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NEW LANDS WITHIN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.
NEW LANDS WITHIN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.
NARRATIVE OF THE DISCOVERIES OF THE AUSTRIAN SHIP “TEGETTHOFF” IN THE YEARS 1872-1874. BY JULIUS PAYER, ONE OF THE COMMANDERS OF THE EXPEDITION. WITH MAPS AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR. Translated from the German, with the Author’s Approbation. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 549 AND 551 BROADWAY. 1877....
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AUTHOR’S PREFACE.
AUTHOR’S PREFACE.
In laying this book before the Public I desire, in the first instance, to acknowledge without reserve my sense of the great merits of my colleague, Lieutenant Weyprecht. The reader of the following pages will learn with what unwearied, though fruitless, energy he struggled to free the Tegetthoff from her icy prison, and what dauntless courage and unfailing command of resources he displayed in our hazardous retreat from the abandoned ship, till the moment of our happy rescue. The order and discip
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PRELIMINARY NOTICE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
PRELIMINARY NOTICE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
It will be interesting to English readers to learn a few particulars concerning the two leaders of the Austrian North Polar Expeditions. Carl Weyprecht was born in Hesse-Darmstadt in 1838, and in his eighteenth year entered the Austrian navy. Ten years afterwards he was present at the action between the Austrian and Italian fleets at Lissa—July 20, 1866; was promoted to the rank of lieutenant of the second class, and decorated with the order of the Iron Cross in recognition of his services in th
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CHAPTER I. THE FROZEN OCEAN.
CHAPTER I. THE FROZEN OCEAN.
1. The ice-sheet spread over the Arctic region is the effect and sign of the low temperature which prevails within it. During nine or ten months of the year this congealing force continues to act, and if the frozen mass were not broken up by the effects of sun and wind, of rain, waves, and currents, and by the rents produced in it from the sudden increase of cold, the result would necessarily be an absolutely impenetrable covering of ice. The parts of this enormous envelope of ice sundered by th
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CHAPTER II. NAVIGATION IN THE FROZEN OCEAN.
CHAPTER II. NAVIGATION IN THE FROZEN OCEAN.
1. Although it be impossible to give any one, who has not with his own eyes seen the Arctic Sea, a perfectly clear conception of its character, the phenomena described in the preceding chapter are sufficient to indicate the difficulties and dangers to which its navigation is necessarily exposed. And to these difficulties and dangers, formidable enough in themselves, are often added the evil influences of preconceived theories and exaggerated expectations, usually followed by bitter disillusions.
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CHAPTER III. THE PENETRATION OF THE REGIONS WITHIN THE POLAR CIRCLE; THE PERIOD OF THE NORTH-WEST AND NORTH-EAST PASSAGES.
CHAPTER III. THE PENETRATION OF THE REGIONS WITHIN THE POLAR CIRCLE; THE PERIOD OF THE NORTH-WEST AND NORTH-EAST PASSAGES.
1. Around the lonely apex of the Pole stand cairns of stone which serve to mark the points to which the restless spirit of human enterprise and discovery has penetrated. In its zenith wheels the sea-gull in its flight, and the harpoon-persecuted seal finds on its ice-floes an unapproachable asylum; but the Pole itself remains the goal which no human effort has yet reached. 2. As all knowledge is perfected slowly and gradually, so man’s knowledge of the earth and its configuration forms no except
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CHAPTER IV. THE INNER POLAR SEA.
CHAPTER IV. THE INNER POLAR SEA.
1. The Arctic Sea, in some of its features, forcibly impresses us with its resemblance to the glaciers of the Alps. In both cases, the ice presses from a region, colder and less favoured by climate, towards one warmer and more favoured. In the Alpine glaciers, the movement is from above downwards; in the Frozen Ocean, the movement is from a higher to a lower geographical latitude. In both cases, the tongues and spurs of the masses of ice formed by the configuration of the land or by currents of
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CHAPTER V. THE FUTURE OF THE POLAR QUESTION.
CHAPTER V. THE FUTURE OF THE POLAR QUESTION.
1. The eagerness of human nature for gain and material prosperity is so great, that we are wont to estimate the value of all undertakings by the standard of utility; and too often it is forgotten, that each generation is destined to fulfil the task of acquiring and collecting the knowledge which is to benefit only a later generation. If, then, the Polar question be valueless for our material interests, is it therefore valueless for science? and assuming that it is for the present worthless as fa
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CHAPTER VI. POLAR EQUIPMENTS.
CHAPTER VI. POLAR EQUIPMENTS.
1. Every Arctic expedition should be guided by the experience of its predecessors, both in its plan and its equipment; and hence we have often to deplore the negligence of almost all Polar navigators in failing to inform those who follow them of what they actually saw, of their modes of procedure, or of the mistakes which they committed. It will not, therefore, be labour thrown away, if we state our own experience and record our own observations for the guidance of others, in order to show, with
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THE PIONEER VOYAGE OF THE “ISBJÖRN.”
THE PIONEER VOYAGE OF THE “ISBJÖRN.”
1. The failure of the second German Arctic expedition directed the future efforts of Polar exploration to the seas of Novaya Zemlya. Although the geographical position and political relations of Austria prevented its Government from taking any active part in the great geographical problems and questions of our times, an interest in Polar discovery had been excited in her statesmen, which gradually ripened into a determination to send its flag, renowned for its military fame, to consecrate strugg
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CHAPTER I. FROM BREMERHAVEN TO TROMSOE.
CHAPTER I. FROM BREMERHAVEN TO TROMSOE.
1. He who seeks to penetrate the recesses of the Polar world chooses a path beset with toils and dangers. The explorer of that region has to devote every energy of mind and body to extort a slender fragment of knowledge from the silence and mystery of the realm of ice. He must be prepared to confront disappointments and disasters with inexhaustible patience, and pursue devotedly his object, even when he himself becomes the sport of accident. That object must not be the admiration of men, but the
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CHAPTER II. ON THE FROZEN OCEAN.
CHAPTER II. ON THE FROZEN OCEAN.
1. Unfavourable winds had hindered our progress for some days; we now encountered heavy seas. On July 23 a sudden fall of the temperature and dirty rainy weather told us that we were close to the ice, which we expected to find later and much more to the northward, and on the evening of July 25, lat. 74° 0′ 15″ N., we actually sighted it, the thermometer marking 32·5° F., and 34·5° F. in the sea. The northerly winds, which had prevailed for some time had broken up the ice, and it lay before us in
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CHAPTER III. DRIFTING IN THE NOVAYA ZEMLYA SEAS.
CHAPTER III. DRIFTING IN THE NOVAYA ZEMLYA SEAS.
1. At the end of August the temperature in the Frozen Ocean is generally at the freezing point of the Centigrade thermometer, but this year (1872) it was constantly six degrees below it. A cold bleak air enveloped us, there was abundance of snow, the sun showed himself rarely, and for some days he had sunk, at midnight, under the horizon. The ship and her rigging were stiff with ice, and everything indicated that for us winter had begun. As the masses of ice which inclosed us consisted only of s
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CHAPTER IV. THE “TEGETTHOFF” FAST BESET IN THE ICE.
CHAPTER IV. THE “TEGETTHOFF” FAST BESET IN THE ICE.
1. Autumn was passing away, the days were getting shorter, and in our immediate neighbourhood no movement in the ice was perceptible, save that we had drifted continuously towards the north-east; sometimes, though rarely, a fissure in the ice grew to the proportions of an “ice-hole,” only, however, to be quickly frozen over and present a surface for our skates. There lay the frozen sea, the picture of dull, hopeless monotony; shelter there was none. Our floe, though it seemed to combine the conv
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CHAPTER V. OUR FIRST WINTER (1872) IN THE ICE.
CHAPTER V. OUR FIRST WINTER (1872) IN THE ICE.
1. In the beginning of November we were already environed by a deep twilight; but our dreary waste had become of magical beauty; the rigging, white with frost, stood out, spectre-like, against the grey-blue of the heavens; the ice, broken into a thousand forms and overspread with a covering of snow, had now assumed the cold pure aspect of alabaster shaded with the tender hues of arragonite. Southward at noon we saw veils of frosty vapour rise into the carmine-coloured sky out of the fissures and
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CHAPTER VI. LIFE ON BOARD THE “TEGETTHOFF.”
CHAPTER VI. LIFE ON BOARD THE “TEGETTHOFF.”
1. Like a spectre in white, the ship stretches out her arms, as if in silent complaint, towards the heaven, and rests, in cruel mockery of her destiny, on a mountain, not of water, but of ice, and seems like a building ready to fall in. A wall of snow and ice surrounds her hull, snow lies thick on her deck, and her rigging is stiffened in icy lines. Could we see through her sides, we should then behold four-and-twenty men parted off in two spaces under the suns of two lamps. Let us inspect them,
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CHAPTER VII. ICE-PRESSURES.
CHAPTER VII. ICE-PRESSURES.
1. When compared with the tortures we endured from the thought that we were captives in the ice, little to us seemed the dangers which threatened our existence, though these assumed the appalling form of ice-pressures. Daily almost the ship had to sustain the attacks of our old enemy, and when the ice seemed to repose, threatening indications were not wanting to warn us how short that repose might be. My journal records a long series of commotions in the ice on almost every day of January 1873,
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CHAPTER VIII. THE WANE OF THE LONG POLAR NIGHT.
CHAPTER VIII. THE WANE OF THE LONG POLAR NIGHT.
1. Although the sun was mounting higher, there was no essential change in the gloom and darkness which surrounded us. In fact we were drifting during the whole of January towards the north, and were wintering nearer the Pole than any who had ever preceded us. [20] On gloomy days, noon was not distinguishable. We were now four hundred miles within the Frozen Ocean, and had been for five months the sport and play of winds and currents, and nothing indicated any change in our situation. Yet, in spi
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CHAPTER IX. THE RETURN OF LIGHT.—THE SPRING OF 1873.
CHAPTER IX. THE RETURN OF LIGHT.—THE SPRING OF 1873.
1. Though the sun did not return to our latitude (78° 15′, 71° 38′ E. long.) till the 19th of February, we were able to greet his beams three days previous to that date, owing to the strong refraction of 1° 40′, which accompanied a temperature of -35 (F.). To the Polar navigator the return of the sun is an event of indescribable joy and magnificence. In those dreadful wastes he feels the force of the superstitions of past ages, and becomes almost a worshipper of the eternal luminary. As of old t
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CHAPTER X. THE SUMMER OF 1873.
CHAPTER X. THE SUMMER OF 1873.
1. The time crept away with indescribable monotony. The crew performed their heavy labours, but of events there were none. The only change in our position was the constant decay of the buttresses and walls of ice, until the frozen sea lay like a snowy chaos before us. Pure sharp-edged ice was nowhere to be seen; the edges were no longer transparent; evaporation had transformed the surface into a kind of glacier-snow. June 1, we had the greatest degree of cold of the month, the thermometer markin
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CHAPTER XI. NEW LANDS.
CHAPTER XI. NEW LANDS.
1. We Spent the latter half of August in seal-hunting, for it was only by the use of fresh meat that we were able to contend with, if not prevent, cases of scurvy. Day after day lines of hunters lay in wait before the fissures at the edge of our floe, and in the evening our dogs generally had to drag in the sledges several seals to the ship. Many of these creatures which we wounded sank and disappeared. All these seals belonged to the class Phoca Grœnlandica. Walruses were never to be seen, and
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CHAPTER XII. THE AUTUMN OF 1873.—THE STRANGE LAND VISITED.
CHAPTER XII. THE AUTUMN OF 1873.—THE STRANGE LAND VISITED.
1. The autumn was unusually mild, though stormy and gloomy. The thermometer up to the 20th of September fell daily some degrees below zero (C.), and occasionally we had rain. At the end of the month the minimum temperature ranged from 14° to 5° F., and the mean temperature of the month was as low as 24·5° F. The mildness of the season was, perhaps, connected with the unusual recession of the ice-barrier in the south; though it might have been a consequence of the open water which had been formed
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CHAPTER XIII. OUR SECOND WINTER IN THE ICE.
CHAPTER XIII. OUR SECOND WINTER IN THE ICE.
1. The Land had meantime been thickly enveloped in its pure white mantle, and wreaths of snow-drifts lay over the rocks scattered over its surface. The light became fainter. Sometimes the precipitous faces of the glaciers seemed to glow in subdued rose-colour through the leaden grey of the atmosphere. When new “ice-holes” appeared, a frosty vapour rose and spread over the surface of the ice; the ship and surrounding objects were covered as if with down; even the dogs were frosted white. We used
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CHAPTER XIV. SUNRISE OF 1874.
CHAPTER XIV. SUNRISE OF 1874.
1. An unbroken sleep for the whole winter would, undoubtedly, be a blessing to the Arctic navigator, and the most energetic among us resigned himself to slumber for a few hours in the afternoon—the profane time of the day for all zones of the earth—especially after the coming in of the New Year, when the long unbroken night is intensely felt. The darkness diminished very gradually, and as the weather was frequently cloudy and dull, it was little lessened by the full moon, which we had at the beg
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CHAPTER XV. THE AURORA.
CHAPTER XV. THE AURORA.
1. The Northern lights had shone for these two winters with incomparable splendour, not, indeed, with the quiet diverging beams, sometimes observed in our northern latitudes, and different also from the phenomena which have been seen and noted in recent years, even in Central Europe; they resembled rather those we saw in East Greenland, save that the brilliancy and intensity of their colours were far greater. 2. It is very difficult to characterize the forms of this phenomenon, not only because
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CHAPTER I. THE EXPLORATION OF KAISER FRANZ-JOSEF LAND RESOLVED ON.
CHAPTER I. THE EXPLORATION OF KAISER FRANZ-JOSEF LAND RESOLVED ON.
1. The necessity of returning home admitted of no question; but the exploration of the Land of which we had seen hardly anything, beyond the cliffs that lay in our immediate neighbourhood, was also felt to be a necessity. That land, which we were all predisposed to imagine as stretching far beyond this wall of rocks,—of what did it consist? Was it an island or a group of islands? And those white masses lying on these lofty ranges, were they glaciers? To these questions no one as yet could give a
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CHAPTER II. OF SLEDGE TRAVELLING IN GENERAL.
CHAPTER II. OF SLEDGE TRAVELLING IN GENERAL.
1. The sledge is pre-eminently the means of geographical exploration in high latitudes, and as discovery now forms the main purpose of Polar expeditions, it may be important to describe clearly and precisely the system we followed, that others may either adopt or improve on our methods. Thus I will enter into many details, not in order to dwell on the inconveniences incident to this mode of travelling, but to show how the greatest amount of safety and protection may be secured to the sledge-part
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CHAPTER III. THE EQUIPMENT OF A SLEDGE EXPEDITION.
CHAPTER III. THE EQUIPMENT OF A SLEDGE EXPEDITION.
1. The equipment of a sledge expedition on a large scale demands an amount of circumspection and precision which experience alone can give, and its safety and success may be endangered by the neglect of apparently trifling precautions. At a distance from the ship the most formidable dangers may arise, from allowing the matches to become damp, from the leaking or the loss of a vessel containing spirit, from the setting fire to a tent, which only too probably may happen from the carelessness of th
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CHAPTER IV. THE FIRST SLEDGE JOURNEY
CHAPTER IV. THE FIRST SLEDGE JOURNEY
1. From the preceding remarks on the equipment of a sledge, the reader will, perhaps, have gained a pretty clear notion of the procedure by which we are enabled to travel for weeks in Arctic wastes. This description will have shown him the various and manifold contingencies against which a leader has to provide, if he is to conduct an expedition safely and successfully, especially if he commands a body of men, who are neither so careful nor so observant as those who accompanied me in the sledge
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CHAPTER V. THE COLD.
CHAPTER V. THE COLD.
1. THE coldest day we had during this expedition was the 14th of March. By six o’clock on the morning of that day the Tyrolese and I stood on the summit of the precipitous face of the Sonklar-Glacier. The others remained behind to clear the tent of snow, and to bury a small depôt of provisions in an iceberg which was close at hand. The sun had not yet risen, though a golden gleam behind the glaciers of Salm Island indicated his near approach. At last the sun himself appeared, blood-red, glowing
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CHAPTER VI. A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF KAISER FRANZ-JOSEF LAND.
CHAPTER VI. A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF KAISER FRANZ-JOSEF LAND.
In now presenting a general view of those parts of Kaiser Franz-Josef Land which were explored by us, I must be allowed to anticipate the order of my narrative which describes the subsequent sledge expeditions, by which our knowledge of the discovered country was so considerably enlarged. 1. The country, even in its already ascertained extent, is almost as large as Spitzbergen, and consists of two main masses—Wilczek Land on the east, and Zichy Land on the west, between which runs a broad sound
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CHAPTER VII. THE SECOND SLEDGE EXPEDITION.—AUSTRIA SOUND.
CHAPTER VII. THE SECOND SLEDGE EXPEDITION.—AUSTRIA SOUND.
1. The first sledge journey enabled me to draw up a plan for a more extended expedition towards the north. It was not only a cherished scheme of my own, but it became also the dominating interest on board the Tegetthoff , although the other scientific investigations were carried on uninterruptedly. Weyprecht and Brosch continued with admirable perseverance the laborious observation of the Magnetic Constants, and measured on the ice close to the ship a base of 2170·8 metres, which served for all
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CHAPTER VIII. IN THE EXTREME NORTH.
CHAPTER VIII. IN THE EXTREME NORTH.
1. Immediately after reaching Cape Schrötter, the east end of Hohenlohe Island, we ascended the summit of this Dolerite rock, which was quite free from snow, and covered with a sparse vegetation. We were surprised to find here the excrement of a hare. The prospect which lay before us convinced us of the necessity of our proposed temporary separation. The mountains of Crown-Prince Rudolf’s Land, separated from us by an arm of the sea covered with level ice, were so high (about 3,000 feet) that we
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CHAPTER IX. THE RETURN TO THE SHIP.
CHAPTER IX. THE RETURN TO THE SHIP.
1. This done, our thoughts now turned to the ship, between which and ourselves lay 160 miles. But, the Tegetthoff —did she lie still where we had left her, or had she drifted away? Fastened together by a rope, we began our return by re-crossing the glaciers, and on reaching the stores we had deposited at Cape Germania, the first thing we did was to prepare some water, for the beverage we had taken with us in an india-rubber bottle, made of coffee, rum, and extract of meat, had only aggravated th
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CHAPTER X. THE THIRD SLEDGE JOURNEY.
CHAPTER X. THE THIRD SLEDGE JOURNEY.
1. The weather during the last days of April was truly delightful; calms and bright sunshine made work and exercise in the open air exceedingly pleasant, and the temperature never fell below -2° F. But even this amount of cold was sufficient to retard the softening of the snow for some days, and favoured the carrying out of a third sledge expedition. Its intention was the exploration of the western portions of Franz-Josef Land; for the question of its extension towards Spitzbergen was scarcely l
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CHAPTER I. LAST DAYS ON THE “TEGETTHOFF.”
CHAPTER I. LAST DAYS ON THE “TEGETTHOFF.”
1. We could now return with honour. The observations and discoveries we had made could not be wrested from us, and our many anxieties on this ground were at an end, henceforth the greatest evil that could befall us was death on our homeward voyage. The intervening days were given up to the recruiting of our exhausted powers; Klotz called this time the “plundering of the ship.” Not very much time, indeed, was left for this, but the short spell of good living, in which we all shared, transformed t
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CHAPTER II. ON THE FROZEN SEA.
CHAPTER II. ON THE FROZEN SEA.
1. The momentous day came at last—the 20th of May, the very day in 1855 on which Kane abandoned his ship; [53] and we hailed with joy the advent of the hour which was to terminate our life of inaction. Yet we could not see without emotion the flags nailed to the masts of the Tegetthoff , and the final preparations to leave the ship, which had been our home for two weary years, and in which we had confronted the perils of the frozen sea, its ice-pressures, its storms, and its cold. These recollec
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CHAPTER III. ON THE OPEN SEA.
CHAPTER III. ON THE OPEN SEA.
1. There lay the open Ocean before us; never were its sparkling waves beheld with more sincere joy, than by the small band of men, who, escaping from the prison house of the ice after fearful struggles, now raised their arms on high to greet its glad waters. The 15th of August was the day of our liberation—the festival of the Assumption of the Virgin—and our boats were dressed with flags in its commemoration. But it was no time for the rest and recreation of a Holy Day: graver duties pressed upo
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I. METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.
I. METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.
The meteorological observations were always taken by the officers of the watch, by Lieutenant Brosch, Midshipman Orel, the boatswain Lusina, and Captain Carlsen. Krisch, our engineer, who shared in this labour during the first winter was exempted from it in the second year, owing to his failing health. Readings of the thermometers were taken every two hours; observations to ascertain the moisture of the air were made by the psychrometer during the summer months; the direction and force of the wi
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