66 FRANZ JOSEF LAND 



north-west the outlines of a rocky coast, which in a 

 few minutes grew into a radiant Alpine land. The 

 shore, however, was unattainable, as a rush over the 

 icefield soon showed, but from the edge of the fissure 

 that barred any further progress they could make out 

 its hills and glaciers and imagine the green pastures of 

 its valleys. They called it Kaiser Franz Josef's Land, 

 and along it they drifted during September till its out- 

 lines faded as the wind began to drive the floe to the 

 south. But at the end of the month the direction of 

 the floe changed to the north-west, taking the Tegett- 

 koff up to 79 58', her highest north, near enough to 

 one of the islands for an effort to be made to land. 

 Six started from the ship over the grinding, groaning, 

 broken walls of ice, and when they were out of sight 

 of the ship a mist settled down which cut them off 

 from the sight of land and then so closely enwrapped 

 them that they could see nothing. Advance they 

 found hopeless, and as they returned they lost their 

 way and were saved by the sagacity of a dog they had 

 with them. All through October the drift continued, 

 and it was not until forenoon of the 1st of November, 

 two months after sighting the country, that they 

 managed to get ashore. This was on Wilczek Island 

 in the same longitude as Admiralty Peninsula in 

 Novaya Zemlya, and in the same latitude as Mossel 

 Bay in Spitsbergen. 



The sun had retired for the winter nine days before, 

 and it was by the light of the moon that they first 

 explored the unknown country. Little could be done, 

 and, as it was much too late for attempting to shift 

 from the ship to the shore, the winter had to be spent 





