288 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [parti 
April Nordenskiold and Palander started on a sledge 
journey with 14 men. Rounding Cape Platen on North- 
east Land, they struck inland, and marched across the 
snow-covered hills to Hinlopen Strait which they crossed, 
and so got back to Mossel Bay. They were away 60 
days. In the summer Leigh Smith arrived in the Diana 
and supplied the crews with fresh provisions. The Swedish 
expedition returned to Tromso on August 6th, 1873. 
One other Spitsbergen expedition must be mentioned. 
Lieut. Payer, who had been the moving spirit in the sledge 
journeys of Koldewey's expedition, was bent on continuing 
his Arctic explorations. He found a coadjutor in Lieut. 
Weyprecht of the Austrian Navy, an officer of very high 
scientific attainments. They hired a small vessel of 70 tons, 
the Isbjorn, at Tromso with the idea of following the Gulf 
Stream into an imaginary polar basin, by keeping to the 
eastward of Spitsbergen. Attempting to reach Gillis Land 
they found the fogs very frequent, preventing observations, 
and, on August 31st, 1871, they were in Lat. 78 0 41' N. 
Then sailing east they sighted Novaya Zemlya and re- 
turned to Tromso in October. 
Meanwhile the Norwegian sealers began to frequent 
Novaya Zemlya. Carlsen had reached the mouth of the 
Obi in 1869. In 1870 about sixty Norwegian sailing 
vessels went to the seas round Novaya Zemlya. Captain 
Johannesen circumnavigated these islands, and Captain 
Carlsen did the same in 1871. The information collected 
by the Norwegian fishermen induced Payer and Weyprecht 
to select this route for an expedition they had projected. 
