320 NORDENSKIOLD AND THE NORTHEAST PASSAGE 



continuing until the eightieth parallel was passed. Here the ice- 

 floe in which the vessel had been immovably fixed for fourteen 

 months was driven upon an island, by the shore of which the long 

 polar winter was passed, the cold becoming so severe that the quick- 

 silver in the thermometer remained frozen for weeks, while the 

 midwinter darkness was intense. 



Several sledge journeys were made to explore the new land, 

 which Payer named Franz Josef Land in honor of the Austrian 

 emperor. It lay north of the latitude of Spitzbergen, which it closely 

 approached in area. It was a land of desolation, with mountains 

 5000 feet in height, the vast cliffs between them being filled wit*i 

 gigantic glaciers. At latitude 81 degrees 37 minutes the explorers 

 reached a territory which they named Crown Prince Rudolf Land, 

 the cliffs of which were covered with thousands of ducks and auks, 

 while seals, bears, hares and foxes abounded. In April, 1874, the 

 coast was followed to 81 degrees 57 minutes north, while land was 

 visible in the distance which seemed to stretch beyond the eigh'ty- 

 third parallel, being the most northern then known upon the globe. 

 This region has since been explored by Leigh Smith and others and 

 found to consist of an archipelago, composed of numerous islands, 

 which are divided into two large masses lying east and west, the 

 group extending between 80 and 83 degrees north. In the autumn 

 of 1874 the expedition returned home, unsuccessful in its main 

 object, but with very important discoveries to its credit. 



The work of Payer was in a sense preliminary to that of Baron 

 Nordenskiold in 1878-79, with which we are here principally con- 

 cerned. This notable discoverer, Adolf Erik Nordenskiold by name, 

 was born at Helsingfors, Finland, in 1832, was educated in his 

 native land, and in 1857 became a professor of mineralogy at Stock- 

 holm. He, took part at various times in no less than eight Arctic 

 expeditions, and was made a baron of Sweden in 1880 after his feat 

 of traversing the Northeast Passage. 



The solution of this important geographical problem was the 



