GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND PROGRESS FOR 1874. 



889 



in December, 1873, and January 1874; with 



t-.^ni|ili-. (London, 1874.) 

 ivlur: Turkintan, Notes of* Journey in the 

 \ Provinces of Central Asia and the Khanate* 

 thmandKhokand. By BugeneSohnyler, Sec- 

 retary of American Legation, St. Petersburg, 

 don, 1874.) 



11. NV. Bellow: From the Indus to the Tigrin, a 

 : a Juiiriii'.v through tlie Countries of Bp- 

 Afghanistan, Khorusnan, and Iran, in 

 .Bother with a Synoptical Grammar and Vo- 

 cabulary of the Brahoe Language, and a Record of 

 U'teoroloffical Observations and Altitudes on 

 .roh from tho Indus to the Tigris. (London, 



Charles New: Life, Wanderings, and Labors in 

 ii Afru'ii. With nn Account of the First Suc- 

 .1 Ascent of the Equatorial Snow Mountain, 

 Kilmm Njiiro, and Remarks upon East African Slave- 

 London, 1874.) 

 Thomas Belt: The Naturalist in Nicaragua. 



on, 1874.) 



Captain Spalding : Khiva and Turkestan. Trans- 

 hit 1 from the Russian. (London, 1874). 



KrnstMarno: Reisen im Gebiete des Blauen und 

 Weissen Nil, im Egyptischcn, Soudan, und den an- 

 pr.liizeii<li'n Negorliinderu in den Jahren 1869 bis 

 1878. (Vienna, 1874.) 



We turn now to our usual review of the geo- 

 graphical expeditions which have been sent 

 out <>r have returned during the year, beginning 

 with 



AHOTIO EXPLOBATIOX. The Austro-Hunga- 

 rian Arctic Expedition returned from their 

 perilous voyage without making any important 

 accessions to our knowledge of the polar re- 

 gions. The object of the expedition was to find 

 a northeasterly passage toward the pole from 

 some portion of the Arctic Sea north of the coast 

 of Siberia. The Tegetthoff was a screw-steamer 

 of 300 tons burden. There were on board stores 

 for three years. The crew of twenty-four men 

 was composed of Lieutenants Weyprecht and 

 Brosch and Ensign Orel, two engineers, fifteen 

 selected Dalmatian sailors, Lieutenant Payer, of 

 the Jagers, a member of the Alpine Club, with 

 two Tyrolese mountaineers, and the surgeon, 

 Kepesy. The vessel sailed from Bremerhaven 

 June 13, 1872. At Nova Zembla they took 

 leave of the two patrons of the expedition, 

 Count Wilczek and Baron Sternberg, who came 

 to meet them in the yacht Isbiorn, bringing 

 stores, which they deposited in the cavity of a 

 rock. The ships took leave of each other 

 August 1st. For two years no news came from 

 the explorers. During this time they were ice- 

 bound in the Siberian Sea. The Tegetthoff was 

 frozen in, in latitude 76 30' north, within sight 

 of Nova Zembla. The crew remained with the 

 ship fourteen months. The mass of ice which 

 inclosed them was steadily carried to the north- 

 ward. The drift in the ice-floe was remark- 

 able as being the first one which had ever 

 taken a northerly direction. In the autumn 

 of 1873 they sighted an unknown mountainous 

 coast, which they explored from latitude 79 

 54' to latitude 83. To this they gave the 

 name of Franz-Joseph-Land. Animal and vege- 

 table life was very scanty. The prevailing rock 

 was dolomite; the mountains, conical in form 



and rising to the elevation of 5,000 feet, were 

 covered with immense glaciers. In latitude 

 ioy sighted a headland, to which thej 

 1 1 10 name Cape Vienna. Two tracts of 

 l.in I, \\ ilc/.ek-Land and Zichy-Land, are sep- 

 arated by a wide sound Austria Sound which 

 extends to the north from Cape Hansa to lati- 

 tude 82, where Rawlinson Sound forka off to 

 the northwest. The vegetation upon the new- 

 t'niitid territory was far poorer than that of 

 Greenland or Nova Zembla. The only plants 

 seen were solitary bunches of grass, a few 

 species of saxifrage and Silena acaxlis, except 

 moss, which grew in dense beds, and lichens, of 

 which the most frequent was the Umbilicaria 

 arctica. Many ice-bears were encountered by 

 a party which explored Rawlinson Sound. In 

 May, 1874, the ship had been raised up and 

 warped out of shape by ice-crushes, and was 

 no longer seaworthy ; and on the 20th of that 

 month the crew abandoned her. They were 

 ninety-six days making their way with boats 

 and sledges; and on the 24th of August, after 

 sailing nine days down the coast of Nova 

 Zembla, they were taken on board of a Russian 

 schooner, which landed them at Vardoe, in 

 the north of Norway. 



A second Austrian arctic exploring expedition, 

 it is said, will be started next summer. One- 

 half of the expedition, under command of Lieu- 

 tenant Payer, purpose advancing northward 

 by way of East Greenland, and the other half, 

 under Count Wilczek, by way of Siberia. The 

 object of the projected expedition is to ascer- 

 tain whether the newly-discovered Franz-Jo- 

 seph-Land be a continent or an island. 



The steamship Diana, belonging to the polar- 

 voyager Lamont, was sent out under Captain 

 Wiggins, for the double purpose of crossing 

 the Sea of Kara into the Gulf of Obi, with ref- 

 erence to a commercial route between England 

 and Central Asia, and of searching for the 

 Austro-Hungarian expedition, and bringing 

 them relief if needful. Weighing anchor the 

 4th of June, she passed through the Waigatch 

 Straits, through the Gulf of Mundely and into 

 the Gulf of Obi. From their surveys it appears 

 that White Island (Bieloi Ostrow) is located 

 about 60 geographical miles too far to the 

 westward upon the chart. They met the 

 Austrians upon their return at Hammerfest. 

 Captain Wiggins reports that the Carian Gulf 

 is free from ice up to the middle of October, 

 and he knows no reason why an annual steam- 

 ship connection should not take place between 

 England and the Gulf of Obi. The Diana 

 sailed farther to the eastward than any vessel 

 had before reached in the Siberian Polar Sea, 

 touching latitude 76 north, longitude 82 80' 

 east. They put in at Dundee harbor on their 

 return, September 25th. 



An English expedition into the arctio region 

 is now being fitted out for extended explora- 

 tions. Captain Nares, of the Challenger, has 

 been selected to command the fleet The chief 

 object of the cruise is to make collections of 



