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PRACTICE
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PERFEC T
Complete
French
Grammar
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PRACTICE
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Complete
French
Grammar
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Annie Heminway
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Contents
Introduction ix
1 The present tense of regular -er verbs 1

Regular -er verbs in the present 1
-er verbs with spelling and stem changes 4
When is the present tense used in French? 9
2 The present tense of -ir and -re verbs 13

-ir verbs in the present 13
-re verbs in the present 16
The interrogative form 19
The negative form 21
3 To be and to have 24
The verb être (to be) 24
The verb avoir (to have) 26
The -oir verbs 28
4 More irregular verbs 34

The verb aller (to go) 34
The immediate future tense 35
The verb venir (to come) 36
The immediate past 37
The verb faire (to do, to make) 40
The causative form 41
5 Devoir and its many facets 43

The verb devoir (to have to, must) 43
Il y a (there is, there are) 46
Il s’agit de (it is a matter of, it’s about) 46
Verbs ending in -eindre and -aindre 46
i-xii_1-308_alltext.indd v 2/3/12 9:22 AM

6 Pronominal verbs 49
Reflexive verbs 49
Reciprocal verbs 50
Passive pronominals 51
Subjective pronominals 51
Pronominals in the imperative and the infinitive 52
7 The passé composé 55

The past participle of regular verbs 55
The passé composé with avoir 56
Irregular past participles 58
The passé composé with être 60
Pronominal verbs in the passé composé 62
Verbs conjugated with avoir and être 63
8 The imparfait 65
The imparfait 65
The imparfait versus the passé composé 67
The imparfait with special constructions 70
9 The futur simple and the futur antérieur 72

The futur simple 72
The futur antérieur 77
Conjunctions used with the indicative mood 79
10 The plus-que-parfait 81
Formation of the plus-que-parfait 81
Use of the plus-que-parfait 83
11 The present conditional and the past conditional 87

The present conditional 87
The past conditional 92
12 Could, should, would? 97

Could 97
Should 99
Would 100
13 The present subjunctive and the past subjunctive 104

The present subjunctive 104
Uses of the subjunctive 106
The past subjunctive 112
vi Contents
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14 The infinitive mood 115
The infinitif présent 115
The infinitif passé 118
Verbs with their prepositions 120
15 The present participle and the gerund 126

The present participle 126
The gerund 129
16 The passé simple 131

Formation of the passé simple 131
The passé simple of irregular verbs 132
17 The passive voice 136

Formation of the passive voice 136
Uses of the passive voice 139
Avoiding the passive voice in French 139
18 Indirect speech 141

Direct speech versus indirect speech 141
Balancing tenses: la concordance des temps 142
19 The imperative mood 147

Formation of the imperative 147
The imperative of pronominal verbs 150
20 Articles and nouns 152

The definite article with nouns 152
The indefinite and partitive articles with nouns 153
The gender of nouns 155
The plural of nouns 158
The gender of countries 160
Geographical names with prepositions 161
21 All the pronouns 166

Subject pronouns 166
Direct object pronouns 167
Indirect object pronouns 170
The order of object pronouns 176
Disjunctive pronouns 178
22 Adjectives and comparisons 183

Agreement of adjectives 183
The placement of adjectives 184
Adjectives of color 185
Comparatives and superlatives 187
Contents vii
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23 Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns 191
Demonstrative adjectives 191
Possessive adjectives 193
Possessive pronouns 195
Demonstrative pronouns 198
24 Relative pronouns 202

Qui 202
Que 203
Lequel 205
Où 206
Dont 207
Ce que, ce qui, ce dont, ce à quoi 209
25 Adverbs and expressions of time, frequency, and location 212

Adverbs and expressions of time 212
Interrogative forms; question words 219
Adverbs and expressions of location 219
26 Numbers 221
The numbers 0 to 50 221
Ordinal numbers 222
The numbers 1,000 and greater 227
27 Pot pourri 230

Verbs that use different prepositions 230
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever 233
Avoir beau and quitte à 234
Subordinate clauses 235
28 Review exercises 239
Verb tables 263

Regular verbs 263
Verbs with spelling changes 265
Verbs with stem changes 265
Irregular verbs 266
French-English glossary 267

English-French glossary 277
Answer key 287
viii Contents
i-xii_1-308_alltext.indd viii 2/3/12 9:22 AM

Introduction
Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar is designed as a review and

study tool for the advanced beginner and intermediate student of French. The
grammar explanations given in each unit include comparisons that provide ample
practice of the material along with appropriate, useful vocabulary. Instructions
for each exercise are given in French, enabling the student to anticipate the task
that follows while, at the same time, practicing vocabulary in context. The variety
of exercises makes them suitable for a range of different learning styles; open-
ended exercises are included to encourage creative answers and to increase confi-
dence in using French for normal everyday communication.
Each unit can be studied independently to suit individual needs in a specific
area. For the student seeking additional practice at the high school or college level,
these units, taken individually or as a whole, provide an opportunity to learn and
review French grammar using contemporary language and examples.
New vocabulary is incorporated within the exercises or is highlighted in
boxes. The glossaries include words appropriate to this level and make it easy to
quickly review or learn new vocabulary. Finally, the verb charts serve as a quick
grammar reference.
Learning another language requires dedication, time, and ultimately, fre-
quent practice. By using what the students already know, by making connections
with their first language, and by building on that base, the foundation for their
future learning is strengthened. By including a number of cognates of English
words in the vocabulary, both advanced beginners and intermediate students are
given numerous opportunities to reinforce what they already know as they con-
tinue to advance their knowledge of French. Finally, the verb charts serve as a
quick grammar reference. And this Premium Third Edition is enhanced with
digital resources via app and online: audio recordings of answer key; flashcards of
all vocabulary lists throughout the book; and an auto-fill glossary for quick
reference.
ix

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PRACTICE
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Complete
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i-xii_1-308_alltext.indd xii 2/3/12 9:22 AM

The present tense of
regular -er verbs
·1·
Before studying the present tense in French, you need to be familiar with the
grammatical terms in chapters presenting verbs. To conjugate a verb in the pres-
ent tense, you’ll need to find the root (or stem) of a verb to which you’ll add the
ending corresponding to the desired tense. The root of the verb is found in its
infinitive form. In English, the infinitive is preceded by the preposition to: to say,
to wear. Infinitives in French are not preceded by an equivalent of the preposition
to. They are identified according to groups by their endings: -er, -ir, -re, -oir.
Regular -er verbs in the present

Let’s start with the infinitives of verbs of the first group, ending in -er, such as
regarder (to look at) and chanter (to sing). Most verbs that end in -er in the infini-
tive follow the same conjugation. The pattern is easy. You remove the -er ending
of the verb to get the root: parler (to speak) parl-. Then, you add the endings
corresponding to the subject pronoun.
The endings for the -er regular verbs are: -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent. The -e,
-es, and -ent endings of the verbs are all silent. The final -s of nous, vous, ils, elles
links with verbs beginning with a vowel sound, making a z sound. This is called a
liaison.
Let’s conjugate the verb parler (to speak). Note that, as in English, conjugated
forms are preceded by a subject pronoun:
je parle I speak nous parlons we speak
tu parles you speak vous parlez you speak
il parle he speaks ils parlent they (m., m./f.) speak
elle parle she speaks elles parlent they (f.) speak
on parle one/they/we speak
Here are some questions using parler:
Parlez-vous italien? Do you speak Italian?
Combien de langues parles-tu? How many languages do you speak?
Chanter (to sing) follows the same pattern:
je chante I sing nous chantons we sing
tu chantes you sing vous chantez you sing
il chante he sings ils chantent they (m., m./f.) sing
elle chante she sings elles chantent they (f.) sing
on chante one/they/we sing
i-xii_1-308_alltext.indd 1 2/3/12 9:22 AM

To recapitulate, here are the subject pronouns with their English equivalents:
je I
tu you (singular familiar)
il he, it (masculine)
elle she, it (feminine)
on one, we, they
nous we
vous you (singular formal and all plurals)
ils they (masculine or mixed masculine and feminine)
elles they (feminine)
There are two ways of saying you in French. Use tu to talk to friends, family members, chil-
dren, and animals. Use vous when you are addressing a stranger, someone you don’t know well,
or to maintain a certain degree of distance or respect.
The pronoun on takes on different meanings. It may mean one, we, or they depending on
how it is used. See the examples below.
Ici, on parle japonais. Japanese is spoken here.
On ne devrait pas se comporter ainsi. One should not behave this way.
On va au cinéma ce soir? (familiar) Shall we go to the movies tonight?
En Espagne, on mange des tapas. In Spain, they eat tapas.
On est tous d’accord. (familiar) We all agree.
Here are some common regular -er verbs:
accepter to accept
aimer to like, to love
annuler to cancel
apporter to bring
attraper to catch
augmenter to increase
bavarder to chat
casser to break
chercher to look for
commander to order
couper to cut
danser to dance
déjeuner to have lunch
demander to ask
dessiner to draw
donner to give
emprunter to borrow
enlever to remove
étudier to study
exprimer to express
gagner to win, to earn
garder to keep
habiter to live
laver to wash
manger to eat
mériter to deserve
oublier to forget
porter to carry
prêter to lend
2 practice makes perfect Complete French Grammar

refuser to refuse
regarder to watch
saluer to greet
sauter to jump
tomber to fall
travailler to work
visiter to visit (a place)
EXERCICE
1·1
Mettre les verbes entre parenthèses au présent.
1. Lucie (travailler) à Lyon.

2. Mon frère et moi, nous (accepter) votre invitation.
3. M. et Mme Benoît (chercher) un appartement.
4. Tu (apporter) toujours des fleurs.
5. Vous (bavarder) sur la terrasse.
6. Je (commander) une soupe de légumes.
7. Ils (habiter) en Normandie.
8. Elle (déjeuner) avec sa belle-sœur.
9. Vous (dessiner) très bien.
10. Nous (visiter) le château de Fontainebleau.
EXERCICE
1·2
Traduire en français.
1. We refuse the invitation.
2. She cancels the trip.
3. He speaks French.
4. You bring some flowers. (formal)
5. I cut the bread.
The present tense of regular -er verbs 3

6. They are having lunch with Julie.
7. He borrows ten euros.
8. I order a dessert.
9. You study Russian. (informal)
10. They are looking for a good restaurant.
VOCABULAIRE
à midi at noon le samedi, on Saturdays, on

à minuit at midnight le dimanche Sundays
aujourd’hui today cette semaine this week
demain tomorrow le mois prochain next month
hier yesterday le mois dernier last month
après-demain the day after tomorrow à la fin du mois at the end of the
avant-hier the day before yesterday month
le matin in the morning au début de l’année at the beginning of
l’après-midi in the afternoon the year
le soir in the evening de temps en temps from time to time
toujours always parfois sometimes
souvent often
-er verbs with spelling and stem changes

Some -er verbs, otherwise regular, show spelling or stem changes in the present tense, largely to
maintain pronunciation. These can be learned according to their groups.
Verbs ending in -cer

Some spelling changes occur with some -er regular verbs. With verbs ending in -cer, such as pro-
noncer (to pronounce) the -c- becomes -ç- before the letter o. The cedilla (ç) under the c is needed
to keep the soft pronunciation of the c in the infinitive form.
je prononce I pronounce nous prononçons we pronounce
tu prononces you pronounce vous prononcez you pronounce
il/elle prononce he/she pronounces ils/elles prononcent they pronounce
Here are a few examples of other -cer verbs:
nous annonçons we announce
nous avançons we move forward

nous balançons we swing
nous commençons we start
nous défonçons we smash in
nous déplaçons we move
nous devançons we get ahead of
nous effaçons we erase
nous épiçons we spice
nous façonnons we craft, we manufacture
nous finançons we finance
nous grimaçons we make faces
nous influençons we influence
nous laçons we lace up, we tie
nous menaçons we threaten
nous perçons we pierce
nous plaçons we place
nous ponçons we sand
nous remplaçons we replace
nous renonçons we give up
EXERCICE
1·3
Mettre au présent les verbes entre parenthèses.
1. Nous (commencer) à huit heures le matin.

2. Vous (avancer) rapidement.
3. Je (déplacer) les meubles du salon.
4. Nous (devancer) nos concurrents.
5. Nous (annoncer) une augmentation de salaire au début de l’année.
6. Tu (effacer) le tableau.
7. Nous (remplacer) toute l’équipe.
8. Ils (exercer) une grande influence.
9. Nous (financer) ce projet.
10. Elle (menacer) de partir.
Verbs ending in -ger

With verbs ending in -ger, such as voyager (to travel), the -g- becomes -ge- before the letter o.
je voyage I travel nous voyageons we travel
tu voyages you travel vous voyagez you travel
il/elle voyage he/she travels ils/elles voyagent they travel
Here are other common -ger verbs:
nous bougeons we move
nous changeons we change

nous corrigeons we correct
nous dégageons we release, we free
nous déménageons we move (house)
nous encourageons we encourage
nous exigeons we demand
nous hébergeons we host
nous mangeons we eat
nous mélangeons we mix
nous nageons we swim
nous négligeons we neglect
nous partageons we share
nous plongeons we dive
nous protégeons we protect
nous rangeons we put away
nous vengeons we avenge
EXERCICE
1·4
1. Vous (mélanger) les ingrédients.

2. Je (ranger) mes affaires.
3. Nous (exiger) votre présence à la réunion.
4. Ils (déménager) demain.
5. Elle (héberger) ses amis.
6. Vous (corriger) les exercices.
7. Nous (manger) sur la terrasse à midi.
8. Tu (nager) dans la piscine.
9. Nous (encourager) ces jeunes talents.
10. Souvent, il (changer) d’avis.
Verbs ending in -e + consonant + -er

With some verbs composed of -e consonant -er, such as acheter (to buy), some accent changes
occur. An accent grave is added in all but the first- and the second-person plural.
j’achète I buy nous achetons we buy
tu achètes you buy vous achetez you buy
il/elle achète he/she buys ils/elles achètent they buy
Here are a few other verbs following the same pattern:
achever j’achève I complete
emmener j’emmène I take along, I escort
enlever j’enlève I remove
lever je lève I raise

mener je mène I lead
peser je pèse I weigh
semer je sème I sow
With some verbs composed of -é consonant -er, such as répéter (to repeat), changes
may also occur. The é aigu changes to an è grave in all but the first- and second-person plural.
je répète I repeat nous répétons we repeat
tu répètes you repeat vous répétez you repeat
il/elle répète he/she repeats ils/elles répètent they repeat
céder je cède I yield
célébrer je célèbre I celebrate
considérer je considère I consider
déléguer je délègue I delegate
espérer j’espère I hope
exagérer j’exagère I exaggerate
gérer je gère I manage
lécher je lèche I lick
posséder je possède I own
préférer je préfère I prefer
révéler je révèle I reveal
Verbs ending in -e l -er

Some verbs composed of -e l -er, such as épeler (to spell), sometimes take two ls in all but the
first- and second-person plural.
j’épelle I spell nous épelons we spell
tu épelles you spell vous épelez you spell
il/elle épelle he/she spells ils/elles épellent they spell
appeler j’appelle I call
ensorceler j’ensorcelle I bewitch
étinceler j’étincelle I sparkle, I glitter
ficeler je ficelle I tie
niveler je nivelle I level
rappeler je rappelle I remind, I call back
renouveler je renouvelle I renew
EXERCICE
1·5
1. Il (renouveler) son passeport.

2. Je (emmener) ma nièce à l’opéra.
3. Vous (acheter) un kilo de haricots.
4. Le sorcier (ensorceler) le public.

steps!
5. Elle (espérer) aller à Paris en mai.
6. Vous (exagérer).
7. Elle (s’appeler) Juliette.
8. Ces diamants (étinceler) de mille feux.
9. Il (répéter) mille fois la même chose.
10. Nous (célébrer) son anniversaire.
EXERCICE
1·6
1. Aujourd’hui, il (acheter) du poisson au marché.

2. Ils (travailler) le samedi.
3. Vous (emprunter) de l’argent à la banque.
4. Tu (aimer) voyager en bateau.
5. Nous (renoncer) à notre projet.
6. Je (habiter) au dixième étage.
7. L’après-midi, elle (préférer) aller dans le parc.
8. Comment (s’appeler) sa sœur?
9. De temps en temps, nous (bavarder) pendant la pause-café.
10. Il vous (rappeler) avant midi.
EXERCICE
1·7
Faire correspondre les deux colonnes.
1. Il épelle a. dans l’Atlantique

2. Je regarde b. à midi et demi
3. Nous habitons c. la comédienne malade
4. Tu aimes nager d. Amélie
5. Ils déjeunent toujours e. la télévision
6. Vous chantez f. son voyage au Japon
7. Elle remplace g. à la fin du mois

8. Je m’appelle h. au troisième étage
9. Elle annule i. le mot
10. Nous déménageons j. une belle chanson
When is the present tense used in French?

The present indicative is used in a number of ways:
◆ To make a general statement and to describe ongoing actions in the present. It can be
translated in three different ways.
Valérie parle à son ami Ludovic. Valérie is talking (talks, does talk) to her
friend Ludovic.
Il regarde les étoiles dans le ciel. He is looking (looks, does look) at the stars
in the sky.
◆ To express a close future
Il part demain soir. He’ll leave tomorrow night.
On parle de cela en fin de semaine. We’ll discuss this at the end of the week.
◆ To express a habitual action
Tous les jours, le soleil se lève. The sun rises every day.
D’habitude, j’achète la viande dans Usually I buy meat in this butcher shop.
cette boucherie.
◆ To describe a past action closely connected to the present
Claude revient d’Asie et c’est la Claude just returned from Asia and
pagaille au bureau! chaos started in the office!
À peine rentrés et les problèmes They have just come back and the problems
commencent déjà. have already started.
◆ To express a historical fact
Flaubert publie Madame Bovary et Flaubert published Madame Bovary and
c’est le scandale! the scandal broke out!
Le président arrive en Chine et c’est The president arrived in China and it
la débâcle! was a complete disaster!
◆ To describe past events more dramatically
La reine avance vers le trône. The queen moved toward the throne.
Et son pire ennemi entre dans la salle. And his worst enemy walked into the room.
◆ To express an action in the process, être en train de the infinitive form of the verb
is used.
Un instant, s’il vous plaît, je suis en One moment, please, I am talking to Rémi.
train de parler à Rémi.
Qu’est-ce que tu es en train de faire? What are you doing?

EXERCICE
1·8
Reformuler les phrases en utilisant être en train de infinitif.
1. Nous chantons une chanson.
2. Elle dessine un mouton.
3. Je travaille dans la cuisine.
4. Tu effaces le tableau.
5. Vous étudiez l’histoire européenne.
6. Nous bavardons dans le jardin.
7. Il corrige les copies.
8. Tu laves la chemise.
9. Je range mes affaires.
10. Elle mange une omelette aux champignons.
One more use of the present tense: depuis

The present tense is used to express an action that began in the past and continues in the present.
Note that in English, the past tense is used. There are different ways to formulate the questions,
using either depuis, il y a... que, cela (ça) fait... que.
Let’s start with depuis. To ask a question about the duration of an action, use depuis quand
(since when) or depuis combien de temps (how long).
Depuis combien de temps habites-tu How long have you been living in Nice?
à Nice?
—J’habite à Nice depuis trois ans. —I have been living in Nice for three years.

Depuis quand travaillez-vous chez How long have you been working at L’Oréal?
L’Oréal?
—Je travaille chez L’Oréal depuis —I have been working at L’Oréal for three
trois mois. months.
Il y a combien de temps que vous How long have you known Mr. Blier?
connaissez M. Blier?
—Il y a quelques années que je connais —I have known Mr. Blier for a few years.
M. Blier.
Ça fait combien de temps que vous How long have you had this dictionary?
avez ce dictionnaire?
—Ça fait cinq ans que j’ai ce —I have had this dictionary for five years.
dictionnaire.
EXERCICE
1·9
Répondre aux questions en utilisant le présent et depuis.
1. Depuis combien de temps chante-t-elle dans cette chorale? (trois ans)
2. Depuis combien de temps partages-tu cet appartement? (six mois)
3. Depuis combien de temps nage-t-il dans cette piscine? (un mois)
4. Depuis quand habitez-vous à Montpellier? (2004)
5. Depuis combien de temps possède-t-il cette propriété? (dix ans)
6. Depuis combien de temps regardez-vous cette émission? (des années)
7. Depuis quand travaille-t-il dans cette entreprise? (2002)
8. Depuis combien de temps portez-vous des lunettes? (dix ans)
9. Depuis quand est-il président? (2005)
10. Depuis combien de temps ce magasin est-il fermé? (deux mois)

EXERCICE
1·10
Traduire les phrases suivantes en utilisant vous et l’inversion si nécessaire.
1. I study French.
2. I spell my name.
3. They are moving tomorrow.
4. She likes to travel by boat.
5. How long have you been studying French?
6. You repeat the sentence. (informal)
7. We are financing the project.
8. She cancels the meeting.
9. How long have you been living in this house?
10. I weigh the vegetables.

The present tense
of -ir and -re verbs
·2·
-ir verbs in the present

We studied the -er verbs in the first chapter. Now, let’s explore the -ir and -re
verbs. The -ir verbs follow two different conjugation patterns.
Type  verbs drop the -ir of the infinitive, add an -iss- to the plural form, and
then insert the appropriate ending.
choisir to choose
je choisis I choose nous choisissons we choose
tu choisis you choose vous choisissez you choose
il/elle choisit he/she chooses ils/elles choisissent they choose
Many other verbs follow the same conjugation.
accomplir to accomplish nous accomplissons we accomplish
adoucir to soften, nous adoucissons we soften,
to mellow we mellow
agrandir to enlarge nous agrandissons we enlarge
applaudir to applaud nous applaudissons we applaud
bâtir to build nous bâtissons we build
bénir to bless nous bénissons we bless
éclaircir to lighten, to clear nous éclaircissons we lighten, we clear
s’épanouir to bloom, nous nous we bloom,
to blossom épanouissons we blossom
s’évanouir to faint nous nous we faint
évanouissons
finir to finish nous finissons we finish
grandir to grow up nous grandissons we grow up
grossir to put on weight nous grossissons we put on weight
investir to invest nous investissons we invest
maigrir to lose weight nous maigrissons we lose weight
mincir to slim down nous mincissons we slim down
obéir to obey nous obéissons we obey
pâlir to turn pale nous pâlissons we turn pale
rafraîchir to refresh nous rafraîchissons we refresh
ralentir to slow down nous ralentissons we slow down
réfléchir to think, to reflect nous réfléchissons we think, we reflect
remplir to fill nous remplissons we fill
réussir to succeed nous réussissons we succeed
rougir to blush nous rougissons we blush
saisir to seize nous saisissons we seize
vieillir to grow old nous vieillissons we grow old
13

Type  -ir verbs drop the -ir of the infinitive, then add the appropriate ending, without the
-iss- in the nous and vous forms. These groups of -ir verbs can be termed irregular. Let’s look at
the examples below:
sortir to go out
je sors I go out nous sortons we go out
tu sors you go out vous sortez you go out
il/elle sort he/she goes out ils/elles sortent they go out
Study the first-person conjugations of the following -ir verbs.
bouillir to boil je bous I boil nous bouillons we boil
courir to run je cours I run nous courons we run
couvrir to cover je couvre I cover nous couvrons we cover
cueillir to pick je cueille I pick nous cueillons we pick
dormir to sleep je dors I sleep nous dormons we sleep
fuir to flee je fuis I flee nous fuyons we flee
mentir to lie je mens I lie nous mentons we lie
mourir to die je meurs I die nous mourons we die
obtenir to get j’obtiens I get nous obtenons we get
offrir to offer j’offre I offer nous offrons we offer
ouvrir to open j’ouvre I open nous ouvrons we open
partir to leave je pars I leave nous partons we leave
sentir to feel, je sens I feel, I smell nous sentons we feel,
to smell we smell
servir to serve je sers I serve nous servons we serve
souffrir to suffer je souffre I suffer nous souffrons we suffer
EXERCICE
2·1
Mettre les verbes entre parenthèses au présent.
1. Nous (cueillir) des fleurs dans le jardin.

2. Ils (finir) à dix-huit heures.
3. Je (remplir) les verres des invités.
4. Nous (investir) dans l’immobilier.
5. Ils (mentir) à la police.
6. Tu (ouvrir) les fenêtres du salon.
7. Vous (réfléchir) à leur proposition.
8. Je (sentir) les bonnes odeurs de la cuisine.
9. Ils (offrir) toujours les mêmes fleurs.
10. Il (mourir) de faim.

EXERCICE
2·2
1. Il agrandit a. un bon vin

2. Le public applaudit b. la porte
3. Nous choisissons c. très vite
4. La voiture ralentit d. la nuit
5. Je vous offre e. en voyant le gendarme
6. Tu ouvres f. d’impatience
7. Ils dorment bien g. à l’examen
8. Il bout h. la photo
9. Vous réussissez i. des chocolats pour votre anniversaire
10. Je cours j. l’artiste
EXERCICE
2·3
Traduire les phrases suivantes en utilisant vous si nécessaire.
1. We are leaving at ten.
2. She opens the door.
3. You pick some flowers in Florence’s garden.
4. The car is slowing down.
5. We are going out tonight.
6. She seizes the opportunity.
7. She blushes easily.
8. They run fast.
The present tense of -ir and -re verbs 15

9. She solves the mystery.
10. They sleep in Sonia’s bedroom.
VOCABULAIRE
Quelle langue parlez-vous?

l’allemand (m.) German l’italien (m.) Italian
l’anglais (m.) English le japonais Japanese
l’arabe (m.) Arabic le polonais Polish
le chinois Chinese le portugais Portuguese
le créole Creole le russe Russian
l’espagnol (m.) Spanish le swahili Swahili
le français French le wolof Wolof
l’hindi (m.) Hindi
-re verbs in the present

For regular -re verbs, remove the -re ending and follow the pattern below.
vendre to sell
je vends I sell nous vendons we sell
tu vends you sell vous vendez you sell
il/elle vend he/she sells ils/elles vendent they sell
Here are other verbs that are conjugated in the same way:
attendre to wait j’attends I wait
défendre to defend, to forbid je défends I defend, I forbid
descendre to go down je descends I go down
détendre to release, to relax je détends I release, I relax
entendre to hear j’entends I hear
étendre to spread out, to extend j’étends I spread out, I extend
mordre to bite je mords I bite
perdre to lose je perds I lose
prétendre to claim je prétends I claim
rendre to give back, to return je rends I give back, I return
répandre to spread, to spill je répands I spread, I spill
répondre to answer je réponds I answer
tendre to stretch, to hold out je tends I stretch, I hold out
tordre to twist je tords I twist

EXERCICE
2·4
1. Nous (répondre) aux questions du professeur de français.

2. La presse anglaise (répandre) une rumeur inquiétante.
3. Vous (rendre) les livres à la bibliothèque.
4. Ils (vendre) des fruits et légumes au marché.
5. Je (descendre) l’escalier à toute vitesse.
6. Tu (attendre) l’autobus depuis dix minutes.
7. Il me (tendre) la main pour me dire bonjour.
8. Elle (perdre) toujours ses clés.
9. Il (prétendre) être le plus intelligent.
10. Ils (étendre) leur action à d’autres domaines.
EXERCICE
2·5
1. Le chat mord a. le train

2. Je perds toujours b. toutes sortes de marchandises
3. Elle prétend c. au questionnaire
4. Nous entendons d. leurs activités à l’étranger
5. Tu attends e. mon parapluie
6. Je réponds f. l’atmosphère
7. Ce magasin vend g. être très riche
8. L’étudiant rend h. la souris
9. Ils désirent étendre i. du bruit dans la rue
10. Son humour détend un peu j. trois livres à la bibliothèque
Irregular -re verbs

Some fairly common -re verbs are irregular. Let’s look at prendre (to take):
je prends I take nous prenons we take
tu prends you take vous prenez you take
il/elle prend he/she takes ils/elles prennent they take
The present tense of -ir and -re verbs 17

steps!
Other documents randomly have
different content
dangers depends on their capacity to observe and think, even on their
possessing certain branches of knowledge. The greater part of the crew
of the Tegetthoff had these advantages. But men who, in a heavily-
laded sledge, leave the old and take to recently-formed ice, without
noticing the difference,—who observe a frost-bitten foot several hours
after the mischief has been done,—who lose their cartridges, know
nothing of their rifle, and little more of their compass, or who pass on
without observing the configurations of the land, possess an indifference
indeed, but of a kind very dangerous to themselves and to the whole
party, though they may despise death as much as Achilles is said to
have done.
4. An intelligent crew, from their greater feeling of independence, is,
however, more difficult to command than an ignorant one. Devotion and
blind confidence are more rarely found in an educated crew; their
amenability to discipline is dependent on the good example, the
kindness and unalterable calmness of those who may command them.
The law of a Polar expedition is obedience, and its basis morality.
Punishments are in such situations a miserable and depressing means
for the preservation of order, and then employment, especially in a
private undertaking, will tend rather to loosen than to maintain the
bonds of discipline. If Parry, in 1820, caused corporal punishments to be
inflicted, this proves the greater facility with which discipline is
maintained on board of a man-of-war, but not its appropriateness
generally. Coercion and threats produce no effect; and hence the folly of
attempting to secure success by sending out again those who returned
without having achieved anything, which was done last century by the
authorities of St. Petersburg with every unsuccessful enterprise on the
Arctic coasts of Siberia. The regulation that the most meritorious among
the crew shall be specially rewarded, after the return of the expedition,
provides for the recognition of merit, without exciting ill feeling in the
less worthy. For the officers scientific success may be a perfect reward
of their toils, but for the crew the reward should consist of more
material advantages. Money, indeed, seems a feeble motive of action to
men destined to withstand for years the inclemency of Arctic winters,
and uncertain whether they shall ever return; but, notwithstanding, it is
the only form by which men without sympathy for the aims of science
can be gained for the attainment of such objects. The crews of Sir John
Ross received for a martyrdom of four years passed in the ice about
£100 a head; in the second German expedition from eight to twelve
thalers were the monthly pay of each sailor. The pay of the sledgers in
the Tegetthoff was, however, nearly four times as much; in some sledge
journeys it amounted to 3,000 gulden a man.
5. Contrary to what might be expected, the re-employment of those
who have served before is not to be recommended as a rule. The very
best only should be re-enlisted. The others are too much disposed to
place their experience on a level with that of their commanders; and in
all cases, where their opinions differ from those of their officers, they
damage by a kind of passive opposition the fundamental law of an
expedition—obedience. Those who enter the Arctic regions for the first
time are wont to receive the orders of an experienced commander with
an attention as unquestioning as it is respectful. Married men also
should be excluded, as they were by Barentz in his second (1596)
expedition.
6. Some of the crew should be good shots, good pedestrians and
mountaineers, but all must be of the same nationality, and in perfect
health. The least symptom of rheumatism, of diseases of the lungs and
the eyes, and of certain chronic maladies only too common among
seamen, unfit them for the endurance of the Polar climate, and
especially for sledge expeditions. Those who are addicted to drink are
peculiarly liable to the scurvy.
7. The medical man of an expedition, besides professional skill and
experience, must possess the most imperturbable patience, for to many
of his patients he is not less a physician of the mind than of the body.
He should convince himself of the sanitary condition of the crew before
the expedition starts, although it may have been previously investigated
by medical authorities and declared satisfactory.
8. Since an expedition, in addition to its scientific functions, should
take up the illustration of Nature at the Pole, the employment of a
photographer, but still better of an artist, is very desirable, for the
former is too much confined to the immediate neighbourhood of the
ship in his operations.
9. The records of Arctic adventure in former days tell us of
equipments strangely incompatible with the object pursued. Their
commercial purpose constrained them to fill the hold with bales of silk,
instead of provisions for years; but the letters of recommendation which
were given to the explorers of the North-East passage for the Saracen
princes on the route to Chatai seem peculiarly ludicrous. Some
justification may be discovered for Owczyn taking a priest with him on
his Siberian expedition (1734), but hardly for his wanting fifty-seven
men in a vessel only seventy feet long, and arming it with eight
falconets. The employment of a drummer, twelve privates and a
corporal, on Gmelin’s scientific Siberian expedition, is still more
unintelligible; more so than Davis’s band of music, which was intended
to charm the feelings of the Eskimos and dispose them to peaceful
proceedings, his predecessor Frobisher having had the saddest
experience of their barbarism. Other expeditions by the too plentiful
distribution of knives and hatchets among the Eskimos placed them in a
position seriously to threaten the white man, and even at the present
day the so-called “Wilden-kiste” often contains articles little calculated to
inspire the natives with a high opinion of our moral superiority.
10. In fitting out a Polar expedition, all respect should be paid to the
principle of bestowing on those who are for a time banished, the
greatest possible amount of comfort. The proportions of a ship, and the
space at its disposal, narrow the limits available for this end; and since
the return to the employment, as at the first, of small vessels, even
these limits have been considerably diminished.
11. The following table shows that the employment of small vessels
was the principle at first followed, although the English undertakings
even of this present century never thoroughly adopted the example of a
Fotherby, a Baffin, and a Ross:—
Tonnage of the
The Expeditions of Provisioned for Crew.
Ships.
A.D.
Willoughby 1553 120 90 160 18 months
Frobisher 1576 25 25 10
” 1577 180 30 30
Pett
1580 40 20 15
Jackman
Davis 1585 50 35 42
” 2nd expedn. 10 50 53 120
Weymouth 1604 70 60
Knight 1606 40
Hudson 1607 10
Mostly for one
” 1608 15
year only.
James
1609 70 15
Poole
Hudson 1610 55
Smith 1610 50
James
1611 50
Poole
Fotherby 1615 20
Baffin 1616 58
Fox 1631 80 18 months 20
James 1631 70 18 ”
Wood 1676 16 ” 19
Moor 1746 180 140
Ross 1818 385 252
Parry 1819 375 180 2½ years
Lütke 1821 200 45
Hayes 1860 133 1½ ” 15
Koldewey 1869 180 200 2 ” 29
12. The inspection of this table shows that it was the practice of the
sixteenth century to send out fleets of ships of a very small size, that in
the seventeenth one small ship was commissioned, and that the
employment of two vessels has been the rule since; and this would have
been still more evident, if the various Franklin expeditions had been
included in the above table. In 1829 Sir John Ross started with a ship
drawing eighteen feet, but changed afterwards to one drawing eight
feet; and from eight to twelve feet is now the recognised draught in
Polar ships. Large vessels require a numerous crew, and if they have not
been built exclusively for the purpose of Polar exploration, their small
economy of space prevents their being fitted out for more than two
years and a half. In 1819 Parry’s ship, the large Fury, had, with a
draught of eighteen feet, provisions for only two and a half years,
whereas the Victory (1829) of Ross with only seven feet draught had on
board, besides stores for the same period, a steam-engine and coals for
a thousand hours’ steaming. The Russian Novaya Zemlya navigators of
this century have adopted vessels of a size which must be destructive of
all comfort and convenience. These vessels are thirty or forty feet long,
with a draught of five or six feet, and a crew of nine or ten men. But
Arctic ships must have a crew above the ordinary strength and be
provided with steam-power; so that, allowing for the necessary space
for the quarters of the crew, for the engines and the coalbunkers, little
room will be left for the stowage of stores. But this little should be
reserved for well-chosen provisions stowed away so as to avoid all
empty spaces, and secure the greatest amount of resistance to lateral
pressure. The weakest parts of a ship are always the spaces left for air
in the quarters of the men. A crew, which is exposed to threatening
dangers from the ice, will never regret the strengthening of these void
spaces by heavy horizontal tie-beams, removable when the ship is in the
winter harbour, and so adjusted as not to impede communication. The
mere suspension of heavy beams against the hull of a ship does not
always answer the purpose of protection, since the pressure of the ice
frequently drives away these protecting timbers. The practice, however,
is not absolutely to be rejected.
13. The daily allowance of solid food for the effectives in an Arctic
expedition amounts to about two pounds, and in sledge expeditions to
2¾ pounds, of which half a pound is bread and one pound preserved
meat. Besides the usual provisions, large supplies of preserved
vegetables, of cocoa, of extract of meat, of rice, of preserved peas, of
dried farinaceous food (such as macaroni), are very desirable. Salted
meat is to be avoided as much as possible. The luxury of fresh bread
twice a week instead of the hard ship’s biscuit is an essential means of
promoting health, and the want of yeast for its preparation may be
supplied by “baking powder.” Once a day a ration of lemon-juice should
be served out as a preservative against scurvy, and anti-scorbutic
victuals should be laid in abundantly. Plenty of tea and tobacco is
indispensable; the want of these is painfully felt, especially by the
sailors. Cases have actually occurred, where crews have ground the
wooden blocks of the rigging to powder, to serve as tea, and have used
the hoops of casks for tobacco.
14. The moderate enjoyment of spirituous liquors is much to be
recommended, as their influence on health and sociality is of great
importance. The preservation, however, of a sufficient stock of wine,
especially in winter, is a matter of much difficulty, since most kinds
freeze at 21° F. or 14° F. As long as the ship is afloat, as it generally is
when winters are passed in the ice, it is advisable to preserve the supply
of wine at the bottom of the hold, and to place all other things most
liable to be frozen in layers above it. But if a ship be nearly or entirely
out of water, it is advisable to keep the wine, and other indispensable
liquids, in the empty spaces of the cabin, under the cabin table, near the
stove, below the berths, and under the sky-light after it has been closed
for the winter. Only absolute want of space justifies the preparation of
chemical wine,[13] since the volume of its constituent parts without
water is only a fifth of real wine; and under all circumstances chemical
wine is but a miserable shift, and the beer (even the spruce beer of Sir
John Ross) which the English used to manufacture on board ship from
the essence of malt and hops is far preferable. The rum and cognac,
especially for sledge expeditions, in order to save weight should contain
the greatest possible amount of alcohol, for its dilution before use is a
matter of no difficulty.
15. During the winter, residence in the ship itself is preferable to living
in log-houses, because the ship can be more easily heated and suffers
less from the accumulation of ice. But since a ship in the Arctic Sea
ceases for ten months of the year to be a ship and becomes in fact a
house, this should be kept in view when she is being fitted out.
16. The place where the men live is always in the fore-part of the
ship, but their berths should be changed in a certain rotation, because
of the inequality of the condensation. It is not advisable to place the
kitchen in the quarters of the crew in order to diminish the consumption
of coals, because an accumulation of moisture is thereby increased. The
officers and savans occupy a common messroom in the after-part of the
ship, and sleep in little cabins ranged round it. The power to withdraw
occasionally from the presence of those who must be together for years
is an important element of harmony. Sir John Ross and his officers in
1833, even in the miserable hut built on the Fury coast, did not occupy
the common messroom heated by a stove, but preferred separate
cabins, the temperature of which seldom rose above the freezing point,
and in which they had to suffer much from the accumulation of ice. All
the living rooms should be provided with waterproof carpets. Their
heating by means of the common stoves is objectionable, because of
the unequal distribution of warmth. An even temperature is best
maintained by the use of the Meidinger “Fullofen,” which has the further
advantage of consuming only a small quantity of coals. Hot-air flues are,
perhaps, preferable even to these, because they better prevent the
freezing of the moisture in the cabins, and indeed in every part of the
ship.
17. An Arctic ship should be provided with an iron-plated washing and
drying closet, without which the washing of linen would be restricted to
the few weeks of summer weather. This closet may also be used as a
bath-room, an important means of promoting health. The lighting of the
living rooms by petroleum sufficiently answers all purposes; in the
cabins, however, stearine candles are to be preferred either to it or any
other oil. The construction of the lamps used in making observations in
the open air during the long Arctic darkness is a matter of the greatest
importance. Those used in the second German North-Pole Expedition
were of peculiar excellence, and never failed in their difficult service.
Massive lamps, with glass globes protected with wire, and burning
petroleum in preference to common oil, should be used on deck, and as
they are employed for so many purposes and exposed to so many risks,
a plentiful supply of them should be provided. In the huts on the deck,
built over the hatchways, train-oil may be used with advantage, if the
lamps are so constructed that the flame may heat the reservoir
containing the oil.
18. So long as the crew remains on board the ship, their clothing,
even in the severest winter, needs but little attention. Thick close-fitting
woollen under-garments, knitted woollen gloves, outer-garments of
strong cloth, are in all cases sufficient on deck, and in all those parts of
the ship which are kept at a certain temperature. Leather boots lined
with fur were long considered an indispensable requisite for Polar
expeditions, but they have not maintained their character, as they are
very heavy, become unpliable in frost, and soon quite useless through
its action and the wearing off of the fur.
19. Before the departure of the expedition, all the instruments should
be thoroughly cleansed from oil by a practical optician, and the fire-arms
should undergo a like operation at the hands of the gunmaker, and their
barrels should be browned to protect them better from rust. The
ammunition, powder and matches to blast the ice, alcohol and
petroleum, should be stowed in the after-part of the ship, and the two
latter should be reached only through a closely-fitting pump. A very
ample supply of alcohol, flannel, buffalo-skins, strong cloth, water-proof
canvas, felt, leather, reindeer shoes, snow boots, shovels, cramp irons,
poles, &c., articles which are too often overlooked, should be taken,
both from their usefulness on board ship and also on land expeditions.
20. The costs of Polar expeditions have relatively rather diminished
than increased. The expenses of Willoughby’s expedition 300 years ago
amounted to the sum—quite enormous for that day—of £6,000; Moor’s
(1746) cost £10,000; while Back’s difficult but successful undertaking to
explore the great Fish-river (1833-1835), only £5,000. The Siberian
expedition of Middendorf (1844)—costing only 13,300 rubles (£1,717)—
was a matchless example of extraordinary achievements with little
expenditure. The costs of the various Franklin Expeditions from 1848 to
1854 amounted, according to the statement of the English Admiralty, to
twenty million francs (£833,333); those of the second German North-
Pole Expedition to 120,000 thalers (£11,000), and the expenses of our
own Austrian-Hungarian North Pole Expedition to 220,000 gulden
(£18,333).
PIONEER VOYAGE OF ISBJÖRN.
JUNE 20-OCTOBER 4, 1871.
THE PIONEER VOYAGE OF THE “ISBJÖRN.”

1. The failure of the second German Arctic expedition directed the
future efforts of Polar exploration to the seas of Novaya Zemlya.
Although the geographical position and political relations of Austria
prevented its Government from taking any active part in the great
geographical problems and questions of our times, an interest in Polar
discovery had been excited in her statesmen, which gradually ripened
into a determination to send its flag, renowned for its military fame, to
consecrate struggles on the peaceful domain of scientific exploration.
The magnanimous act of Graf Wilczek, contributing 40,000 florins
towards the equipment of an Austro-Hungarian expedition, not only
strengthened but also endowed the resolve. In order, however, to
obviate the possibility of spending large sums on a plan which might be
unfeasible, or if feasible, of little value, it was determined to despatch a
pioneer expedition to the seas of Novaya Zemlya under the joint
command of Lieutenant Weyprecht and myself. The knowledge and
experience gained in that voyage—which is described in the following
pages—induced the Austrian Government to send another and more
powerful vessel to those seas, equipped to pass two or more winters in
the ice.
2. It seemed to be established as the result of many expeditions, that
almost invincible difficulties opposed the reaching of the central Arctic
regions by the routes through Baffin’s Bay, Behring’s Straits, along the
coast of Greenland, and from Spitzbergen, mainly because on them all
we are met by the great Arctic currents, which act as channels to carry
off the ice of the Polar basin. These currents carry with them vast
masses of ice, which they deposit on all the coasts which they strike. On
the results of many Norwegian, Russian, and German voyages, partly in
the interests of science, partly in the interests of commerce, many
geographers maintained that the traces of the Gulf Stream did not
disappear at the North Cape, but rather that it exercised a considerable
influence on places and in latitudes not before imagined, as, for
instance, on the north-east coasts of Novaya Zemlya. An expedition,
therefore, which followed the course of the warmer waters of the Gulf
Stream would find fewer and less formidable obstacles, than on the
routes exposed to the Arctic currents, carrying with them colossal
masses of ice towards the south. On the east of Spitzbergen there is a
land which has, indeed, been often seen, but never reached, or even
attempted to be reached—Gillis’ Land—lying in the course of the Gulf
Stream; and it is a probable assumption, that navigable water would be
found under its western coast, as at Spitzbergen, where 80° N. Lat. can
be reached every year without any difficulty. If, then, this stream
extends still further to the north—which is probable according to the
soundings taken by the Swedes—it is reasonable to expect that higher
latitudes may be reached on this than on any other route.
3. It is remarkable, that the seas between Spitzbergen and Novaya
Zemlya were utterly unknown to science. No expedition had ever been
sent thither, though many things seemed to invite and favour the
venture, and Dr. Petermann had long endeavoured to organize a
powerful and well-equipped expedition to explore higher latitudes on
this route. At length Lieutenant Weyprecht and I undertook a voyage of
reconnaissance to those waters, in order to ascertain whether the
climate and the state of the ice were as favourable in reality, as they
seemed to be in theory. No attempt was to be made to reach high
latitudes or to make important geographical discoveries. The small
means at our command forbade either. Our aims were more limited;
they referred to the temperature of the water and the air, to the
currents, to the state of the ice, to the probability of success in the
following year (1872), and lastly, to opportunities for extended sledge
journeys. We were to sail from Tromsoe about the middle of June, and
return thither by the middle of September.
4. In order to diminish expenses, we chartered at Tromsoe a small
sailing ship. A steamer would, indeed, have been more serviceable, but
the cost would have been quadrupled, without any adequate advantage.
The Isbjörn (i.e., Ice-bear) was a vessel of fifty tons, cutter-rigged, 55
feet long, 17 feet broad, with a draught of 6 feet. Her bows were
protected with sheet-iron, two feet above, and two feet under, water.
She was new and strong, and made with us her first voyage. We had
also two small boats, and a so-called “Fang-boot”—whale-boat. She was
commanded by Captain Kjelsen, and had as a crew a harpooner, four
sailors, a carpenter, and a cook—all Norwegians. We were provided with
the requisite instruments by the Imperial Geographical Institute, and
were provisioned for four or five months. The Austrian Consul Aagaard
aided us to the utmost of his ability in the equipment of the vessel. It
must be observed, that we had no direct command or control over the
vessel and its crew; the responsibility for the ship, and the immediate
command over its crew, belonged to the skipper Kjelsen. Weyprecht
was, however, the real commander.
5. The information we gathered concerning the state of the ice in the
region of our projected exploration, was exceedingly contradictory.
While, for example, Dr. Bessels, in the steamer Albert, of Rosendal,
discovered a branch of the Gulf Stream with a temperature of 41° F. at
the ice-barrier on the south of Gillis’ Land, Dr. Petermann sent us a letter
of Lamont, in which he said: “Every year the ice appears to me more
formidable.” The whalers of Tromsoe, who knew the ice of that region
only from hearsay, and could give no positive information as to its limits,
uttered many unfavourable prognostications as to the possibility of
penetrating that frozen sea, or of approaching Gillis’ Land from the
south. The region was utterly unknown, even to many skippers who
sailed from Spitzbergen to Novaya Zemlya. The few attempts to
penetrate to that land, first seen in 1707, and regarded by the Swedes
as a continent, had been unsuccessful. So also their efforts to reach it
from the south-west in 1864 and 1868. Captain Koldewey’s attempt also,
which was made from the “Thousand Isles” three months before the
last-named voyage, had been attended with the same want of success.
None of these expeditions had passed beyond the ice-barrier, and their
failures contributed greatly to strengthen the opinion, that the Novaya
Zemlya seas were unnavigable.
6. All our inquiries were met also with the prediction of an exceedingly
unfavourable year for the ice. The spring of 1871 had been unusually
severe, and even to the middle of June the northern parts of Norway
were covered with a mantle of snow reaching down to the sea. It was
inferred, therefore, that there would be an excessive accumulation of ice
in the seas further north. We heard even, that there was ice at the
distance of about twenty (Norwegian) miles from North Cape. And it was
certainly true, that the north winds, which prevailed for some weeks,
kept a number of Norwegian fishing and seal-hunting vessels
weatherbound off the “Scheeren.” All this notwithstanding, we
determined to keep to our plan of sailing to Hope Island, and of
following from thence the ice-barrier towards the east, our progress, of
course, being dependent on favourable conditions of the ice, and
perhaps on the influences of the Gulf Stream. As it was within the verge
of possibility to make Gillis’ Land during the season of our operations,
we considered it advisable not to pass beyond 40° E. Long. while we
penetrated northward.
7. On the 20th of June we left Tromsoe during a drizzling snow-storm,
and while we were sailing up the “Qualsund” without a pilot, we touched
the ground—a danger we incurred from the desire of our married sailors
to put their wives ashore, after leave-taking, as near the land as
possible. At Rysoe we fell in with the fleet of the Tromsoe fishing-boats
at anchor, waiting for a change of weather, and with them some vessels
which, we thought, would have been by this time in the ice, having left
Tromsoe four weeks before.
THE FIRST ICE
8. The rocky islands off the coast of Finnmark are surrounded by

bleak cliffs, rising to the height of 2,500 feet, and upwards. Trees cease
to grow there; occasionally the birch appears, but never in sufficient
numbers to form a wood. The numerous islands of a gneiss formation
show the same landscape which characterizes Norway—indescribably
bleak table-lands, deep secluded valleys and gorges, interspersed with
lonely mountain lakes. The bold, picturesque outlines of these islands
are exceedingly striking, though their fertility is meagre in the extreme.
The solitary rocky shores are inhabited by poor families, secluded from
the world, and having little intercourse with each other. They live for the
most part on the fish which they catch. The remains of fish round these
settlements render their approach exceedingly disagreeable; on the
Loffoden Islands a guano manufactory has been established, which
turns this refuse to good account. Tromsoe or Hammerfest appears in
their eyes as the glory and pride of the world. We were detained two
days—June 24 and 25—by contrary winds, at Sandoe, an island covered
with sea-sand full of small mussel shells, to the height of 600 feet.
Ascending an elevated peak of this island, 2,000 feet high, we saw a
panorama of countless cliffs of all sizes stretching down to Andeness,
and opposite to us, the gloomy, rugged wastes of Norway, which show
iron-bound walls, waterfalls, and bleak headlands, without woods,
meadows, or habitations. For many hours we were mocked by an eagle,
which, now soaring high, now darting down with rapid flight, gave his
unwieldy pursuers a stiff and exhausting climb. We at last put to sea on
the 26th of June, and passed the enormous rocky pile of Fugloe, down
the precipitous face of which the inhabitants descend by means of ropes
to get the down of the Eider-geese. Next day we were out of sight of
land. The breeze freshened, and, as we sailed further to the north, we
saw many whales. On the 28th of June we came on the first ice—a sight
which reminds the Polar navigator that he has reached his home! Driven
down by the north wind, its fragments lay thickly on the misty horizon
like gleaming points. We were now south-east of Bear Island in 73° 40′
N. Lat. and 21° E. Long., and found the ice so broken up that we did not
hesitate to penetrate it, in order to find out the latitude in which its
closed masses would appear. We passed through forty miles of this loose
drift-ice, and then came on the pack in 74° 30′ N. Lat. and 23° E. Long.
Already, on the 30th of June, we had experienced the powerlessness of
a small sailing vessel in such circumstances. The calms which had set in
rendered it impossible to steer the ship, just when the ice was drifting in
wild confusion. In spite of all our efforts to warp, the ship was inclosed
by ice—in fact, beset. During our captivity of ten days, there was an
alternation of fogs and gales with heavy sea-swells. The neighbourhood
of floes sometimes small, sometimes large, which constantly shifted
their places, kept us in a state of continual watchfulness. The Isbjörn,
on some of these days, sustained such severe pressures from the ice,
that her safety was imperilled. On the 4th of July we had heavy storms
from the south-east, which packed the ice still closer, and, though the
sea is generally quite calm within the ice, it was otherwise on this
occasion. In the afternoon we heard through the dense fog the thunder
of the ocean breaking on the outer edge of the ice, and the roar
increased as the sea rose. Our attempts to haul further into the ice and
still-water were fruitless; the ship was pressed too firmly, and was not to
be moved from its place. Our position became more and more critical as
the sea continued to rise. During the whole night the waves roared and
boiled around us. The rudder groaned under the pressure of the floes,
and had to be made fast to prevent its being broken off. A mass of ice
grazing past the davits utterly destroyed one of our boats. The critical
nature of such a situation is simply the uncertainty as to the amount of
pressure which a ship can sustain. Towards evening the fog lifted and
rolled away, presenting a spectacle of fearful grandeur. All round us lay
the open sea dashing against the ice, which was itself in wild motion.
Floes and icebergs were driven about by the waves, and their fragments
strewed in all directions. At midnight our little ship sustained shock after
shock, and her timbers strained and creaked. The “brash” of the crushed
ice, which had gathered round the ship, prevented her destruction. As
the storm abated, the larger masses of ice moved off to the edge of the
horizon, so that in the morning we could not see open water from the
deck. The day broke: what a change in the ice! The sea was calm, and a
long swell died out on its outer edge. Piles of ice all round us,—a weird
and deathlike calm! The heavens were cloudless; the countless blocks
and masses of ice stood out against the sky in blue neutral shadow, and
the more level fields between them sparkled like silver as they shone in
the sun. The movement of the sea beyond the ice abated, “leads” within
the floes, hitherto scarcely perceptible, widened out. But again the sky
was overcast, the sea assumed the colour of lead, though it continued
quite calm and the “ice-blink” appeared on the northern horizon.
9. On the 10th of July the ship under full sail forced her way through
the floes, which were still somewhat close, and reached open water. The
masses of ice through which we pressed were of considerable size. We
now continued our course, which had been interrupted in the manner
described, along the ice-barrier in a north-easterly direction. After
leaving the Norwegian coast, the depth of the sea decreased
considerably. We were now on the bank of Bear Island, and we found
bottom at 90 metres (49·213 fathoms). Our course was impeded by
calms, currents and winds from the east, and even in the middle of July
by severe storms. We were sometimes in drift-ice and sometimes
outside of it. We soon discovered that the ice of these seas was not to
be compared with the vast masses of the Greenland seas. The floes we
saw were not more than one year old. As we sailed eastward, the
icebergs were neither so numerous nor so large, and disappeared
almost entirely at 40° E. Long., which we reached on the 21st of July,
after we had followed the ice-barriers from 74° to 75° 30′ N. Lat. Here
we penetrated within them. Though drift-ice lay on every side, a
steamer would have found nothing to arrest her progress. But the
prevalence sometimes of east winds, sometimes of calms, the constant
occurrence of fogs, the defects of our vessel, the little authority we had
over the crew when extraordinary labour was demanded, the great
extent of the region to be explored,—all these difficulties prevented our
pressing on in this direction. We therefore turned, July 22, in a westerly
direction, in order to explore another opening in the ice, into which we
advanced for about fifteen miles, and found floes not more than a year
old lying so loosely together, that our ship under full sail seemed to pass
over them, much in the same fashion as a sledge glides over a snow-
covered plain. But again our course had to be altered, and Weyprecht
steered the vessel in a south-westerly direction to the ice-barrier. In 76°
30′ N. Lat. and 29° E. Long. we came on high and close masses of ice,
and escaped with much difficulty (July 29) the danger of being again
“beset.”
10. We had meantime been convinced that, though the state of the
ice was on the whole so favourable, we could not, with the means at our
command and with a crew not trained to habits of obedience, do more
than carry out our original intention. We could not make up for the
defects of our sailing craft by any special exertion on the part of the
crew. Could we have done this, we might have penetrated further in a
northerly direction; though at this late period of the summer we could
not calculate on being able to return, and by the end of October our
provisions would have been exhausted. We could only, therefore,
attempt to reach Gillis’ Land, and ascertain whether it possessed the
importance attributed to it by the Swedes. A safe harbour had therefore
to be sought, in which the ship might be left, while a party in a boat
should make for the mysterious land. Such a harbour we expected to
find at Cape Leigh-Smith. We therefore held to the westward, towards
the Stor-Fiord. It is an extremely hazardous thing, demanding incessant
attention, to tack and cruise at the ice-barrier during the continuance of
fogs and with heavy seas and unfavourable winds. Not unfrequently, the
ice-blink is seen all round the horizon, and we discover that we have
come into a great “ice-hole,” or a calm makes it impossible to steer the
ship, just when a strong current is bearing her into the thickest of the
ice-masses. We had our share of these and other risks till we suddenly
beheld, while sailing in a fog among icebergs a hundred feet high, the
long stretching plateau of Hope Island. According to Weyprecht’s
observations, there is an error of 40′ in latitude in the position of this
island on the Swedish maps. The real position of the south-west cape of
Hope Island is 76° 29′ N. Lat., and 25° E. Long. Seduced by a great
opening in the ice, and deviating from our course for a short time, we
advanced in a northerly direction to the east of the island, in the hope of
reaching Gillis’ Land from thence. But after sailing in a fog for a whole
day among icebergs lying close to the cliffs of the island, we were driven
further westward, and coming suddenly on the ice—Lat. 76° 30′—with
an exceedingly high sea, escaped being dashed to pieces as by a
miracle. To penetrate here was an impossibility. We therefore altered our
course again for Walter-Thymen’s Straits. A dense girdle of ice several
miles deep, and a strong current setting towards the south-west,
frustrated every attempt to land on Hope Island. To the west of this we
found the ice-barrier in 76° N. Lat., formed of heavy pack-ice, and small
icebergs. Our passage to the South Cape (Cape Look-out) of
Spitzbergen (76° 30′ N. Lat.) was comparatively quick. Numerous cliffs
and rocks on which the waves were breaking, not marked on any chart,
rose in the night of August 4 out of the fog at the distance of a few
ships’ lengths from us, and it was with the utmost difficulty that we
could tack with the heavy sea and strong north-east wind.
11. The day after, when the heavy storm-clouds lifted from the table-
land of Cape Look-out, we made the unpleasant discovery, that we were
to the south-west of it. Hitherto we had been sailing in dense fog, but
after passing this Cape we had almost unbroken sunshine, which
illuminated the whole western side of Spitzbergen up to Prince Charles’s
foreland. A current one or two miles wide, which flows southward, turns
at Cape Look-out and flows in a northerly direction. At this Cape, which
is the apex of the current, besides many rocks on which the waves
break, there are twenty islands, some of them of considerable size. This
promontory, which has been of great importance to navigators for more
than 200 years, is erroneously represented in the charts I have seen.
Many ships, therefore, have been wrecked at this place, chiefly those of
the Spitzbergen whalers and sealers, who base their sailing on making
this headland, though they are ignorant of its exact geographical
position. Thrice we tried at the beginning of August to reach the Stor-
Fiord from the western side of Cape Look-out, and thrice we were driven
back by this current, though the wind was in our favour. This, however,
gave us an opportunity we had not expected, of seeing something of the
west coast of Spitzbergen with its fiords and glaciers as far as Horn
Sound. A fog, as dense as coal smoke, floats almost always over
“Hornsundstind” (4,500 ft. high) and the pyramid of Haytand. The
slopes, clothed in dull green, running down to the coast, make
Spitzbergen seem scarcely an Arctic land when compared with the cold
grandeur of Greenland. The rocky shores of the northern parts of
Norway are more dreary, and wear more the aspect of Arctic regions
than Spitzbergen. Hence General Sabine, comparing Spitzbergen with
Greenland, called it “a true paradise.”
12. On the 10th of August the ice began to move out from the Stor-
Fiord. It pushed on with great velocity from the north-east, turned round
Cape Look-out, and deposited itself along the west coast, covering it
with thick layers in sixteen hours. On the 12th of the month, in
consequence of the fog and strong current, we found ourselves between
the heavy drift-ice and the reefs of Cape Look-out. According to our
reckoning we should have been twenty-five miles to the east of it. It was
only by boldly charging the drift-ice, with the vessel under full sail, that
the Isbjörn escaped the danger of being beset. On the 13th the wind
chopped round, and, standing away to the south, we succeeded, after
cruising about for ten days, in running into Wyde-Jans Water. Our
involuntary detention off Cape Look-out enabled us to land twice. During
one of these visits we built a cairn, in which we deposited a notice of
the course we had steered. The hasty survey we made enabled us to
correct some very gross errors in the maps. On the evening of the 14th
we sighted Edge Island, and cruised in the drift-ice, which was
becoming gradually more dense in that direction. Here we fell in with
two ships from Finland, engaged in the capture of the walrus, and learnt
from their skippers some particulars concerning the state of the ice,
which induced us to give up the direct course to Cape Leigh-Smith, and
to prefer coasting along the west side of the Fiord.
13. The ice was now more packed. The ship, weakened by numerous
ice-pressures and countless shocks, and making much water, was in so
bad a condition, that part of the bows under the water-line was
shattered, and some timbers of the hull were forced in. In order to give
some notion of the force of the shocks to which we had been exposed in
forcing our course through the ice, let it suffice to say, that the iron
plating an inch thick, with which the bows had been strengthened at
Tromsoe, had been broken off like so many chips.
14. Tacking up against the north wind we came, in the night of August
16, on broken ice off Whale’s Bay, in 77° 30′ N. Lat. The expected free
coast-water was not to be found, and the prevailing winds from the
north took away any hope of reaching Cape Leigh-Smith in less than a
week. Our plan of a boat expedition, for which three weeks would have
been necessary, from Cape Leigh-Smith to explore Gillis’ Land, had now
to be renounced; and as the southern extremity of Stor-Fiord is
generally blocked up at the end of August by an accumulation of ice
brought from the east, we were constrained to leave the fiord at once,
and return to the ice-barrier we had left.
15. The geological formation of the western coast of this fiord has
never been explored. From a visit to the land and the ascent of a
mountain 2,000 feet high, we learnt some interesting facts concerning
its Jurassic formation, which appeared to extend far to the south. We
found traces, at some distance apart, of the more recent brown coal,
and fossil remains (Bivalves in ferruginous chalk-marl); we gathered also
some plants still in flower, and brought away some red snow. This
excursion enabled us also to examine the beautifully-developed glaciers
of Spitzbergen. Hornsundstind (4,500 feet high) is a most imposing
mountain, and viewed from the east resembles a sugar-loaf. The other
mountains on the coast of the fiord rise to heights varying from 2,000 to
4,000 feet. Noble glaciers slope down both sides of the main ridge,
which runs in a southerly direction through the island. Some of these,
when they reach the sea, are three or four miles wide, and their
terminal fronts are about 80 feet high. The snow-line of those which
debouch on the Stor-Fiord is at an altitude of 1,000 feet, and their
surface is little broken by crevasses. None of these glaciers are of
sufficient size to shed icebergs, properly speaking. The sea close to the
coast is shallow, and the detachments from the glaciers are merely
larger or smaller blocks of ice.
16. On the evening of August 16, sailing before the wind, we forced
our way through the ice of the Stor-Fiord, and two days afterwards
arrived at Hope Island, the steep, rocky walls of which rose out of the
fog just as we were close under it. We found the icebergs still firmly
grounded, precisely as we had observed them three weeks before. As an
unusually strong current was running towards the south-west at the rate
of two miles an hour, great caution was needed when we landed in the
whale-boat amid rocks and cliffs not marked on any chart. The
geological formation of the island was identical with that of the
mountainous region on the south of Whale’s Bay. We found brown coal,
but the shortness of our visit did not permit us to inspect the beds of it.
Drift-wood of Siberian larch and pine lay in great quantities on the
shore.
17. It was surprising to observe the change which meanwhile had
taken place; the ice both to the west and east of us had disappeared.
We were eager to find it, and again penetrated as far as possible into it.
We tacked about on the 19th, 20th, and 21st of August—the weather
being stormy—with little success against the north wind, which had
prevailed for some weeks. A current from the north drove us constantly
southwards. After leaving the Stor-Fiord the temperature of the water
exceeded the temperature of the air. On the 22nd of August, in 76° 45′
N. Lat. and 28° 30′ E. Long. we found very little drift-ice, which standing
out but a few inches above the water-level presented no impediment to
navigation. Nothing but contrary winds stood in the way of our
penetrating in a northerly direction, except, indeed, the doubts and fears
raised by our skipper and his crew at our attempting higher latitudes at
so late a period of the year. König Karl’s Land lay only forty miles to the
north—still invisible on account of the mists. Fresh traces of Polar bears
announced the neighbourhood of land. We therefore bore away to the
east in 32° E. Long. on the 24th of August—the day on which the sun
set for the first time. The number of icebergs constantly increased from
this date, while some weeks previously, in the same region, we had
scarcely seen one. This, perhaps, is to be explained from the fact, that
their appearance is irregular, depending on the varying movement of the
glaciers, and also on the time and manner in which the icebergs clear
out from the bays and fiords. On the 26th we had stormy weather, rain,
and snow. On the 27th, amid a dense fog, and with the sea running
high, we came close to an iceberg, against which the sea was dashing
itself in foam and spray, just in time to avert a collision. On the 29th of
August we perceived that the ship had been carried 1° 30′ eastward in a
short time by a current. The further we sailed in this easterly direction,
the further northward the ice retreated, and we began to hope that we
should come nearer the Pole than any ship ever had in this sea. The
southern limit of the ice-barrier in the Novaya Zemlya seas, towards the
end of summer, is usually placed at 76° N. Lat., but we had reached 78°
N. Lat., with 42° E. Long., without seeing (August 30th) a fragment of
ice. The Isbjörn had, therefore, penetrated 100 miles in seas hitherto
unknown. There was still a long heavy swell from the north, but the
temperature of the water had fallen 4½° within twenty-four hours, and
it was no longer of an ultramarine, but of a dirty green colour; so that,
notwithstanding the sanguine expectations we had cherished, we
expected every moment to come on pack-ice. Already, too, the “ice-
blink” was visible here and there on the horizon.
18. Whales, secure from persecution in this remote sea, seemed to
abound; we saw many “blowing” and spouting. They came sometimes in
pairs close to the ship. Their chase and capture might have been carried
on here with every hope of success. On the morning of the 31st of
August we saw six Eider-geese, the precursors of near land. A blue
shadow on the eastern sky arrested the attention of us all for a long
time. We felt as if we were on the brink of great discoveries. But, alas!
the supposed land dissolved into mist. The poverty of our equipment
prevented us from penetrating further. We might easily have been driven
onwards by unknown currents, and the ice closing behind us might have
cut off return to Europe. We could not be assured that we had not come
upon a bight, or cul-de-sac, stretching far to the north, and which might
quickly change its character. On the night of August 31, in 78° N. Lat.,
the ice lay in some places loose and widely dispersed, in others it was
more compact, but nowhere was it in great masses; it scarcely rose
above the horizon, and it was entirely without icebergs. There was
nothing to prevent a vessel with steam power from penetrating further.
19. Still following the ice-barrier as it retreated northwards, we passed
beyond 78° 30′ N. Lat. in the night of August 31. The influence of the
high latitudes we had reached, on the duration of light, was
unmistakable. For some days, however, the temperature had fallen
below 32° F., a coating of snow lay on the deck, and the rigging was
covered with ice like glass. The morning of the 1st of September broke;
about half-past three o’clock fresh breezes from the north drove off the
mist, and revealed one of those pictures peculiar to the high north from
its dazzling effects of colour—the beams of the sun in glowing splendour
were piercing through heavy masses of clouds, while the moon shone
on the opposite side of the heavens. An ice-blink resembling an Aurora
lay on the north.
20. We had reached 78° 38′ N. Lat., and yet the ice around us
presented no serious impediment—none at least as far as we could see.
Should we then venture further with our ship in its weakened condition?
We might still follow up an opening within the ice running northward,
though, in doing this, we should expend the time needed for the
exploration of the eastward-lying Novaya Zemlya seas. We determined
therefore to bear away to the east before some currents of loose drift-
ice. But fog and a high sea from the north-west caused us to alter our
course more and more to the south-east. For the first time in these high
latitudes we observed drift-wood, and we found ourselves in a sea, the
temperature of which at the surface did not materially exceed the
temperature of the air. Whenever, however, the temperature of the air
rose, a thaw suddenly set in. The colour of the sea alternated between
blue and a dull green. A few days previously we had passed over a sea
extraordinarily rich in the ribbed Medusæ (Beroë), and where the
Rorqual (whale) abounded.
21. The great question now arose, whether the open water found in
these high latitudes were only an accidental bight in the ice or a
connected sea. It seemed bold to assume the latter, since 76° 30′ N.
Lat. had never before been passed in that region. In order, therefore, to
arrive at some positive conclusion on this point, we stood away from the
ice at noon of the 1st of September, and ran down in open water to 75°
52′ N. Lat. and 51° 44′ E. Long., intending to return to the north again,
in order to explore the state of the ice to the north-east. Overcoming
with much difficulty the opposition of our skipper, we returned to the
edge of the ice, which we found, September 5th, in 78° 5′ N. Lat. and
56° E. Long. Though there was not much wind, a high sea running on
the ice compelled us to leave it. In our course to the south-east we
crossed 77° 30′ N. Lat. and 59° E. Long.; here, also, to the south of
78°, there was no ice. To penetrate further to the east formed no part of
our plan, and since another attempt to return to the ice would have
been objectless, for the reasons above stated, we proposed to run into a
bight on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya to take in fuel and water,
which we urgently needed. The longer nights now made it almost
impossible to manœuvre a ship in the ice when the winds were high,
though a good steamer might have persisted for some time longer. The
temperature of the sea on the 5th of September was 39° F. in Lat. 77°
30′, and on the 8th of the month, when we were in sight of Cape
Nassau, it reached 41° F.
22. Storms compelled us to keep to sea. As a current constantly set us
to the north-east, we found it not possible to land on Novaya Zemlya,
scarcely even to see it. On the night of September 12th we came into
the region where the equatorial and Polar air-currents meet, and had an
opportunity of observing the hurricane-like effects of their conjunction.
The barometer fell about two inches, and the sea was so broken that
the ship could hardly be steered, even with a fresh wind. On September
14th we were off Matoschkin Schar, and could not anchor, a snow-storm
from the north-east completely hiding the coast. The change, which
meantime had taken place in the sky, was strange and remarkable.
Heavy thunder-clouds lay over our heads, just as they do in the region
of the trade-winds, and every moment threatened to discharge
themselves. On the 13th of September we saw the first Aurora, in the
shape of an arch, passing through, our zenith. The want of fuel and
water, from which we began to suffer, and the end of the season for
navigation, compelled us to avail ourselves of the favourable wind which
had set in, and begin our voyage home, without landing on Novaya
Zemlya. On this same day three of our crew of seven men fell ill, one of
them with scurvy. A heavy storm from the north-east compelling us to
heave to, we lay close under the coast of Lapland for a whole day. On
the 20th of September we ran into Tana Fiord on the east of North
Cape, the most northerly point of Europe, and took in water. The gloomy
cliffs of Tanahorn and the rocky iron-bound coasts were not at all behind
the lands we had left in their terrible desolation. On the 24th of August
the Isbjörn passed North Cape; on the 4th of October she anchored in
Tromsoe. Weyprecht had remained on board while, with a Lapland sailor
who could speak Norwegian, I left the ship in Tana Fiord and went on to
Tromsoe through Lapland, sometimes by means of a small boat on the
shallow rivers and sometimes by means of reindeer sledges.
23. It had formed no part of our plan, either to make discoveries, or
to reach high latitudes. Our object was to investigate whether the
Novaya Zemlya seas offered greater facilities, either from the influence
of the Gulf Stream, or from any other causes, for penetrating the
unexplored Polar regions. Many arguments, derived from the scientific
results of our voyage, would seem to favour this idea, and in
contradiction to the discouraging views of our predecessors, whose
failures are explained by their defective equipment and the choice of the
most unfavourable season for navigation, we ventured to draw the
following inferences:
(1.) The Novaya Zemlya Sea is not filled with impenetrable ice,
rendering navigation impossible; on the contrary, it is open every year,
probably up to 78° of N. Lat., and is connected with the Sea of Kara,
which is also free from ice in autumn, and even, it may be, with the
“Polynjii,” in the North of Asia. If this inference should not be admitted,
the following remarks of Lieutenant Weyprecht, in anticipation of
objections, are put forward as worthy of consideration:—“In all
probability the open condition of the ice in 1871 will be ascribed to
chance, or to an especially favourable ice-year. With respect to the latter
alternative, the accounts given by the walrus-hunters of Spitzbergen and
Novaya Zemlya should convince us, that the year 1871 was not only not
a favourable, but a most unfavourable year in the ice. It was almost
impossible to navigate Wyde-Jans Water, and the Sea of Kara could only
be reached through the most southerly straits—the Jugorsky Straits.
There remains, therefore, only the other objection, that the accident of
favourable winds was the cause of our penetrating so far. But our
meteorological journal shows North, or at any rate Northerly winds, and
often, too, blowing freshly, from August 4th to September 5th, with the
exception of twelve watches, i.e. two days. But in no case could these
winds have driven the ice to the north. With respect to the loose
character of the ice we encountered, it might be said, that we saw only
the outer ice. But, in the first place, we were often so far within the
barrier that it would be inadmissible to speak of it as the outer ice; and,
in the second place, the ice-barrier shows the state of the ice behind it.
Whenever the wind lies against the ice, there the ice is always the most
dense and packed, and we find open places only when we have worked
our way through the outer ice.”
(2.) The time most favourable for navigation in this sea falls at the
end of August, and lasts—though rendered hazardous by storms, the
formation of young ice, and the darkness which supervenes at that
season—till the end of September, and during this period the ice may be
said to be at its minimum.
(3.) The Novaya Zemlya Sea is a shallow sea—a connection and
continuation of the great plains of Siberia. In the extreme north, its
depth was 600 feet, and south-east of Gillis’ Land about 300 feet.
(4.) Gillis’ Land is not a continent, but either an island or a group of
islands. Whereas, from the circumstance that in the highest latitudes—in
79° N. Lat.—we found drift-wood covered with mud, sea-weed,
creatures which live only near the land, decreasing depths of the sea,
sweet-water ice and icebergs laden with dirt, it may be inferred, with
great probability, that there exist masses of land to the north-east of
Gillis’ Land.
(5.) The appearance of Siberian drift-wood, only in the most northern
seas reached in our voyage, seems to point to an easterly current there.
(6.) The Russian expeditions in the past and present centuries, which
attempted to penetrate by the north-west coast of Novaya Zemlya,
miscarried, because they sailed before the favourable season for
navigation, and also because they had not the advantage of steam.
(7.) How far the Gulf Stream has any share or influence in the
favourable conditions for the navigation of the Eastern Polar Sea which
have been described, cannot as yet be positively determined. The state
of the ice, the observations which were made on the temperature of the
sea, its colour and the animal life found in it, seem to speak in favour of
the action of this current in that region. It is possible that the Gulf
Stream may exercise its culminating influence on the west coast of
Novaya Zemlya only at the beginning of September; for while the
temperature of the sea in the months of July and August gradually fell
from 45° F. to 36° F. in Lat. 75° N., and to zero and below it, still more
to the north, we observed 39° F., September 6, in Lat. 78°, and 41° F.,
September 10, in Lat. 75° 30′. The temperature of the air was in all
these cases considerably less than that of the water. If the unusually
favourable state of the ice on the east of Spitzbergen should be ascribed
to warm southerly currents of air, it may be replied that our observations
specify the almost uninterrupted occurrence of north winds. It is also
possible, that at the beginning and middle of summer the Gulf Stream
may move slowly in a northerly direction along the coasts of Novaya
Zemlya, and that towards autumn it spreads itself more and more to the
west. Our observations proved the existence, in the eastern Novaya
Zemlya seas, of a band of warm water, from thirty-six to forty feet deep,
beneath which lies, without gradation, a colder stratum. It is evident
that the unequal density of these strata prevents their mingling. This
band of warmer water near North Cape is about 150 feet deep, with a
temperature of nearly 45° F., but diminishes as it flows northward. The
frequency of fogs and mists in the Novaya Zemlya Sea, and the squalls
unknown to other Arctic regions, which are characteristic of a more
southerly region, indicate also a current of warm water. How this warm
current gradually cools towards the north, and becomes shallower, and
how distinctly it divides into those strata of water of equal temperature,
so characteristic of the Gulf Stream, is shown by three series of
observations taken by Weyprecht at different latitudes, with the
maximum and minimum thermometer of Casella:—
72° 30′ lat., 44° long. 77° 26′ lat., 44° long. 76° 40′ lat., 55° long.
12 to 114′ + 4·8° C. 6′ to 30′ + 2·2° C. 6′ to 39′ + 2·5° C.
144 + 2·5 36 + 1·8 48 + 1·0
174 + 2·0 45 + 0·3 60 - 0·0
204 + 1·5 60 + 0·3 72 - 0·6
234 + 1·3 75 - 0·9 90 - 0·6
264 + 1·0 90 - 0·8 120 - 1·3
294 + 0·5 120 - 1·6 180 - 1·2
360 + 0·5 180 - 1·8 300 - 1·2
450 + 0·0 360 - 1·6
600 - 0·4
800 - 1·3
24. These inferences rendered the despatch of a well-equipped

expedition to the Novaya Zemlya seas very desirable, either to penetrate
towards the north, or to pursue the direction of the north-east passage.
To this idea a most gracious reception was given by the Emperor of
Austria. Hence arose the Austro-Hungarian expedition of 1872. The
promoters of this undertaking assumed neither the existence of an open
Polar Sea, nor the possibility of reaching the Pole by sledge or boat
expeditions. Their object, simply and broadly stated, was the exploration
of the still unknown Arctic regions, and it was their belief, that a vessel
could penetrate further into this region by the route between Novaya
Zemlya and Spitzbergen, where the Isbjörn in her pioneer voyage found
the ice more loose and navigable than had been imagined possible. But
in addition to the causes already specified, the influence of the warm
currents, produced by the great rivers of Siberia discharging themselves
into a shallow sea, was also supposed to co-operate in producing this
phenomenon. Of these rivers, the Obi and Jenisej alone discharge into
that shallow sea a body of water as great as the waters of the
Mediterranean or the waters of the Mississippi. The course of the current
produced by these mighty rivers is as yet unknown; but it was natural to
suppose, that old and heavy pack-ice could not be formed on a coast
submitted to such an influence. This is confirmed by the observations of
the Russians, who in the coldest period of the year always find open
water in the Siberian seas. Middendorf, August 26, 1844, found the Gulf
of Taimyr quite free from ice; our own observations, made in 60° E.
Long., and those of the Norwegian Mack, who advanced to 81° E. Long.
(75° 45′ N. Lat.), support the supposition of a still navigable sea. Of the
region between Cape Tscheljuskin and the ice-free spaces asserted to
exist by Wrangel, and others, we know but little; but it is probable that
the character of the ice in those seas does not greatly differ from the
character of the ice in contiguous seas. Of the seas between Novaya
Zemlya and Behring’s Straits, at the distance of a few miles from the
Asiatic coast, nothing is known. No ship has ever navigated this
enormous Eastern Polar Sea.
25. It was the plan of the Austro-Hungarian expedition to penetrate in
an E.N.E. direction, in the latter half of August, when the north coast of
Novaya Zemlya is generally free from ice. The places at which the
expedition was to winter were left undetermined; these might, possibly,
be Cape Tscheljuskin, the new Siberian islands, or any lands which
might be discovered. A return to Europe through Behring’s Straits,
however improbable it might be, lay among the possibilities of the
venture. Minor details were left to circumstances. In the event of the
loss of the ship, the expedition was to endeavour to reach the coast of
Siberia by boats, and, on one of the gigantic water-courses of Northern
Asia, penetrate into more southern regions. The depôt of provisions and
coals which it was Graf Wilczek’s intention to deposit on the north coast
of Novaya Zemlya, was to be the nearest refuge for the crew in the
event of disaster to the ship. Stone cairns were to be erected on all
prominent localities, and in these were to be laid accounts of the course
of the expedition. Till its return at the end of the autumn of 1874, its
members were to be cut off from all intercourse with Europe. The
motives of an undertaking so long and so laborious cannot be found in
the mere love of distinction or of adventure. Next to the wish to serve
the interests of science by going beyond the footsteps of our
predecessors, we were influenced by the duty of confirming and fulfilling
the hopes which we ourselves had excited.
VOYAGE OF THE “TEGETTHOFF.”
JUNE, 1872-SEPTEMBER, 1874.

I.
FROM BREMERHAVEN TO KAISER FRANZ-JOSEF LAND.
CHAPTER I.
FROM BREMERHAVEN TO TROMSOE.
1. He who seeks to penetrate the recesses of the Polar world chooses

a path beset with toils and dangers. The explorer of that region has to
devote every energy of mind and body to extort a slender fragment of
knowledge from the silence and mystery of the realm of ice. He must be
prepared to confront disappointments and disasters with inexhaustible
patience, and pursue devotedly his object, even when he himself
becomes the sport of accident. That object must not be the admiration
of men, but the extension of the domain of knowledge. He spends long
years in the most dreadful of all banishments, far from his friends, from
all the enjoyments of life, surrounded by manifold perils, and bearing
the burden of utter loneliness. The grandeur therefore of his object can
alone support him,—for otherwise the dreary void of things without can
only be an image of the void within. How many are the preconceptions
with which the novice begins the voyage to the rugged, inclement north!
Books can tell him little of the stern life to which he dooms himself, as
soon as he crosses the threshold of the ice, thinking perhaps to measure
the evils that await him by the physical miseries of cold instead of by the
moral deprivations in store for him.
2. In the year 1868, while employed on the survey of the Orteler Alps,
a newspaper with an account of Koldewey’s first expedition one day
found its way into my tent on the mountain side. In the evening I held
forth on the North Pole to the herdsmen and Jägers of my party as we
sat round the fire, no one more filled with astonishment than myself,
that there should be men endued with such capacity to endure cold and
darkness. No presentiment had I then that the very next year I should
myself have joined an expedition to the North Pole; and as little could
Haller, one of my Jägers at that time, foresee that he would accompany
me on my third expedition. And much the same was it with the three-
and-twenty men who early in the morning of June 13, 1872, came on
board the vessel in Bremerhaven, to cast in their lot with the ship
Tegetthoff, whatever that lot might be; for we had all bound ourselves
by a formal deed, renouncing every claim to an expedition for our
rescue, in case we should be unable to return. Our ideal aim was the
north-east passage, our immediate and definite object was the
exploration of the seas and lands on the north-east of Novaya Zemlya.
3. A bright day rose with us, and no augur’s voice could have
heightened the glad hopes which animated every one of us. Friends
from Austria and Germany had come to bid us a last farewell; but, as
every venture should be, so our departure that morning was, quiet and
without pretension. About six o’clock in the morning the Tegetthoff lifted
her anchor and dropped down the Schleusen and the Weser, towed by a
steamer. Down the broad stream we calmly glided, full of satisfaction at
the fulfilment of long-cherished plans. There lay the same pastures, the
same trees and meadows which had so delighted us on our return from
Greenland. Yet unmoved we saw all the charms of nature grow young
under the morning sun and then fade away in the evening twilight—as
the land gradually disappeared behind us, and the coasts of Germany
were lost to view. With the feeling that we were leaving them for so
long a time, our thoughts turned to our new life in the narrow limits of a
ship, and the resolve to live and labour in harmony animated each
breast. How often we should be liable to casualties which no eye could
foresee, we were soon to find out, when in almost dead calm and
without steam we came on the shallow waters of Heligoland. What
would have become of the expedition, had we not discovered in time,
that we had only a few feet of water under the keel!
4. The vessel, 220 tons burden, was fitted out for two years and a
half, but was over-freighted by about thirty tons, so that our available
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2 The present tense of -ir and -re verbs 13

4 More irregular verbs 34

5 Devoir and its many facets 43

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7 The passé composé 55

9 The futur simple and the futur antérieur 72

11 The present conditional and the past conditional 87

12 Could, should, would? 97

13 The present subjunctive and the past subjunctive 104

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15 The present participle and the gerund 126

16 The passé simple 131

17 The passive voice 136

18 Indirect speech 141

19 The imperative mood 147

20 Articles and nouns 152

21 All the pronouns 166

22 Adjectives and comparisons 183

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24 Relative pronouns 202

25 Adverbs and expressions of time, frequency, and location 212

27 Pot pourri 230

28 Review exercises 239

Verb tables 263

French-English glossary 267

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Regular -er verbs in the present

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1. Lucie (travailler) à Lyon.

1. We refuse the invitation.

2. She cancels the trip.

4. You bring some ﬂowers. (formal)

5. I cut the bread.

The present tense of regular -er verbs 3

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7. He borrows ten euros.

9. You study Russian. (informal)

10. They are looking for a good restaurant.

à midi at noon le samedi, on Saturdays, on

-er verbs with spelling and stem changes

Verbs ending in -cer

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1. Nous (commencer) à huit heures le matin.

Verbs ending in -ger

The present tense of regular -er verbs 5

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1. Vous (mélanger) les ingrédients.

Verbs ending in -e + consonant + -er

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