Peter Iversen.

We afterwards found that the whole of the coast up to 77° was frequented by these ruminating creatures, but that to the south their numbers decreased. With the reindeer the opposite seemed to prevail; north of 75½° we did not see a single one.

In the evening calm. Ice formed everywhere, but disappeared again upon the rising of a southerly breeze.

The following day, on the 17th of August, the land expedition started. First-Lieutenant Payer received as helpmates--Mr. Sengstacke, Peter Iversen, and Peter Ellinger; and the two astronomers took Theodor Klentzer. They were provided with six days’ provisions, and ordered to return without delay when they saw the flag wave from the Cape.