AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EXPEDITION (1874) 117 



Land was now followed. When Cape Brorok was reached, 

 the latitude was found to be 81° 45'. Payer here writes : 

 " To the north-west we saw at first nothing but ice up to 

 the horizon ; even with the telescope of the theodolite I 

 could not decide for the existence of land, which Orel's 

 sharp eye discovered in the far distance." Payer also 

 remarks that, in the Arctic regions, it often happens that 

 banks of fog on the horizon assume the character of 

 distant ranges, for the small height to which these banks 

 rise in the cold air causes them to be very sharply defined. 

 It is also very common, he says, to make the same mis- 

 take in the case of mists arising from the waste water of 

 enormous glaciers. 



When Cape Auk was reached, a dark water-sky 

 appeared in the north, and great numbers of birds were 

 seen. Seals lay on the ice, and traces of bears and foxes 

 were numerous. Had Payer been inclined to believe, like 

 Hayes, in the existence of an open Polar Sea, these signs 

 of a richer animal-life would have gone far to support the 

 belief. Payer, however, called this belief an "antiquated 

 hypothesis. 1 '' 



The ice was now so thin that they thought it expedient 

 to tie themselves together with a long rope. Ascending 

 an iceberg in Teplitz Bay, the open sea was seen stretch- 

 ing far to the west ; and at Cape Saulen the open water 

 reached the coast. Here Payer ascended a height to 

 reconnoitre the track for next day. Land was no longer 

 visible towards the north. The 12th April was the last 

 day of advance in a northerly direction. The march lay 

 over snowy slopes to the summits of the coast-range, 

 from 1000 to 3000 feet high. At noon the latitude was 

 taken at Cape Germania, and found to be 81° 57'. They 

 reached Cape Fligely in five hours, and here decided to 

 turn back. Payer estimated the latitude of this point 

 to be 82° 5'. Rudolfs Land still stretched in a north- 



