IMPORTANT ARCTIC DISCOVERIES.

Evening Star, Issue 2966, 21 August 1872, Page 4

IMPORTANT ARCTIC DISCOVERIES.

At the Congress of German Naturalists and Physicians held at Kostock, Dr Pansch, of Kiel, read an account of his voyage to the Arctic regions in the vessel Germania, which with her consort, the Hansa, quitted the mouth of the Weiser on the 15th of June, 181)9, for the eastern coast of Greenland, where they were to winter. On the 6th of November they reached their station, a small, well-protected bay, where they saw the sun rise for the last time above the horizon. For a few days after its presence was only revealed about noon by a faint gleam. This intermediate period was turned to account to prepare for the winter season. Everything that could be spared during that time was landed and stowed away in safe places; at a short distance from the ships two substantial stone houses were built, one for astronomical, the other for magnetic observations. The naturalists made a few hasty excursions into the interior, and when the real winter in, with its furious hurricanes and snowstorms, all was tight and comfortable. The sun did not appear above the horizon until the 3rd of February, 1870. In the month of March the explorers advanced forty German miles (four and a-half English each) into the interior, where they discovered a country which no mortal eye had yet seen, and to which they gave the name of King William’s Land, the expedition did not succeed in reaching the North Pole ; they did not eveu get higher up than 77 deg., which is three short of the jArctic circle, but they discovered in the interior of Greenland a colossal chain of mountains, with several peaks nearly 14,000 feet high, and comprising extensive glaciers. In summer it is easy to penetrate far up into this country by several fiords or frith). At all events, this first German expedition has prepared the way for others; it ; is now proved that it is possible to winter on the eastern coast of Greenland, and that there is an abundance of oxen, reindeer, and moose for consumption.