598 PAYER ON FRANZ-JOSEPH LAND. 



" We frequently encountered Ice-Bears while in the 



Rawlinson Sound [much further to the north]. They came 

 towards us whenever they caught sight of us, and fell an easy 

 prey to our rifles." (p. 29.) 



In Rudolph Land an increase of temperature was noticed (as in 

 Smith Sound by the Americans), and he says (p. 30), " We had 

 previously noticed the flight of Birds from the north, here we 

 found the rocks covered with thousands of Auks and Divers. 

 They rose before us in immense swarms, and filled the air with 

 the noise of their vehement whirring, for breeding-time had 

 arrived. Traces of Bears, Hares, and Foxes were met with 

 everywhere, and Seals reposed sluggishly upon the ice 



" We rounded Auk Cape, which resembled a gigantic aviary, 

 and reached the two lonely rocky towers of the Cape of Column^. 

 Here we first found open water extending along the coast."* 



(2.) — On the Newly Discovered Franz-Joseph Land. 

 By Lieut. Julius Payer. 



[From the Proceedings of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 

 Vienna, 17 December 1874.] 



(Communicated by Count A. G. von Marschall, F.C.G.S., &c.) 



This land has been surveyed by means of eleven determinations 

 of latitude, the compass, and by geodetic operations as far as pos- 



sible under the existing cu'cumstances. 



* " It is, perhaps, not premature to hazard the conclusion that in this new land 

 (Franz-Joseph Land), we have the eastern continuation of the abrupt and 

 mountainous coast of East Greenland, which, as geographers of Petermann's 

 school are of opinion, trends away to the north-east, slightly beyond Parry's 

 furthest point of Spitzbergen. The scarcity of animal life at first sight 

 appears important. Around the shores of Smith Sound, Hayes tells us, the 

 whole region teems with animal life, and one good hunter would feed twenty 

 mouths ; the sea abounds in Walrus, Seal, Narwhal and White Whale ; the 

 land in Reindeer, Foxes, Eider-duck, Wild Geese, Snipe, and Gulls of various 

 description, and the ice is the roaming-ground of Bears. Again, to the north 

 in Thank-God Bay, Hall's party found the plain free from snow,-a creeping 

 herbage covering the ground, on which numerous herds of iMusk-oxen found 

 pasture, while Rabbits and Lemmings abounded. The wild flowers were 

 brilliant, and large flocks of Uirds came northward. Francis-Joseph Land 

 would, on the other hand, appear to be less favoured as regards climate. 

 This may be attributed to the presence of colder currents than are met with 

 in Smith Sound. But it is not too much to assume that animal life may 

 have existed there though not seen. Admiral Osborn, that staunch advocate 

 of Arctic research, points out that in the Parry Group there is scarcely a 

 single island where properly organised hunting parties could not have largely 

 added to the resources of the English who wintered there. No limit has as 

 yet been discovered to the existence of animal life within the Arctic Circle, 

 and it is most improbable that the failure to discover it immediately in this 

 new region has more than a passing significance." — Academy, Sept. 12, 1874., 



