64 



NATURE 



[Nov. 1 6, 1876 



the life of the apparently forlorn party from day to day, 

 with such clearness, and force, and sympathy that the 

 reader becomes familiar with the peculiarities of each 

 individual, and feels towards him in the end like an old 

 acquaintance. The ways and characteristics of the very 

 dogs, Jubinal and Sumbu and Pekel, and the rest, are 

 sketched in a manner that would dehght the heart of the 

 author of " Rab and his Friends." While the work only 

 pretends to be a general account of the expedition, it 

 contains much of scientific value. Most of the scientific 

 remits yet remain to be published, though from time to 

 time papers by Weyprecht, Hofer, and others appear in 

 Pttermann's Mittheilungen^ containing elaborate discus- 

 sions of the various scientific observations ; we published 

 some account also of the scientific results in three 

 articles in Nature, vol. xi. p. 366, et seq. Of Franz- 

 Josef Land itself the author, by drawings, descriptions, 

 and map, conveys a satisfactory idea. It is evidently 

 an archipelago of about the size of Spitzbergen, stretching 

 fi cm about 80° to at least 83° N. lat, but how far from 

 east to west is not ascertained. Running north and south, 

 on each side of Austria Sound, are two main stretches of 

 land, Wilczek and Zichy Lands, broken up, the latter 

 especially, by many deep fiords, and with many islands in 

 the channel between them. Payer got as far north as 

 Cape FJigely, in 82° 5' N., and from that saw land stretch- 

 ing northwards to 83°, Petermann Land, and another 

 coast-line far to the west, King Oscar Land. The land, 

 as might be expected, is a barren one, with mountains 

 2,000 to 5,000 feet high, and glaciers of such size, as 

 argues that the country must have very considerable 

 breadth. In many parts, and as far north as Payer went, 

 animal life, bears and seals, and thousands of Arctic birds 

 in great variety, abound ; during the whole time of the 

 expedition's sojourn fresh meat of some kind was seldom 

 lacking. At Cape Fligely open water was met with, but 

 it was only an extensive ice-hole or "polynia ; " the idea 

 of an "open Polar Sea" Lieut. Payer does not for one 

 moment entertain. Distinct recent traces of foxes and 

 even of hares were seen in some places, but no actual 

 specimens were met with. Under the summer-sun, Lieut. 

 Payer is of opinion, numerous streams will rush down the 

 mountain sides, and some of jthe valleys be clothed with 

 verdure. But for most of the year there is nothing 

 but barrenness and ice and snow ; the land is, of 

 course, uninhabitable, and no trace of human beings 

 was discovered. The islands are evidently volcanic, and 

 reminded Lieut. Payer geologically of the rocks of North- 

 east Greenland. Brown coal was found and coarse-grained 

 dolerite abounds. But for details as to the appearance, 

 the geology, the fauna, and flora, and other characteristics 

 of Franz-Josef Land, we must refer the reader to the work 

 itself. It would certainly be interesting to know more of 

 this discovery, and perhaps means may yet be found to 

 gratify a justifiable curiosity. The discovery of this group 

 of islands greatly favours the theory of those who maintain 

 that the Arctic basin is mainly an archipelago, and after 

 all, our own expedition has found nothing that seriously 

 weakens the theory. 



From a scientific point of view the first chapter is 

 probably one of the most important in the work. Lieut. 

 Payer has evidently made a thorough study of ice in all 

 its phases, both by means of direct observation (and both 

 in the Novaya Zemlya seas and on East Greenland he 

 has had ample opportunities for this) and. by extensive 

 reading of the works of previous explorers. In' this first 

 chapter are given the results of this investigation, the 

 characteristics of ice of all kinds — field-ice, pack-ice, 

 hummocks, icebergs, and other forms— in a more syste- 

 matic and thorough manner than we remember to have 

 seen before. Many popular delusions he demolishes, 

 and writes with an accuracy and fulness that must be satis- 

 factory to those who have had no opportunity of studying 

 ice-forms for themselves. Icebergs, he tells us, with long, 

 sharp-pointed peaks, like those exhibited in numerous 



illustrations, have no real existence. It is only fragments 

 of field-ice, raised up by pressure, exposed to the action 

 of waves and the process of evaporation, which are trans- 

 formed into fantastic shapes. Icebergs are of a pyramidal 

 or tabular shape, and in time they are usually rounded off 

 into irregular cones. Altogether this chapter on ice is 

 exceedingly instructive. The masses or thickness of floe- 

 ice depends, he shows, not on age alone, but on several 

 influences, pressure being one ; so that the enormously 

 thick ice met with by our own expedition does not need to 

 be regarded as a remnant of the last glacial epoch, but 

 due probably to unusual pressure, and the heaping of 

 one mass upon another. 



The year 1871, we have said, was in the Spitzbergen 

 seas ^a great contrast to 1872, while 1874 again was as 

 open as 1871. One of the most interesting, and in some 

 ways instructive passages in the work, is where Lieut. 

 Payer describes the fearful pressure to which the ship 

 was subjected as she drifted northwards. For months 

 these poor men had nightly to rush from their bunks on 

 to deck ready to abandon the ship, which they expected 

 to see every moment crushed to splinters. Payer's 

 descriptions of the appearance and the agonising noises 

 accompanying the ice-pressure are most impressive. The 

 ice was comparatively smooth when first the ship entered 

 it, but shortly the party were startled, when forced to rush 

 on deck by the dreadful sounds which awakened them, by 

 seeing the whole field crushed together, broken up, the 

 pieces piled on the top of each other and lying at all sorts 

 of angles, not unlike, indeed, the description given by 

 Capt. Nares of the " Palteocrystic ice.'^ Is not this, possi- 

 bly, one more proof that the sea to the north of Robeson 

 Channel was in an exceptional condition last spring ? That 

 we are almost entirely ignorant of the laws that regulate the 

 movements of the ice in these regions is evident ; no two 

 successive years are alike, and the condition of one 

 part cannot be inferred from that of another. In that 

 very June, 1872, when the Tegettho^ was beset so far 

 south on the No.vaya Zemyla side, the Polaris pushed 

 north with ease to 82° 16' by the Smith Sound route, 

 and could have gone further ; and this year, when 

 our own ships have had a life-and-death struggle 

 with pala^ocrystic ice, whalers have been cruising 

 and making easy discoveries between 81° and 82° N., 

 on the Spitzbergen side. If any satisfactory results are to 

 be obtained concerning these Arctic regions, is it not 

 evident that the only means to obtain them is by the 

 establishment of permanent stations all round 1 This is 

 the conclusion to which Lieut. Weyprecht, one of the 

 commanders of this expedition, has been driven. By the 

 by, we would irecommend Payer's description of the 

 results of ice-pressure to geologists who desire to have a 

 forcible illustration of the results of pressure in changing 

 the configuration of a surface. 



In these introductory chapters the author gives many 

 valuable directions as to the equipment and conduct of 

 Arctic expeditions, and, it may not be amiss to state, 

 expresses his complete approval of M'Clintock's method 

 of constructing and fitting sledges. We recently referred 

 to the suggestion of the use that might be made of 

 ballooning in Arctic exploration ; Lieut. Payer thinks that 

 valuable results might be obtained by means of a captive 

 balloon. As to the Gulf Stream, he gives little ground 

 for believing that it extends much beyond Spitzbergen ; 

 indeed he thinks that the wind was the main cause of the 

 drift of the ship ; though Baron von Wiillersdorf, who has 

 discussed some of the results of the expedition, thinks it 

 probable that there exists a sea-current in the seas 

 between Novaya Zemlya and Franz- Josef Land ; that at 

 any rate its existence cannot positively be denied, although 

 the prevailing winds may produce similar phenomena. 

 He also thinks there is a great probability that the ocean 

 stretches far to the north and east beyond the eastern end 

 of Novaya Zemlya. 



The crew of this expedition was a mixed one — German, 



