576 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



"Weypreclit explained liis reasons more fully. Altliougli 

 these reasonings were not based upon altogether correct 

 suppositions, it is true, as pointed out by Dove, that the 

 distribution of the Polar ice does without doubt create 

 variations in the state of the temperature in different 

 years (and that irrespective of any particular spot in the 

 Arctic territory). The zealous endeavours of Payer and 

 Weyprecht, however, succeeded in calling into existence, 

 in 1872, a still larger Austrian expedition. 



Oddly enough, in spite of authentic accounts of the 

 navigability of the Arctic Sea, as far as the highest lati- 

 tude, the project of an Arctic expedition on the basis of 

 the Barents' Sea, was dropped, and the exploration of 

 the Siberian coast and the unknown waters of the north 

 of Siberia was undertaken. To me this seems to imply 

 that in Austria, too, they could not quite trust to the 

 existence of an open Arctic sea, as they evidently laid 

 more stress upon the desirability of following the coast, 

 and promised themselves richer scientific results than 

 they could ever expect from advancing on the high 

 sea. 



The Austrian Expedition started in the summer of 

 1872 ; but, instead of finding an open and easily navigable 

 sea, as in the previous year, there were masses of thick 

 ice near Nova Zembla, so that in spite of steam power, up 

 to the 18th of August they had advanced no further than 

 Cape Nassau, though they hoped for more favourable op- 

 portunities about the beginning of September. At the same 

 time, some Norwegian fishermen found the sea perfectly 

 free from ice further westwards ; the much-talked-of 

 Wiche's, or King Charles's Land, or Weiche Land (which- 

 ever it is called), was even reached, and its extent decided 



