THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EXPEDITION. 271 



than 220 tons named the Tegethoff, was employed, and among its officers was Captain 

 Carlsen, who it will be remembered, had circumnavigated Spitzbergen some time before, and 

 was the discoverer of the Barents relics ; he served in the capacity of ice-master. The crew, 

 all told, only numbered twenty-four men. The expedition sailed from Bremerhaven on 

 June 13th, 1872, provisioned for three years, and was soon among the ice of the north-east. 

 Early in August the vessel became beset in such a manner that progress was next to 

 impossible. "Subsequently," says Lieutenant Payer, "we regained our liberty, and in 

 latitude 75 N. we reached the open water extending along the coast of Novaya Zemlya. 

 The decrease in temperature and quantity of ice showed, indeed, that the summer of 1872 

 was the very opposite of that of the year before." The vessels kept company as far as the 

 low Barents Islands, where the " thick-ribbed ice/' agitated and driven on the coast by winds 

 and gales, stopped their progress for a week. On the 21st of August the Tegethoff got clear, 

 and left her consort, the former steaming slowly towards the north. " Our hopes," says 

 Payer, " were vain. Night found us encompassed on all sides by ice, and (as it eventually 

 proved) for two long and dreary years ! Cheerless and barren of all hope the first year lay 

 before us, and we were not any longer discoverers, but doomed to remain as helpless voyagers 

 on a floe of drifting ice. This is, so far as is known, the longest period for which a 

 vessel has been ice-encompassed, and the reader will require no assistance to picture 

 the apparently hopeless condition in which they found themselves, with but little prospect 

 of accomplishing anything approaching exploration. With the autumn of 1872 came 

 unusually severe weather, which caused the ice-blocks to re-freeze as soon as they were 

 sawn asunder, and they were utterly unable to extricate the vessel, although every effort 

 was made. On October 13th the ice broke up, and the collisions of and with enormous 

 masses placed them in great danger. They were quite ignorant of their position and 

 where they were drifting. In the sombre darkness of the long Arctic night they had 

 to keep the boats and stores in readiness, as they might have to abandon the vessel 

 at any moment. The floes were constantly uplifted by other ice underneath, but the little 

 Teyethoff proved herself staunch and true. Eventually a rampart of ice was erected about 

 the little vessel, which had to be continually watched and repaired, on account of the 

 damage received from the pressure of surrounding ice. Amidst all these dangers the 

 routine of the ship was admirably kept up. Divine service was observed, and a school 

 established for the crew. The men suffered severely from scurvy and pulmonary complaints 

 during the winter. 



In the autumn of 1873 an important discovery was made. "We had," says Payer, 

 "long ago drifted into a portion of the Arctic sea which had not previously been visited; 

 but in spite of a careful look-out we had not been able hitherto to discover land. It was,, 

 therefore, an event of no small importance, when, on the 31st of August, we were surprised 

 by the sudden appearance of a mountainous country, about fourteen miles to the north, 

 which the mist had up till that time concealed from our view." They had no opportunity 

 of reaching it until the end of October, when a landing was effected in lat. 79 54' N., on 

 an island, lying off the mainland, to which they affixed the name of Count Wilczek, to 

 whom the expedition had in great measure owed its existence. Their second Polar night 

 of 125 days prevented any further exploration, but was passed without a recurrence of 



