[Illustration: THE "GERMANIA" IN THE ICE] It was to Pendulum Island, in 74° 32´, that Karl Koldewey, after his preliminary run to 81° 5´ in 1868, took the _Germania_ to winter during the German expedition of 1869. The two vessels, the _Germania_, a small two-masted screw steamer of one hundred and forty-three tons, built specially for Arctic service, and the _Hansa_, only half her size, which had been strengthened for the voyage, reached Jan Mayen on the 9th of July, and, hidden from each other by fog, sailed northwards for five days. On the fifth evening the wind rose, the fog cleared, and a hundred yards in front of them lay the ice like a rugged line of cliffs. For a few days they sailed along it endeavouring to find an opening to the north. Then, on the 20th, the _Germania_ ran up a signal to approach and communicate, which was misunderstood, and, instead of repeating it and making sure, the _Hansa_ put up her helm, fell off, crowded on all sail, and disappeared in the fog. Koldewey, persisting in his efforts to get through the pack, found an opening on the 1st of August. Nine days afterwards he was again blocked, and finally, on the 27th, he reached Pendulum Island, where he made the _Germania_ snug for the winter, which proved to be remarkably mild. The first sledge party travelling up one of the fiords met with abundant vegetation and herds of reindeer and musk oxen, and were visited by bears who had not learnt to be wary of man; and when the bears came back with the sun in February they were as troublesome as those of Ice Haven to the Dutchmen. Several sledge parties went out in the spring, and, notwithstanding inadequate equipment, did excellent work. In April, 1870, Koldewey reached 77° 1´, almost up to Lambert Land, otherwise the Land of Edam. Here, looking out over the ice-belt, they agreed that it was "a bulwark built for eternity," and hoisting sails on their sledges they ran back to the ship. But in 1905 the Duke of Orleans arrived on the coast to reach 78° 16´ and discover that their Cape Bismarck was on an island and their Dove Bay a strait.