Our little fishing-sloop sprang forward as if eager as ourselves
for adventure. Within thirty-six hours we were out of sight of
the highest point on the coast line of Franz Josef Land. "We
seemed to be in a strong current running north by northeast.
Far to the right and to the left of us were icebergs, but our
little sloop bore down on the narrows and passed through channels
and out into open seas -- channels so narrow in places that, had
our craft been other than small, we never could have gotten
through.

On the third day we came to an island. Its shores were washed by
an open sea. My father determined to land and explore for a day.
This new land was destitute of timber, but we found a large
accumulation of drift-wood on the northern shore. Some of the
trunks of the trees were forty feet long and two feet in
diameter.[7]

[7 Greely tells us in vol. 1, page 100, that:
"Privates Connell and Frederick found a large coniferous tree on
the beach, just above the extreme high-water mark. It was nearly
thirty inches in circumference, some thirty feet long, and had
apparently been carried to that point by a current within a
couple of years. A portion of it was cut up for fire-wood, and
for the first time in that valley, a bright, cheery camp-fire
gave comfort to man."]

After one day's exploration of the coast line of this island, we
lifted anchor and turned our prow to the north in an open
sea.[8]