Next morning they found that huge masses of the floe in the neighbourhood of the house had broken off, and, on the following day, when the storm had cleared off and they were able to take a careful survey of the situation, they discovered, to their horror, that it was not half its former size. The distance from the house to the edge of the ice, which was once 500 paces, was now only 200; except on one side, where the distance, formerly 3000 paces, was now diminished to 1000, while the diameter of the floe, which, before the storm was two nautical miles, was now barely one. The worst, however, was yet to come, for on January 11 splits appeared in the immediate neighbourhood of the house, which so reduced the floe that it soon measured only 150 feet in diameter, and on this frail raft the unfortunate crew experienced one of the most terrific storms that they had encountered. By a miracle they escaped with their lives, and by the beginning of February their trials, which they had borne with marvellous patience, were practically over. During the whole of this time they had been drifting steadily south within sight of the barren shore of Greenland, which, unfortunately, the ice had never allowed them to reach. On May 7, however, the sea cleared, and it need hardly be said that they seized gladly on the opportunity of taking to their boats, in which they reached Friedrichsthal on June 7. There they received a ready welcome from the Moravian missionaries, and eventually secured a passage home from Julianshaab, a seaport on the west coast of South Greenland. In the meanwhile, Koldewey, after waiting some time for the _Hansa_, was obliged by the approach of winter to find a harbour for his ship off Pendulum Islands. In the spring he went out on a sledging expedition with Payer, during the course of which he reached lat. 77° 01′, the highest point attained up till then on the east coast of Greenland. While sailing home in the summer, he discovered the magnificent Franz Josef Fiord, at the head of which Mount Petermann rears its head to a height of at least 12,000 feet above the sea. CHAPTER XXII THE VOYAGE OF THE “TEGETTHOFF”