Nov. 1 6, 1876] 



NATURE 



63 



Isbjbrn, who had thoughtfully followed to establish a 

 depot for the exploring ship in the north of Novcaya 

 Zemlya. The two ships parted company on August 20, 

 and a few hours after the Teoctthoff' was beset by the ice 

 in lat. 76° 22' N., long. 63° 3' E., and she never afterwards 

 got out. Completely at the mercy of the moving ice- 

 field, the ship drifted slowly in a general north-east direc- 

 tion durin;,' the winter, till somewhat north of 79° she 

 turned westward in the middle of February, 1873. Though 

 generally westward, the course was somewhat erratic. 

 During the spring and summer of 1873, every effort was 

 of course made to free the ship from her helpless position, 

 in which appaicntly nothing could be done to carry out 

 the object of the expedition. To be imprisoned thus for 

 another winter appeared utterly intolerable, but all the 

 efforts made failed, and by August everyone felt resigned 



to the inevitable. In August the ship took a turn towards 

 the north, and on the 30th of that month the whole aspect 

 of things suddenly brightened for the ice-bound explorers 

 by the unmistakable sight of new lands. When in 

 79° 43' N. and 59'' 33' E., new life was awakened in every 

 breast by the sight of the mountains and glaciers of what 

 is now known as Kaiser Franz-Josef's Land. Thus, then, 

 when hope was lowest, the expedition drifted into success. 

 ,It was too late that season to explore the new-found land, 

 and it can easily be imagined how impatient all were for 

 the advent of spring, to enable them to commence to 

 gather the fruits of their lucky find. Lieut. Payer strongly 

 advocates autumn as the best season for sledging, but as 

 they could not run the risk of another winter in the ice, 

 the sledge journeys were commenced early in March, 

 and by the beginning of May Lieut, Payer had made 



The Aurora during the Ice Pressure. 



three separate expeditions into Franz-Josef Lan^l. In 

 the first expedition, a .short one, he explored Wilczek 

 Island, the most southerly, and the south part of Hall 

 Island. In the second journey he went right northwards, 

 160 miles, as far as he could go with sledges, to Cape 

 Fligely, 82° 5', making several subsidiary trips right and 

 left of Austria Sound, on which he travelled, and which 

 separates the two main divisions of Franz-Josef Land 

 into Wilczek Land and Zichy Land. Finally a third 

 short expedition was made to the north-west to M'Clin- 

 tock Island, and on May 20, 1874, all necessary prepara- 

 tions having been made, the good ship TegettJioff was 

 abandoned. No other course was open to the com- 

 manders, if they did not want to run the risk of perishing 

 along with their greatly enfeebled crew. By sledging 

 and boating, a painful, wearisome, and slow progress 

 SQuthward5 was i^ade, sq slow that in two months they 



were only nine miles from the ship, with a rapidly dimi- 

 nishing stock of provisions, though tobacco and water 

 seem to have been the greatest wants ; Payer says you 

 could not have then done a man a greater favour than ask 

 him to a pipe and a glass of water. Fortunately the open 

 water was met vvith in about 78" N,, and with little diffi- 

 culty the wearied party rowed and sailed southwards 

 along the west coast of Novaya Zemly4, until finally 

 rescued, on August 24, by a Russian fishing-vessel at 

 Cape Britwin. On September 3, all except poor Krisch, 

 the engineer, who died of consumption and was buried 

 on Wilczek Island, reached Vaiclo, not much the worse 

 of their extraordinary experiences. 



This bald outline of the course of the expedition can 

 give one no idea of the intense interest which the detailed 

 narrative assumes in the pages of Lieut. Payer. With 

 the hand of a true artist, with pen and pencil, he sketchesi 



