278 ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. 



Davis Strait, into Baffins Bay, and through Bering Strait. The infer- 

 ence must therefore be that the movements of the ice in which the 

 Tegetthoff was beset must have been influenced, and in no slight 

 degree, first of all by that warm current of water which I have already 

 alluded to as expending itself along the west coast of Spitzbergen, and 

 a portion of which must find its way into the Barents Sea; and, sec- 

 ondly, by the large volumes of water which are discharged from those 

 great Siberian rivers the Tenesei and the Ob. Unlike my friend Nan- 

 sen, I do not think that the influence of these large divers can be felt 

 at a greater distance than about three or four hundred miles from the ' 

 mainland. The theory of their flowing in a direct northerly line across 

 the pole is, I think, open to question, for it appears to me to be opposed 

 to all authenticated information that has hitherto been obtained, and 

 is antagonistic to our preconceived notions and ideas as to the extent 

 and direction of what is known as the north polar current. 



The discovery of the Austrians was of the greatest geographical 

 importance, and the value of it was materially enhanced by the plucky 

 sledging expedition that was carried out by Payer during the spring 

 of 1874. I say plucky, because when Payer left his ship for a contem- 

 plated absence of thirty days he was not at all sure that he would find 

 the Tegetthoff in the same position as when he left her. A gale of 

 wind, or the disruption of the ice during his absence, would very likely 

 occasion the drifting away of his ship, which would render his chances 

 of escape very small indeed. Fortunately, no such contretemps occur- 

 red, and he returned to the Tegetthoff rich in geographical and other 

 scientific information. During his journey he succeeded in ascending 

 Austria Sound, between Zichy and Wilczek lands, to the latitude of 

 82° 5' in Crown Prince Rudolf land, about 1G0 miles from the position 

 in which he had left his ship. From this position land, called Peter- 

 mann Land, after the celebrated geographer of Gotha, consisting of 

 high, conical- shaped hills, apparently of volcanic formation, was seen 

 to the northward, and estimated to be in about or beyond the eighty- 

 third parallel of latitude. 



Since the discovery of Franz Josef Land our knowledge of it has 

 been much increased by the results of the voyages of Mr. Leigh Smith 

 in his steam yacht the Eira. Without encountering very much oppo- 

 sition from the ice, he succeeded in sighting the land on August 14, 

 1880, on about the fifty fourth meridian of east longitude; that is to 

 say, some CO miles to the westward of Wilczek Island. Steaming to 

 the westward, exploring the coast carefully as he proceeded, Mr. Leigh 

 Smith passed the south point of land, and succeeded in crossing the 

 forty-fifth meridian of longitude, when he found the coast trend away 

 in a northwesterly direction, certainly as far as the eighty-first parallel 

 of latitude. His further progress was stopped in latitude 80° 19' by 

 ice, and he was compelled to abandon further research in that direc- 

 tion. During the voyage Mr. Leigh Smith discovered and explored at 



