SUMMER SPORT IN NOVA ZEMLA. 67 



and is not to be trusted. This of course means that 

 the surveyors were here deterred from completing 

 their work by ice and weather ; and the remark ap- 

 plies equally to the east coast, which may be said to 

 be ice-bound throughout the year, subject to occa- 

 sional open states in favourable seasons. Cape Nas- 

 sau, the point between Admiralty Peninsula and 

 Cape Mauritius the north point, has traditionally 

 acquired an evil reputation amongst the walrus- 

 hunters, as being a sort of bewitched headland, to 

 round which means to say farewell to the world ; for 

 it was believed that vessels were mysteriously drifted 

 thence into the Arctic Ocean, beset by the ice, and 

 never heard of again. That there is some foundation 

 for this tradition, is proved by the fate of the Aus- 

 trian Polar expedition of Weyprecht and Payer in 

 the steamer Tegethoff, which was beset near this cape 

 in the autumn of 1872 and never got free again, 

 being drifted about the Arctic Ocean for two years, 

 during which the expedition involuntarily discovered 

 Franz-Josef Land, and only at last got free by abandon- 

 ing their ship, and undertaking a most perilous and 

 laborious journey over the ice with their boats, which 

 lasted three months, when they had the good fortune 

 to reach the shores of Nova Zemla, and to encounter 

 a Russian schooner which was just leaving for home. 

 The Russian survey, then, gives us a very fair 

 idea of the size and shape of the country. Lying 

 between the parallels of 77 35' K and 70 40' JST., 



