Sledging journeys of a modest nature were made in the spring and surveys taken, etc. The summer and autumn passed and they prepared for a second winter (1904–5). Constant work was carried on at the observatories. The lowest temperature recorded this winter was -50° Fahr., and was thus much milder than the previous one, when -80° had been registered, while at the end of March the thermometer was +17° Fahr., instead of -40°. When the weather was sufficiently established Hansen and Ristvedt started by sledge with 75 days’ provisions to make a rough survey, if possible, of part of the east side of Victoria Land. They took two sledges and 12 dogs with their food for 70 days, and started on April 2nd. On May 26th they reached their furthest point north on the western shore of M’Clintock Channel, and safely returned June 25th, having been successful in their object. On August 13th, 1905, the _Gjoa_ once more got under way on her westward journey. The observations, magnetic and other, had been kept continuously for 19 months, and the large number of Nechilli Eskimos who had been in their neighbourhood, or had come long distances to see them, had also given them abundant opportunity for ethnological notes on these people. Fortune still favoured the expedition, the sea proved sufficiently clear of ice, and though they had an anxious time navigating through the shoals and islands which lay between Nordenskiöld I. and the Royal Geographical Society’s group, they had cleared Dease Strait on the 19th of August, and Union Strait four days later. Off Baring Land on August 26th they met the first whaler from the Bering Strait side, and had, as they thought, practically accomplished their task. They were still a long way from having done so, however, for a few days later they encountered heavy pack at King Point, off the mouth of the Mackenzie River, and here they were reluctantly compelled to pass a third winter. There were many Eskimos here, and at Herschel I., 35 miles away, five whalers were wintering. While at King Point the magnetic observer, Wijk, died of pneumonia. Early in August, 1906, the _Gjoa_ resumed her voyage, passed through Bering Strait without further incident, and arrived at Nome August 31st, thus completing a voyage of extraordinary pluck and endurance, and it must be added, of scarcely less extraordinary good fortune. CHAPTER XXXV WEYPRECHT’S PLAN FOR SYNCHRONOUS OBSERVATIONS. THE GREELY EXPEDITION