| Die Amerikanische Nordpol-Expedition Contributor(s): Bessels, Emil (Author) |
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ISBN: 1108041477 ISBN-13: 9781108041478 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $74.09 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Language: German Published: December 2011 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | World - General - History | Historical Geography |
| Series: Cambridge Library Collection - Travel and Exploration |
| Physical Information: 1.53" H x 6" W x 9" (2.21 lbs) 694 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The German surgeon and explorer Emil Bessels (1847-88) was head of the scientific team on the American-sponsored Polaris Expedition, which in 1871-3 made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole. Some of the crew spent months adrift on an ice floe and others were marooned in Greenland. Astonishingly, they survived, but much of the expedition's scientific research remained unpublished as a result of financial wrangling. This 1879 publication is a popular account of the journey, with a substantial scientific appendix based on the expedition papers and additional data shared with Bessels by Sir George Nares. It describes the expedition's landfalls from Newfoundland to Greenland, and experiences, including temperatures so low that mercury froze, hunting for polar bears and seals for food, and the help provided by the local Inuit, whose language, traditions and burial customs Bessels outlines. The book also contains over eighty illustrations, mostly woodcuts. |