The cruise in the Isbjörn was preparatory to a successful effort on the part of Lieutenants Payer and Weyprecht to raise funds for an Arctic expedition. Their plan was to round the north end of Novaya Zemlya and make discoveries to the eastward. Their vessel, the Tegethoff, fitted out at Bremershaven, was a steamer of 200 tons and 100 h.-p., with a crew of 22 men. They left Bremershaven on the 13th June, 1872, and sighted Novaya Zemlya on the 3rd August. By October the Tegethoff was closely and hopelessly beset, drifting about at the mercy of wind and tide, to the north of Novaya Zemlya. In the summer of 1873 the crew were fully engaged in seal hunting; and on the 30th August an entirely unknown land was sighted in 79° 43′ N. and 59° 33′ E. In November an island was reached by a party from the ship, and then the explorers entered upon their second winter of 1873–74.
Weyprecht cared most for his meteorological and magnetic observations, but Payer was very eager to explore the newly-discovered land, which received the name of Franz Josef Land. Payer paid a just tribute to M’Clintock in attributing such success as he attained to following the great sledge traveller’s advice. He prepared for a month’s journey, taking four sacks of provisions each containing sufficient for seven days for seven men, and they succeeded in obtaining some bear meat. He is clear as to the comfort of hot grog in the intense cold of the night. The sledging party, with dogs as auxiliaries, started on March 25th, and on April 12th, 1874, the furthest point was reached in 82° 5′ N., 165 miles from the ship. They returned to the Tegethoff on the 25th April, and some shorter excursions were afterwards made.
Payer’s general idea of this great discovery was that Franz Josef Land consisted of two masses of land, which were named Zichy and Wilczek after the two chief supporters of the expedition, separated by a channel which was named Austria Sound. It was afterwards found to consist of an archipelago of smaller and more numerous islands than Payer supposed. His furthest point was Cape Fligely, but the land he thought he saw further north, and called Petermann Land, has since been found not to exist.
As the ship remained immoveable in the summer of 1874, it was found necessary to abandon her and retreat in the boats. After a long journey over the ice, they launched the three boats on the open sea, were picked up by a Russian schooner, and arrived safely at Tromsö on the 3rd September. Lieut. Payer was an accomplished artist, as well as a sledge traveller; and in after years he painted several fine pictures illustrating some of the last and most pathetic scenes connected with the Franklin expedition.
The next addition to our knowledge of Franz Josef Land was supplied by that enterprising and persevering yachtsman Leigh Smith. He had a vessel built, suitable for ice navigation, which he named the Eira. She was a steamer of 360 tons and 50 h.-p., 150 ft. long by 25 ft. beam, manned by 25 men all told. Leigh Smith’s companions were Lofley the master, the surgeon Dr Neale, and Mr W. G. A. Grant. The great problem which Leigh Smith had to determine was whether there was a practicable route across the ice-laden Barentsz Sea, between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, to Franz Josef Land. Leigh Smith forced his way through the pack and sighted land on the 14th August, 1880—a new part of Franz Josef Land to the westward.
There were many large icebergs, but they were quite unlike those of Davis Strait, being flat masses like the Antarctic bergs. Leigh Smith and Grant landed at several places, making collections of the flora and of rock specimens. The extent of the new coast line discovered and explored was 110 miles, and of that seen 150 miles. There was great abundance of walrus and seals. This was one of the most important summer cruises ever made in the Arctic regions.
The second cruise of the Eira in 1881 was disastrous. No less than ten days of ice navigation, towards the end of July, were required to reach the coast, the floes being closely packed together. Gun-cotton was found to be very useful in blasting the ice. Franz Josef Land was sighted on the 23rd July, and the Eira reached a point further west than was possible in the previous year, Cape Lofley being the extreme western point discovered. Some days were then spent at Cape Flora dredging and collecting plants and fossils.
On the 21st August the pack ice came in with the tide, and the Eira, caught and crushed between it and the ground floe, at once filled and went down. Her yards, catching on the ice, held her for a few seconds, but they soon broke in the slings with a loud crash as she settled. She sank in 11 fathoms, and looking down from the ice, she could be seen quite distinctly. All hands had been employed getting provisions out on the ice and saving everything that could be got at until just before she sank. Some spars and planking floated up and were secured. During the rest of August the men were busily engaged in building a hut of turf and stones, collecting drift-wood, and shooting walrus, bears, and looms, for their existence depended on obtaining sufficient fresh animal food. During the autumn 21 walrus, 13 bears, and 1200 looms were shot. They had saved from the vessel 1500 lb. of flour, 400 lb. of bread, a barrel of salt meat, 1000 lb. of preserved meat, 800 tins of soups, besides preserved vegetables, tobacco, some cases of whisky and brandy, and 7 cwt. of coal. All hands kept in perfect health throughout the winter, a fact which reflects great credit on Dr Neale.
On the 21st June, 1884, Leigh Smith and his party set out on their perilous voyage in four boats, and after 42 days the shipwrecked sailors sighted the coast of Novaya Zemlya on August 2nd. Near the entrance to the Matyushin Shar they met the Hope, under the command of Sir Allen Young, who had come out to search for the missing crew, and all returned home in safety.
There was an interval of ten years before the investigation of Franz Josef Land was resumed. Its next explorer, Frederick G. Jackson, was destined to do good work there. He began by a preliminary journey in the country of the Samoyeds and the Lapps in 1893, carefully studying their dress and equipments, and to some extent adopting them. Mr. Harmsworth, the newspaper proprietor, having found the funds, the Windward, an old whaler, was bought, and an expedition fitted out. Jackson was a keen sportsman, and a man of original mind, ready to adopt the well-tried methods of his predecessors, but quite as ready to invent new contrivances, or to make improvements as experience suggested. He had with him Lieut. Armitage, an excellent officer of the P. and O. service, as surveyor and astronomer, Dr Koettlitz as surgeon and geologist, and three other men of science. As the Windward was to land the party and return, a log house was taken in pieces, besides four ponies and sixteen dogs for sledge work, and three years’ provisions.
The house was built on Northbrook Island, where there was likely to be a supply of walrus and bear, as strong currents prevented the formation of permanent ice. Unfortunately the Windward was obliged to winter also, and scurvy broke out, but she returned in the following summer. After a short preliminary run of a week, the important journey northwards was commenced on the 16th April, 1895, with three ponies drawing six sledges, and provisions for 63 days; but the journey actually only occupied 26 days. The sledges were 9 ft. 6 in. long, with a width of only 18 in., which is much too narrow. The allowance of food per man per day was 3 lb.—about the same as M’Clintock’s scale. Their aluminium cooking apparatus (5½ lb.) was an invention of Jackson’s, and they provided themselves against an arrest of progress on meeting water by taking an aluminium boat (150 lb.) and a canvas kayak.
The clothing was an imitation of that worn by the Lapps—militzas or loose frocks with the fur inside, and tobacks or hay-stuffed boots for the feet. Jackson wore knee breeches of warm cloth, a loose jumper of thick woollen stuff, a close-fitting cap covering ears and back of the neck, a cloth mask, and a light linen covering. The tent was a low cone, difficult to pitch in a gale. It was pitched for luncheon, and warm tea was made, with biscuit, cheese, and bacon. They had no sleeping-bags. The great trouble was the slushy condition of the snow and the frequent snowstorms. This first journey established the fact that the western half of Franz Josef Land was not one land but an archipelago, and that a channel passed up to a wide northern sea. Two hundred and seventy miles of new coast line were discovered. In the second season Jackson had the great pleasure of rescuing Nansen and Johansen from their perilous, indeed almost hopeless position. In the third season a longer journey was undertaken, part of it over the glacier of the western island. Only one pony had survived; this died on the journey, and the deaths of dogs reduced the number to five. Again the snow was soft and slushy, and the snowstorms so frequent that during the whole journey of 55 days only thirteen were fine. At its conclusion they had explored 250 miles in a direct line, probably travelling nearly 500—a very remarkable journey. The results were important. The western islands of the group were discovered and explored, the most western point was ascertained, and its distance from Spitsbergen found to be 250 miles. After three winters the Windward brought the Jackson expedition safely back to England in September 1887.
We owe our knowledge of the extremely interesting Franz Josef group chiefly to the labours of Payer, Leigh Smith, and Jackson. Nansen discovered the furthest portion north, and the group has been used as a base to attempt journeys to the Pole. Cagni, Wellman, and Captain Fiala of the Ziegler Expedition (1903–1906) have also added to our information, the latter by a careful survey and map. We can now take a general view of the results of these discoveries.
The Franz Josef group of over fifty large and small islands extends for 270 miles from west to east between the meridians of 42° and 64° E. and for 140 miles from south to north between 79° 50′ and 82° 5′ N. The group rises from the same submarine plateau as Spitsbergen, forming part of the same system, though the land mass is further to the north than that of Spitsbergen. The northern coast of the North-east Land of Spitsbergen just crosses the 80th parallel, while only a few small islets of the Franz Josef group are to the south of it.
The Franz Josef archipelago is divided by the Austria Sound of Payer and the British Channel of Jackson into three groups, named respectively the Wilczek, Zichy, and Alexandra groups. East of Austria Sound there are two large islands, Wilczek and Graham Bell, forming the eastern limit of the group. The Wullerstorf mountain on Wilczek Island rises to a height of 2409 ft. To the north of Graham Bell Island are the small islets discovered by Nansen, who named them Hoitland.
West of Austria Sound are the numerous islands, large and small, which form the Zichy group; while to the north is Kronprinz Rudolf Island with its Middendorf glacier. The northern point of Kronprinz Rudolf, called Cape Fligely, is the northern extremity of the whole group140.
On the west side of the British Channel are Northbrook, Bruce, Isabel, and Bell Islands. At the west end of Northbrook Island is Cape Flora, where was “Elmwood,” Jackson’s winter quarters; and between Mabel and Bell Islands is Eira Harbour, where Leigh Smith wintered. Westward are the two large islands of Prince George and Alexandra. The former, 90 miles long by 68, is almost covered with glaciers, and forms the western shore of the British Channel, with the Armitage, Arthur Harmsworth, and Albert Edward Islands to the north. On the northern horizon Jackson reported open water, which he named Queen Victoria Sea. The westernmost island, believed to be separated from Prince George Island by Cambridge Bay or Strait, is called Alexandra Island, and is also nearly covered with glaciers, but with low land along its northern shore. It is 120 miles long by some 50 miles wide.
Payer describes the lands seen from Austria Sound as covered with fields of ice, while rows of basaltic columns, rising tier above tier, stand out as if crystallized, but the natural colour of the rock is not visible, even the steepest walls of rock being covered with ice. The mountains are table-shaped and rise to heights of from 2000 to 3000 feet, and the predominating formation resembles the dolerite of Greenland, though coarser grained and of a dark yellowish-green colour. Payer also observed terraced beaches covered with débris containing organic remains. The small snow-covered islets reached by Nansen from the north are composed of a coarse-grained basalt. The western half of the Franz Josef group was more thoroughly explored by Jackson and Armitage, with the aid of their able and accomplished companions, during four summers and three winter seasons 1894–97.
Dr Koettlitz, the geologist of Mr Jackson’s expedition, from the results of three years of observation combined with the reports of Payer and Leigh Smith, has been able to give a fairly good general view of the past history and present appearance of the Franz Josef group. He looks upon the numerous islands as the fragments of an old table-land, doubtless connected with other lands from which it is now separated by wide seas, and he places the existence of this continental land in the Jurassic period. But the principal feature of the group, as was also observed by Payer, is the basalt or the dolerite of which the plateau formation consists. This basaltic rock formation is from 500 to 600 feet in perpendicular height, and Dr Koettlitz dates it from Jurassic times; in which case all strata that may have been laid down after this period have disappeared through denudation, or are buried under the ice sheets. When the hills were clothed with those plants of the Jurassic age which have been recognised among the fossils that have been brought home, the climate must have been mild and genial, and the land was connected with Spitsbergen.
The present flora of Franz Josef Land is almost confined to terraces or slopes with a southern aspect, and is poor as compared with that of Spitsbergen. But it gives some little colouring to the dreary summer landscape, and in the neighbourhood of loomeries there are many bright-coloured mosses141.
There are very few mammals on these desolate islands. Polar bears, however, frequent the neighbouring floes in considerable numbers, and wander about all the winter. The Austrians shot over 60, Nansen 19, and 120 were seen by the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition. The Arctic hare was not met with, and foxes were very rarely seen at “Elmwood,” though they made themselves at home at Nansen’s winter quarters. Bones and antlers of deer were found on the raised beaches, and it is not easy to account for their presence. They might possibly have come with drift-wood. White whales, narwhals, and three kinds of seals were seen, and walruses were abundant142.
The snowy owl is a frequenter of Franz Josef Land, suggesting the presence of its favourite food, but lemmings were not met with. Snow buntings are widely spread over the islands, and remain from April to October, and the Lapland bunting also comes in smaller numbers in May, as well as the shore lark. Brent geese arrive in June, but the eider duck is rare. There are ptarmigan, first seen by members of the Zeigler expedition. The wading birds comprise turnstones, sanderlings, and two sandpipers. The very rare Ross’s gull was found by Nansen breeding in considerable numbers. The glaucous gull, fulmar, kittiwake, and arctic tern also visit the group, and the ivory gulls breed there abundantly. The red-throated diver comes, but is rare. Looms and dovekies visit the southern coast, and the little-auks are numerous. The whole number of species of birds visiting Franz Josef Land is 23, against 33 in Spitsbergen, and 43 in Novaya Zemlya.
The Franz Josef group of islands may be considered geologically as part of Spitsbergen, both being fragments of the same continental land of Jurassic times143. The 143 miles of ice-covered sea between Cape Mary Harmsworth, the northernmost point of Alexandra Land, and Cape Leigh Smith on North-east Land has not yet been explored. The sea to the east of Wilczek and Graham Bell Islands is also unknown.
During the period from August 1872 to the following February the Tegethoff was drifted in a north-easterly direction from Cape Nassau of Novaya Zemlya, which is in longitude 62° E., to 71° 38′ E., a distance of about 125 miles, and from February to the next October, in latitude 79° N., she drifted westward until she reached the land ice on the south coast of Franz Josef. These drifts appear to have been due to the prevailing winds.
The sea to the south of Franz Josef Land, between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, has received the name of the Barentsz Sea. Its greatest depth is 230 fathoms, and over the greater part of the area the depth is not more than 100 fathoms. The ice is always kept well out of sight of the European coast by the Atlantic current, and when the line of the pack is met with in about 74° N., it is found to be sufficiently loose for navigation northwards during some part of the summer, the general drift being to the westward, but varying with the winds.