ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. 281 



in the cases of the Investigator and the Tegetthofi, be irrevocably 

 frozen in the ice, she is, at any rate, replete with everything that will 

 add to comfort, and that will conduce to a successful retreat when the 

 time comes to abandon her. The very knowledge of having a ship as 

 the base of operations imparts a moral courage and feeling of confi- 

 dence and contentment to the men that it is desirable to foster. 



From what I have said, I do not wish it to be inferred that sledge 

 traveling along the shores of Franz Josef Laud will be found to be a 

 very easy task. On the contrary, I think it will abound with difficul- 

 ties, and although I consider that the traveling during the early spring 

 will not prove more arduous or more difficult than has been experienced 

 along other Arctic shores, I can not but help thinking that extra cau- 

 tion will have to be observed in order to insure the safe return of the 

 traveling parties in the summer. Payer tells us that the land in 

 the direction in which he traveled was intersected by deep fiords, and 

 that he passed numerous glaciers with terminal faces of 100 feet in 

 precipitous height from the sea. It is the passing of these glaciers, 

 and the entrances of these fiords, that I fear will be extremely hazard- 

 ous, eveu if it is not found absolutely impossible in the summer, unless 

 a long detour into the interior is made, so as to cross at the head of the 

 glacier or fiord. For if the land ice — i. e., the young ice of the previ- 

 ous winter's formation adhering to the coast — has broken up (and it 

 would probably be so by the breaking away of large fragments of ice 

 from the terminal face of the glaciers, or the flowing out of the ice from 

 the fiords) a sledging party, unless provided with a boat, would find 

 its retreat cut off by water, and in order to return to their base of 

 operations they would be under the necessity of extending their jour- 

 ney a considerable distance, and this, perhaps, with their provisions 

 nearly expended, and their own strength materially diminished by the 

 arduous work they had already gone through. I merely mention 

 this as what may possibly be the experience of any party engaged in 

 the exploration of Franz Josef Land. 



The next important question to be decided is the exact route that 

 should be adopted by the explorers. Should they turn all their energies 

 to the west coast, or, following in the footsteps of Payer, should they 

 attempt to push up Austria Sound ? I unhesitatingly record my opinion 

 in favor of the first-named course, and for the following reasons: The 

 western shores of all Arctic lands of which we have any knowledge are 

 always more accessible in a ship, and to a very much higher latitude, 

 than the eastern coasts. Vessels have penetrated to the eighty-second 

 parallel of latitude along the west coast of Greenland, but navigation 

 along the east coast of Greenland has invariably been impeded by the 

 accumulation of heavy ice 500 miles to the south of the position reached 

 on the west side. The same may be said of Spitzbergen and of IsTovaya 

 Zemlya, and I see no reason why it should not hold good for Franz 

 Josef Land. Indeed, Mr. Leigh Smith has already demonstrated the 



