[21] See Appendix.
[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.