2. The phenomena of cold which we had the opportunity of observing during this journey, and which I immediately recorded, will perhaps justify a short break in my narrative while I attempt to describe them. The horrors of a Scythian winter are an ancient belief, and it used to be counted wisdom to shun the zones where men were frozen, as well as the zones where men were scorched. But it has been assumed, with great exaggeration, that a hot climate makes men sensual and timid, while a cold climate renders them virtuous and bold. There is far more truth in the opinion held by some observers, and especially by Polar navigators, that cold is depressing in its influence, and enfeebles the powers of the will. At first it stimulates to action, but this vigour is quickly followed by torpidity; exertion is soon succeeded by the desire to rest. Persons exposed to these alternations of increased action and torpor feel as if they were intoxicated. From the stiffness and trembling of their jaws they speak with great effort, they display uncertainty in all their movements and the stupor of somnambulists in their actions and thoughts. Most of the circumpolar animals escape, as much as they can, the horrors of the frost: some migrate; others, burying themselves in holes, sleep throughout the winter. The fish, which are found in the small pools of sweet water on the land are frozen in when these pools freeze, and awake to life and movement again only when the pools are thawed.

3. The human body, with an inner warmth amounting to 95°-100° F., is exposed in the wastes of North America and Siberia to frightful cold, the extremes of which have been noted by many different observers. Back recorded in Fort Reliance, Jan. 17, 1833, the temperature -67° F.; Hayes, March 17, 1861, -69° F.; Nevérow, in Jakutzk, Jan. 31, 1838, -74° F.; Kane, -69° F.; Maclure, Jan. 1853, -73° F.; John Ross, 1831, -56° F.; and Parry, 1821, -55° F.; while the lowest temperature which has hitherto been observed in the Alpine countries of Europe is only -24° F. In consequence of the difficulty of observing the extremes of cold, lower temperatures than these can scarcely ever have been registered.

4. In order to illustrate the effect of an extraordinarily low temperature on the human frame, the best point to start from is the imagination of a man exposed without clothes to its influence. At 37° or 50° (C.) of cold a misty halo would encompass him, the edges of which would have, under certain circumstances, the colours of the rainbow. It is evident that the moisture of the body rapidly coming forth and becoming visible in the cold air would cause this mist, which would decrease with the heat of the body, and disappear on the death of the frozen man. The purpose of clothing is to counteract as much as possible this twofold loss of warmth and moisture, which is the principal cause of the fearful Arctic thirst. But even clothed men exposed to so low a temperature present a strange appearance. When they are dragging a sledge on the march their breath streams forth like smoke, which is soon transformed into a mass of needles of ice, almost hiding their mouths from view; and the snow on which they tread steams with the heat which it receives from the snow beneath. The countless crystals of ice, which fill the air and reduce the clearness of day to a dull yellow twilight, make a continual rustling noise; their fall in the form of fine snow-dust, or their floating as frosty vapour, is the cause of that penetrating feeling of damp which is so perceptible when the cold is intense, and which receives accretions from the vapours issuing from the open places of the sea. Notwithstanding all this, there is an indescribable dryness in the atmosphere, strongly contrasting with the feeling of dampness. Heavy clouds are impossible; the heavens are covered only by mists, through which the sun and the moon, surrounded by halos, glow blood-red. Falls of snow, as we understand the expression, altogether cease; the snow crystals, under the influence of cold, are so minute as to be almost invisible. The land, the real home and source of cold, acts as the great condenser of vapour, and snow and moisture of every kind, and lies under a deep covering of frozen snow till the colour of its walls and precipices reappears in April. The soil, in the stricter sense of the word, is frozen as hard as iron wherever it appears through the snow, and the mean temperature of Franz-Josef Land (about 3° F.) makes it highly probable, that the frost penetrates to the depth of a thousand feet. Great cold, calm weather, and clear atmosphere combined, are the characteristics of the interior of Arctic countries. The nearer we approach the sea, the rarer is this combination. Light breezes sometimes occur with a temperature 37° (C.) below zero,[35] but the atmosphere is then less transparent.

5. It is well known that sound is propagated far more freely in Polar regions than with us. When the cold was great, we could hear conversations, carried on in the usual tone of voice, distinctly at the distance of several hundred paces. Parry and Middendorf both assert that the voice is more audible at a distance in cold weather. The propagation of sound seems to find less hindrance from the irregular masses of ice and cushions of snow, than from the curtains of our woods and the carpets of our vegetation. In the mountainous districts of Europe many of the characteristics of Polar regions, besides intense cold, are met with; yet it is a fact, that the report of a gun can scarcely be heard in those situations. Cold, however, can scarcely be regarded as the essential condition of this phenomenon; for the propagation of sound, though in a less striking degree, may be observed even in the summers there.[36] It would seem rather that the amount of moisture in the atmosphere has a more decided influence in the production of this phenomenon.

6. When the snow becomes hard as rock, its surface takes a granular consistence like sugar. Where it lies with its massive wreaths frozen in the form of billows, our steps resound, as we walk over them, with the sound as of a drum. The ice is so hard that it emits a ringing sound; wood becomes wonderfully hard, splits, and is as difficult to cut as bone; butter becomes like stone; meat must be split, and mercury may be fired as a bullet from a gun.[37]

7. If cold thus acts on things without life, how much more must it influence living organisms and the power of man’s will! Cold lowers the beat of the pulse, weakens the bodily sensations, diminishes the capacity of movement and of enduring great fatigue. Of all the senses, taste and smell most lose their force and pungency, the mucous membrane being in a constant state of congestion and excessive secretion. After a time a decrease of muscular power is also perceptible. If one is exposed suddenly to an excessive degree of cold, involuntarily one shuts the mouth and breathes through the nose; the cold air seems at first to pinch and pierce the organs of respiration. The eyelids freeze even in calm weather, and to prevent their closing we have constantly to clear them from ice, and the beard alone is less frozen than other parts of the body, because the breath as it issues from the mouth falls down as snow. Snow-spectacles are dimmed by the moisture of the eyes, and when the thermometer falls 37° (C.) below zero they are as opaque as frost-covered windows. The cold, however, is most painfully felt in the soles of the feet, when there is a cessation of exercise. Nervous weakness, torpor, and drowsiness follow, which explains the connection which is usually found between resting and freezing. The most important point, in fact, for a sledge party, which has such exertions to make at a very low temperature, is to stand still as little as possible. The excessive cold which is felt in the soles of the feet during the noon-day rest is the main reason why afternoon marches make such a demand on the moral power. Great cold also alters the character of the excretions, thickens the blood, and increases the need of nourishment from the increased expenditure of carbon. And while perspiration ceases entirely, the secretion of the mucous membranes of the nose and eyes is permanently increased, and the urine assumes almost a deep red colour. At first the bowels are much confined, a state which, after continuing for five and sometimes eight days, passes into diarrhœa. The bleaching of the beard under these influences is a curious fact.

8. Although theoretically, the fat endure cold better than the lean, in reality this is often reversed. Somewhat in the same way it might be argued that the negro would have an advantage over the white man, for the former as a living black bulb thermometer is more receptive of the warmer waves of heat. But blackening the face or smearing the body with grease are experiments which could only be recommended by those who have never been in a position to try them. The only protection against cold is clothing carefully chosen, and contrivances to avoid the condensation of moisture. All articles of dress are made as stiff as iron by the cold. If one puts off his fur coat and lays it down for a few minutes on the ground, he cannot put it on again till it be thawed. The fingers of woollen gloves become as unpliable as if they belonged to mailed gauntlets, and therefore Arctic travellers, except when engaged in hunting, prefer to use mittens.

9. Constant precautions are needed against the danger of frost-bite, and the nose of the Arctic voyager especially becomes a most serious charge. But no sooner has its safety been secured, than the hands which have rubbed it with snow are threatened with the same fate. The ears, however, are well protected from frost by the hood. Frost-bite, which is caused by the stoppage of blood in the capillaries, evinces itself by a feeling of numbness, which, if not immediately attended to, increases to a state of complete rigidity. Slight cases are overcome by rubbing the part affected with snow. When the cold is excessive, feeling accompanied with a prickling sensation only returns after rubbing for hours. Under all circumstances, freezing water with an infusion of hydrochloric acid is the best means of restoring circulation. When the frost-bitten member is immersed in this, it is at once overspread with a coating of ice, but as the temperature of the water slowly rises the frozen limb is gradually thawed. The longer persons are exposed to a low temperature, the greater becomes their sensitiveness under it. Their noses, lips and hands swell, and the skin on those parts becomes like parchment, cracks, and is most sensitive to pain from the least breath of wind. In cases of neglected frost-bite, the violet colour of a nose or hand is perpetuated, in spite of all the efforts made to banish it. Frost-bites of a more severe character will not yield to mere rubbings with snow, but should be treated with the kind of cold bath we have described, continued for some days. The formation of blisters, the swelling of the parts affected, great sensitiveness and liability to a recurrence of the malady, are the consequences. In many cases a sensitiveness to changes of temperature lasts for several years. Amputation is inevitable in severe and neglected cases. When circulation has been restored, a mixture of iodine and collodion—10 grains to an ounce—may, according to the experience of Dr. Kepes, be advantageously applied to reduce the inflammation which generally results.

10. It is remarkable that great heat as well as great cold should generate the great evil—thirst. It is also remarkable how rapidly the demoralisation produced by thirst extends when any one of the party begins to show signs of suffering from it. Habit, however, enables men to struggle against thirst more successfully than against hunger. Many try to relieve it by using snow; which is especially pernicious when its temperature falls considerably below the point of liquefaction. Inflammation of the mouth and tongue, rheumatic pains in the teeth, diarrhœa, and other mischiefs, are the consequences, whenever a party incautiously yields to the temptation of such a momentary relief. It is in fact a mere delusion, because it is impossible to eat as much snow—say a cubic foot—as would be requisite to furnish an adequate amount of water. Snow of a temperature of 37° to 50° (C.) below zero feels in the mouth like hot iron, and does not quench, but increases thirst, by its inflammatory action on the mucous membranes of the parts it affects. The Eskimos prefer to endure any amount of thirst rather than eat snow, and it is only the Tschuktschees who indulge in it as a relish with their food, which is always eaten cold. Snow-eaters during the march were regarded by us as weaklings, much in the same way as opium-eaters are. Catarrhs of every kind are less frequent in Polar expeditions, and the chills to which we are exposed by passing suddenly from the cold of the land journey to the warmer temperature of the ship, have no evil consequences. It deserves to be investigated whether this arises from the difference of the amount of ozone in the atmosphere of the respective latitudes.—Now let us return to our journey.

11. After crossing over the Sonklar-Glacier and measuring its slight inclination of 1° 6′, we climbed an elevation to ascertain the most promising route for penetrating in a northerly direction; and none seemed better suited than that which lay over its back, which seemed free from crevasses. But we looked in vain for the fancied paradise of the interior, which had existed only in our desire to clothe in glowing colours the Land, from which we had been so long held back. The true character, however, of Kaiser Franz-Josef Land, so far as it could be explored in this and the following sledge expeditions, will be the subject of the next chapter. The accompanying sketch represents a block of snow, about the height of a man, at the foot of the Sonklar-Glacier, to which the winds had given a fanlike shape. In the afternoon, after inspecting the stakes which we had fixed for measuring the motion of the glacier, we came back to the tent and began our return march to Cape Tegetthoff and the ship. A cutting wind compelled us to make constant efforts against frost-bites. With a heavy creaking noise the sledge was dragged over the hard snow, and to our reduced strength it seemed to be laden with a double load. The night is generally the hardest part of such expeditions, and our camping out during the night under the cliffs of Cape Tegetthoff was especially bitter. Happy was he who, exhausted by the labour of dragging, fell asleep at once. As usual, we dug a deep hole in the snow and loosened it as much as possible, so that we might profit by its property of being one of the worst conductors of heat. In a short time the inside of the tent was covered with rime frost, and we ourselves with ice. The tongue only seemed to recover its former mobility with those who bewailed their loss of knives, stockings, gloves—yea, of everything, even their place in the tent. They ate their portion of bear’s flesh much as if they had been chloroformed, and dropping asleep in their stiffened icy coat of mail, they were awoke by its gradual thawing, to reiterate without cessation how cold it was; a fact which no one present was prepared to dispute. The alcohol thermometer stood at -56° F. (-48° on board the ship), and when the warmth produced by the exercise we had taken and by the effects of supper was gone, the feeling of cold was so intense that it seemed far more probable that we should be frozen to death than that we should sleep. The cook therefore received orders to brew some strong grog, and forthwith six spirit-flames burnt under the kettle filled with snow; but to make snow of such extreme coldness boil quickly we should have had to place the kettle over Vesuvius itself in the height of an eruption.

12. We now slept without stirring a limb, and about five o’clock in the morning of the 15th of March we started to compass the twenty miles which lay between us and the ship in one march, without encountering the suffering of another night’s camping out in the snow. The weather was as clear as it is possible to be at a temperature of -52° F., and going along with a light breeze from the north, we made use of our sledge sail to such advantage that we reached the gentle ascent of the west point of Wilczek Island after a march of seven hours. We formed a second depôt of provisions on the summit of a rocky promontory, whence we discerned with a telescope the masts and yards of the ship lying behind an iceberg, and our fears and anxieties lest it should have drifted away in our absence were dissipated by this glad view. Our return to the ship could no longer be a matter of choice; it had become a necessity. Lettis had been unable for some days to take any share in the labour of dragging, and walked along in shoes made of reindeer hide, on account of his frost-bitten feet. Haller also wore similar shoes to save his swollen feet; Cattarinch’s face was frost-bitten, and he too suffered from lameness; Pospischill, who could no longer wear his shrunk-up fur coat, so suffered from frost-bite in both hands, that I sent him on to the ship, that he might have the help of the doctor as soon as possible. It was with much effort that we made the last six hours’ march; and when at length, stiff with ice, we passed between the hummocks that lay around the ship, Weyprecht, Brosch, Orel, and eight sailors came to meet us, who, alarmed at the inability of Pospischill to speak in answer to their questions, had set out from the ship in order to find us.

13. As I entered my berth I heard the hard breathing of our poor comrade Krisch. For more than a week he had lain without consciousness; yet death had not come to relieve him. On the afternoon of the 16th of March a sudden cessation of all sound told us that he was no more! Next day, his body, placed in a coffin, was brought on deck, and our flag hoisted half-mast high. On the 19th, when the thermometer was at -13° F., the body was committed to its lonely grave in the far north. A mournful procession left the ship, with a sledge, on which rested the coffin covered with a flag and cross, and wended its way to the nearest elevation on the shore of Wilczek Island. Silently struggling against the drifting snow, we marched on, dragging our burden through desolate reaches of snow, till we arrived, after a journey of an hour and a half, at the point we sought on the island. Here, in a fissure between basaltic columns, we deposited his earthly remains, filling up the cavity with stones, which we loosened with much labour, and which the wind, as we stood there, covered with wreaths of snow. We read the prayer for the dead over him who had shared in our sufferings and trials, but who was not destined to return home with us with the news of our success; and close by the spot, surrounded with every symbol of death and far from the haunts of men, we raised as our farewell a simple wooden cross. Our sad and solemn task done, there rose in our hearts the thought, whether we ourselves should be permitted to return home, or whether we too should find our resting-place in the unapproachable wastes of the icy north. The wind blowing over the stiff and stark elevation where we stood, covered us all with a thick coating of snow, and caused the appearance of frost-bite in the faces and hands of some of our party. The decoration of the grave of our comrade with a suitable inscription was therefore deferred till the weather proved more favourable. We found considerable difficulty in returning to the ship through an atmosphere filled with snow.[38]

CHAPTER VI.
A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF KAISER FRANZ-JOSEF LAND.

In now presenting a general view of those parts of Kaiser Franz-Josef Land which were explored by us, I must be allowed to anticipate the order of my narrative which describes the subsequent sledge expeditions, by which our knowledge of the discovered country was so considerably enlarged.

1. The country, even in its already ascertained extent, is almost as large as Spitzbergen, and consists of two main masses—Wilczek Land on the east, and Zichy Land on the west, between which runs a broad sound called Austria Sound, extending in a northerly direction from Cape Frankfort till it forks at the extremity of Crown-Prince Rudolf’s Land, 80° 40′ N. L. One branch of it, a broad arm running to the north-east—Rawlinson Sound—we traced as far as Cape Buda-Pesth. Wilczek and Zichy Lands are both intersected by many fiords, and numerous islands lie off their coasts.

2. A continuous surface of ice extends from the one land to the other. At the time of our exploration, this expanse was formed of ice, for the most part not more than a year in growth, but crossed in many places with fissures and broad barriers of piled-up ice. Throughout its whole extent we saw many icebergs, which we never did in the Novaya Zemlya seas; whence it is to be inferred that they sail away in a northerly direction.[39] Our track lay over this ice-sheet. As long as it remains unbroken, every fiord might serve as a winter harbour; but if it should break up, not a single locality suitable to form one presented itself along the coasts we visited, which had no small indentations.[40]

3. The map of this country, which we present, was designed and constructed from fifteen observations of latitude, from many observations made with the azimuth compass, from drawings, and from a system of triangulation, which, from the nature of the circumstances under which it was formed,[41] makes no pretensions to absolute exactitude. The heights of the mountains were determined by the aneroid barometer. Near the ship a base of 2170·8 metres was measured by Weyprecht and Orel, and connected trigonometrically with the nearest promontories. This work of theirs formed the basis of my surveys.

4. It has always been a principle and a practice with Arctic explorers to name their discoveries either after the promoters of their special expeditions, or after their predecessors in the work of discovery. Though they are never likely to become important to the material interests of mankind, the naming the lands we discovered after those who promoted our expedition, was, we considered, the most enduring form by which we could express our gratitude for their efforts in furtherance of a great idea. The localities, I may add, were named during the work of surveying.

5. As I have had the privilege of visiting all the Arctic lands north of the Atlantic, I have been able to compare them and observe their resemblances as well as their differences. West Greenland is a high uniform glacier-plateau; East Greenland is a magnificent Alpine land with a comparatively rich vegetation and abundant animal life. How and where the transition between these opposite characters takes place in the interior is as yet utterly unknown. We may form some notion of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, if we imagine a mountain-range, like that of the Oetzthal with its glaciers, rising from the level of the sea, if that level were raised about 9,000 feet. There is more softness, however, in both these countries than is usual in the regions of the high north. But Franz-Josef Land has all the severity of the higher Arctic lands; it appears, especially in spring, to be denuded of life of every kind. Enormous glaciers extend from the lofty solitudes of the mountains, which rise in bold conical forms. A covering of dazzling whiteness is spread over everything. The rows of basaltic columns, rising tier above tier, stand out as if crystallized. The natural colour of the rocks was not visible, as is usually the case: even the steepest walls of rock were covered with ice, the consequence of incessant precipitation, and of the condensation of the excessive moisture on the cold faces of the rock. This moisture in a country whose mean annual temperature is about 3° F., seems to indicate its insular character, for Greenland and Siberia are both remarkable for the dryness of their cold, and it was singular that even north winds occasioned a fall of temperature in Franz-Josef Land. In consequence of their enormous glaciation, and of the frequent occurrence of plateau forms, the new lands recalled the characteristic features of West Greenland, in the lower level of the snow-line common to both, and in their volcanic formation. Isolated groups of conical mountains and table-lands, which are peculiar to the basaltic formation, constitute the mountain-system of Franz-Josef Land; chains of mountains were nowhere seen. These mountain forms are the results of erosion and denudation; there were no isolated volcanic cones. The mountains, as a rule, are about 2,000 or 3,000 feet high, except in the south-west, where they attain the height of about 5,000 feet.

6. The later Arctic expeditions have established the existence of vast volcanic formations in the high north, and of very recent deposits in their depressions. In fact, a vast volcanic zone seems to extend from East Greenland, through Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen, to Franz-Josef Land. The geological features of the latter are at any rate in harmony with those of North-east Greenland. The tertiary Brown-coal sandstone of East Greenland is also found in Franz-Josef Land, though Brown-coal itself is met with only in small beds, which, nevertheless, may be reckoned among the many indications that the climate of Polar lands must once have been as genial as the climate of Central Europe at the present day. The kind of rock which predominates is a crystalline aggregation called by the Swedes “Hyperstenite” (Hypersthene), identical with the Dolerite of Greenland; but the Dolerite of Franz-Josef Land is of a coarser-grained texture, and of a dark yellowish green colour; according to Professor Tschermak (the Director of the Imperial Mineralogical Museum at Vienna), it consists of Plagioclase, Augite, Olivine, titaniferous Iron and ferruginous Chlorite. The mountains of this system forming table-lands, with precipitous rocky sides, give to the country we discovered its peculiar physiognomy.

7. The Dolerite of Franz-Josef Land greatly resembles also the Dolerite of Spitzbergen. After the return of the expedition I saw in London some photographic views of the mountains of North-East Land, Spitzbergen, taken by Mr. Leigh-Smith, and I was at once struck with the resemblance between their forms and those of Franz-Josef Land. I learnt also from Professor Nordenskjöld, the celebrated explorer of Spitzbergen, as I passed through Sweden, that the rock of North-East Land was this same Hyperstenite (Hypersthene). Hence the geological coincidence of Spitzbergen and Franz-Josef Land would seem to be established; and this geological affinity, viewed in connection with the existence of lands more or less known, appears to indicate that groups of islands will be found in the Arctic seas on the north of Europe, as we know that such abound in the Arctic seas of North America. Gillis’ Land and King Karl’s Land are, perhaps, the most easterly islands of the Spitzbergen group; for it is not probable that these and the lands we discovered form one continuous uninterrupted whole.

8. Amygdaloids, so common in Greenland, were never found by us in Franz-Josef Land; and while the rocks in the southern portions of the country were often aphanitic and so far true basalt, in the north they were coarse-grained and contained Nepheline. The other rocks consisted of a whitish quartzose sandstone, with a clayey cement, and of another finely-grained sandstone, containing small granules of quartz and greenish-grey particles of chlorite, and also of yellowish finely-laminated clay slate. Erratics, so far as my opportunities permitted me to judge, were of rare occurrence; but we found many smaller pieces of petrified wood, allied to lignite.

9. Some of the islands of the Spitzbergen and Franz-Josef Land group must be of considerable extent, because they bear enormous glaciers, which are possible only in extensive countries. Their terminal precipices, sometimes more than 100 feet high, form generally the coast-lines. The colour of all the glaciers we visited inclined to grey, we seldom found the dull green-blue hue; the granules of their ice were extraordinarily large; there were few crevasses; and the moraines were neither large nor frequent. Their movement was slow; and the snow-line commences at about 1,000 feet above the level, whereas on the glaciers of Greenland and Spitzbergen the like limit is generally 2,000 or even 3,000 feet, and in these countries also, all below that line is free from snow in summer. Franz-Josef Land, on the contrary, appears even in summer to be buried under perpetual snow, interrupted only where precipitous rock occurs. Almost all the glaciers reach down to the sea. Crevasses, even when the angle of inclination of the glacier is very great, are much less frequent than in our Alps, and in every respect the lower glacier regions of Franz-Josef Land approach the character of the névés of our latitudes. There only was it possible to determine the thickness of the annual deposits of snow and ice. In these lower portions, the layers were from a foot to a foot-and-a-half thick; fine veins, about an inch wide, of blue alternating with streaks of white ice ran through them, which occurred with peculiar distinctness at the depth of about a fathom. On the whole, this peculiar structure of alternating bands or veins was not so distinctly marked as it is in the glaciers of the Alps, because the alternations of temperature and of the precipitations are very much less in such high latitudes.

10. The glacier ice of Franz-Josef Land was far less dense than the glacier ice of East Greenland; whence it appears that movement, as a factor in the structure of the glacier, predominates in Franz-Josef-Land more than the factor of regelation. Even at the very end of the glaciers, granules an inch long are distinctly traceable in its layers, and in the névé region especially the glacier ice is exceedingly porous. The great tendency of the climate of Franz-Josef Land to promote glaciation is manifested in the fact, that all the smaller islands are covered with glaciers with low rounded tops, so that a section through them would present a regular defined segment of a circle; hence many ice-streams descending from the summits of the plateaus spread themselves over the mountain-slopes and need not to be concentrated in valleys and hollows in order to become glaciers. Yet many glaciers occur—the Middendorf Glaciers, for example—whose vertical depth amounts to many hundred feet. Their fissures and the height of the icebergs show this. It was unfortunately impossible for us to explore the Dove Glacier, the largest of all we saw, owing to its great distance from the line of our route. Evaporation from the surface of the glacier goes on with great intensity during those summer months when the daylight is continual, and deep water-courses show that streams of thaw-water then flow over it.

11. The comparison of the temperature of the air within the crevasses of the glaciers with the external air, invariably proved, that within the crevasses the temperature was higher. The traces of liquefaction in the glacier during winter, arising from the warmth of the earth, could not be observed, because the sides and under-edge of the glaciers were inaccessible from the enormous masses of snow, and the icicles of the terminal arches and precipices could be ascribed only to the freezing of the thaw-water of the preceding summer.

12. The plasticity of the glaciers was so great, that branches of them, separated by jutting-out rocks, flowed into each other again at their base, without showing any considerable crevasses. We could only in a few cases judge of their movement by direct measurement, and we had never more than one day to test it. One observation made on the Sonklar Glacier in the month of March did not seem to support the notion of the advance of the glaciers; but the repetition of similar experiments, some weeks later, made on two glaciers on the south of Austria Sound, gave the mean of two inches as the daily movement. It is very probable that their movement begins in the Arctic regions somewhat later than in our latitudes, perhaps at the end of July or beginning of August, because the period of the greatest liquefaction then ends, while it is at its minimum in March and the beginning of April. The signs of glacier-movement were apparent in the detachment of icebergs in the month of March, but more frequently in the month of May—as at the Simony Glacier—and in the crashing-in of the ice-sheet at their base in the month of April—as at the Middendorf Glacier; and the appearance of “glacier dirt,” where there is no material to furnish a moraine,—as on the Forbes Glacier—must be regarded as a sign of its onward movement or lateral extension. The infrequency of moraines may be explained by the resistance which Dolerite offers to weathering, and may also be regarded as a sign of the slow movement of the glaciers. Red snow was seen once only, in the month of May, on the precipices westward of Cape Brünn. We never met with glacier insects, although they are common in Greenland; and however diligently I looked for them I never saw unmistakable traces of the grinding and polishing of rocks by glacier action.

13. It is well known that the north-east of Greenland as well as Novaya Zemlya and Siberia are slowly rising from the sea, nay, that all the northern regions of the globe have for ages participated in this movement. It was, therefore, exceedingly interesting to observe the characteristic signs of this upheaval in the terraced beaches, covered with débris containing organic remains along the coast of Austria Sound. The ebb and flow, which elevates and breaks up the bay-ice only at the edge, is to be traced on the shores of Austria Sound by a tidal mark of two feet.

14. The vegetation was everywhere extremely scanty, crushed, not so much by the intensity of the cold as by its long continuance, and is far below the vegetation of Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Novaya Zemlya. It resembled, not indeed in species but in its general character, the vegetation of the Alps at an elevation of 9,000 or 10,000 feet, while the Alpine region corresponding to the vegetation of East Greenland lies a thousand feet lower. We found neither the stunted birches and willows, nor the numerous phænogamous plants of East Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Novaya Zemlya. The rare appearance of soil chiefly contributes to this extremely sparse vegetation, the detritus of the country resembling the meagre “dirt” layer on an old moraine, here and there enlivened by a small patch of green. Although we visited Franz-Josef Land at the season in which vegetation begins to stir, nowhere could there be seen a patch of sward, even a few feet square, to recall the features of our latitudes, although we examined depressions very favourably situated and free from snow. Some level spots showed patches of thin meagre grasses of Catabrosa algida (Fries), a few specimens of Saxifraga oppositifolia and of Silene acaulis, rarely Cerastium alpinum or Papaver nudicale (L.). Thick, cushion-like tufts of mosses were more frequently discovered. There were abundance of lichens: Imbricaria stygia (Acharius), Buellia stigmatea (Körber), Gyrophora anthracina (Wulfen), Cetraria nivalis (Acharius), Usnea melaxantha (Acharius), Bryopogon jubatus (Körber), Rhizocarpon geographicum (Körber), Sporastatia Morio (Körber)—and the Umbilicaria arctica of winter, which we found in Greenland at an elevation of 7,000 feet. These specifications I owe to the kindness of Professor Fenzl, director of the Botanical Garden in Vienna, and of Professor Reichhardt. The museum of this institution accepted the small collection of plants I was able to bring to Europe. Of some of these there remained nothing but withered roots, so that it was impossible to determine their character. Nature in those regions, unable to deck herself with the colours of plants, produces an imposing effect by her rigid forms, and in summer by the glare of the ice and snow; and as there are lands which are stifled by the excess of Nature’s gifts and blessings, so as even to defy efforts of civilization, here in the high North another extreme is displayed—absolute barrenness and nakedness, which render it quite uninhabitable.

15. Drift-wood, chiefly of an old date, we frequently found, but in small quantities. On the shore of Cape Tyrol, we once saw a log of pine or larch one foot thick and several feet long, lying a little above the water-line, and which might have been driven thither by the wind, as the Tegetthoff was. The fragments of wood we found—the branches on which showed that they did not come from a ship—were of the pine genus (Pinus picea, Du Roy), and must have come from the southern regions of Siberia, as the large broad rings of growth showed.

16. Franz-Josef Land is, as may be supposed, entirely uninhabited, and we never came on any traces of settlements. It is very questionable whether Eskimos would have been able to find there the means of subsistence, and if anywhere most likely on the western side of Wilczek Island, where an “ice-hole” of considerable extent remained open for a great part of the year.

17. In the southern parts it is destitute of every kind of animal life, with the exception of Polar bears and migratory birds. North of Lat. 81°, the snow bore numberless fresh tracks of foxes, but though their footmarks were imprinted on the snow beyond the possibility of mistake, we never saw one. Once we found their excrements, and on Hohenlohe Island those of an Arctic hare. The scanty vegetation forbade the presence of the reindeer and musk-ox. It is not, however, impossible that there may be reindeer in the more westerly parts of the country, which we did not visit. The character of that particular region approximates to that of King Karl’s Land and Spitzbergen, on the pastures of which herds of these animals live and thrive.

18. Of the great marine Mammalia, seals only (Phoca grœnlandica and Phoca barbata) abounded; although we saw some White Whales. Walruses we saw twice, but not close to the shore; it is, however, probable that the absence of open water prevented us from seeing the walrus nearer the shore, for the character of the sea-bottom would present no obstacle to its existence.

19. Of fish we saw only the species Liparis gelatinosus (Pallas) and a kind of cod (Gadus), which were taken with the drag-net.

20. The birds, which we found in the region between Novaya Zemlya and Franz-Josef Land were of the following species:—the long-tailed Robber Gull (Lestris, K.); the black Robber Gull without the long tail-feathers; the Burgomaster Gull (Larus Glaucus, B.); the Ice or Ivory Gull (Larus eburneus); the Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla, L.); the Sea-swallow (Sterna macrura, N.); the Arctic Petrel or Mallemoke (Procellaria glacialis); Ross’s Gull (Rhotostetia rosea); two species of Auks (Uria arra, P., and Uria mandtii, L.); the Greenland Dove (Grylle columba, Bp.); the Rotge (Mergulus alle, V.); the Lumme (Mormon arcticus); the Eider-duck (Somateria mollisima, L.); the Snowy Owl (Strix nivea); the Iceland Knot (Tringa canutus); the Snow-bunting (Plectrophanes nivalis, M.). Most of these occurred also on the coasts of Franz-Josef Land.

21. We can here only allude generally to those forms of animal life which were taken by the drag-net on the south of Franz-Josef Land, and brought to Europe in the collection of Dr. Kepes, and of which I made seventy-two drawings. To Professor Heller, of Innspruck, and Professor Marenzeller, of Vienna, the expedition is indebted for the naming and arrangement of those specimens, and while I refer my readers to their fuller account in the Mittheilungen of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna, I limit myself here to a few of the results of their observations. The investigation of the invertebrate Fauna of the sea through which we passed was necessarily limited from the moment that the course of the Tegetthoff ceased to be under our control. We had, in the first place, no zoologist on board, and from the drifting ship nothing more could be done than letting down the net almost daily during the weeks of summer—which Lieutenant Weyprecht did—and dragging it for some hours. The greater part of the animals so taken were immediately sketched by me, in order that, in the event of the loss of the original objects, some sort of representation of the animal world of a region never before investigated might be preserved. The issue justified a caution which must always be kept in view in Polar expeditions.

Of the abundant shrimp-family of the Arctic seas there are four species among the collections we formed, namely:—Hippolyte payeri, Heller, n. sp., Hippolyte turgida (Kröyer), Hippolyte polaris (Sabine), and Hippolyte borcalis (Owen). The Hippolyte payeri was found at the depth of 247 metres, and was of a beautiful pink colour and had blue-black eyes. There were found besides: Crangou boreas and Pandalus borealis (Kröyer).

The group of Amphipoda was, comparatively, largely represented among the Crustacea of the Arctic waters; we often called these Floh-krebse—flea-crabs—because many of them used their hind legs to hop along. Eleven species of this genus were brought home in our collections; among these were Amathillopsis spinigera, a new species, Cleïppides quadricuspis, also a new species, both described by Professor Heller; Acanthozone hystrix (Owen), &c. The group—Isopoda—is represented by the interesting Munnopsis typica (Sars), the Idothea sabini (Kröyer), and by a new variety, Paranthura arctica.

Of the group Pycnogonida, our collection contained three varieties, of which two are new.

Sponges were common; but we were obliged to leave behind the specimens of the larger kinds on account of the room they took up. Among the silicious sponges, those of the genus Hyalonema were the largest in size, and included the forms described as Hyalonema boreale (Lovèn), and Hyalonema longissimum (Sars). There was one specimen of the horny sponge, so rare in those parts. The drag-net often brought up Actiniæ, Bryareum grandiflorum (Sars), and June 2, 1873, from a depth of 110 fathoms, a specimen of the extremely rare Umbellula described by Mytius and Ellis, 1753. Since that date this animal had been lost sight of, until it was found again by the Swedes—Gladans expedition 1871—in Baffin’s Bay, and by the Challenger, 1873, between Portugal and Madeira and between Prince Edward’s Island and Kerguelen’s Land. It may be assumed that our Umbellula is identical with the form first described, 1758, by Linnæus as Isis encrinus. I regret to say that this, the most interesting of all the objects we had collected, was left behind in the Tegetthoff. The sketch of it made from life will facilitate a comparison with the forms known in other regions and variously named.

Hydroid polypes, widely distributed in several varieties in the Atlantic Ocean,—Asteridæ and Ophiuridæ, the Korethrastes hispidus (Wyv. Thomson), a new variety discovered by the Porcupine expedition between the Faroe and Shetland islands, Crinoidæ, represented by two species never before found so far north, and several Holothuriæ, were also among the acquisitions brought home. Our collection was rich in Annelides, containing seven-and-twenty varieties found in Greenland and Spitzbergen. Fourteen varieties of Bryozoa were found, and single specimens of Turbellaria and Gephyrea.

CHAPTER VII.
THE SECOND SLEDGE EXPEDITION.—AUSTRIA SOUND.

1. The first sledge journey enabled me to draw up a plan for a more extended expedition towards the north. It was not only a cherished scheme of my own, but it became also the dominating interest on board the Tegetthoff, although the other scientific investigations were carried on uninterruptedly. Weyprecht and Brosch continued with admirable perseverance the laborious observation of the Magnetic Constants, and measured on the ice close to the ship a base of 2170·8 metres, which served for all my trigonometrical surveys. The meteorological observations also were carried on with the usual regularity.

2. For some days the weather had been bad; its increasingly stormy character excited our fears, lest the ice should break up and the floe drift away with the ship. The danger of leaving her, in order to explore the extent of the new country, increased also with the longer duration of our proposed second journey. We were convinced, too, that the sea within a few days had broken up the ice almost as far as Wilczek Island, and a heavy water-sky was seen in the south at no great distance from us. Discoveries of importance could only be expected from an expedition of a month’s duration. But withal the venture must be made, and leaving the dangers and perils to the chances of the future, I gathered together the picked men who were to accompany me, to lay before them my plans. I explained to them my design of penetrating in a northerly direction as far as possible, and I put before them the danger of our being cut off from the ship. But while I showed the perils, I stimulated them also by the hope of reward. If the eighty-first degree of latitude were reached, I guaranteed to them the sum of £100; if we attained the eighty-second degree, £250; and I declared that merit, and merit alone, should regulate the distribution of these sums. In order to make sure of reticence on the part of my company and thus obviate ill-feeling among the rest of the crew, which might easily have been called forth by this apparent preference, they were told that the rewards would be forfeited, if any of those who stayed behind in the ship should hear of these rewards. The assembled company agreed also to my request never to mention dangers during the journey, and, in the event of our not finding the ship on our return, to take the whole blame of such an issue on our own shoulders. With regard to the rewards, I must add that never was a secret better kept. Immediately began on board a packing, a tailoring, a preparation as if for a campaign, and under the tent-roof of the ship the rusty runners of the sledges were polished, till they were as smooth as glass.

3. Before we started, there was an interesting interruption in the monotony of our lives, occasioned by a family of bears. While we were absent in our first journey a bear had been shot from the ship, and little Pekel had been wounded in the neck. On the 19th of March another bear came close to us, which was scared away after some unsuccessful shots had been fired at it. Three days afterwards a she-bear appeared accompanied by her two cubs, of a darker colour than their mother, rolling on after her. It was exceedingly interesting to watch the actions of this family. The mother frequently stopped and snuffed the air with uplifted snout; then she would lick her cubs, who fondly crept up to their mother, behaving exactly like young poodles, which they also resembled in size. Six shots were fired at seventy paces distance, and the mother-bear, after running for about forty paces, fell dead. Amazed at the reports of the rifles and the actions of their mother, the little bears sat as if they were rooted in the snow, and looked with astonishment at the dark forms which rushed out from the ship. One of them suffered itself to be shaken by Pekel; and only when they were seized by the nape of the neck and carried on board did they seem to entertain the least surmise of mischief. At first they were shut up separately in casks set on their end, and growled long and impatiently till they were put together in the same cask. Sumbu alone was slow to understand our suddenly-excited pity for his hereditary foes, and scratched and barked at the cask for hours together, while the cubs growled and threatened retaliation with their little paws. After looking at this for some time, Gillis was moved to side with the bears, and a battle ensued between him and Sumbu, in which the latter got the worst of it. The little animals afforded us much amusement, and the crew were seriously considering the feasibility of training them to draw in the sledge, in the meditated return expedition to Europe. They ate bread, sauerkraut, bacon—in short, everything that was given them. One morning, however, the little rascals eluded the eye of the watch and got away. They were immediately caught and killed, and appeared roasted on our dinner-table.