Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/344

330 this winter harbor was, at the mercy of the elements! The ice was in constant movement until the spring of the following year. At the end of March, 1878, the pressure came to an end, but the Tegethoff was incrusted in the midst of a plain of ice several leagues in circuit. For five months, from April to September, the crew worked in vain to restore the ship to its normal condition; the ice-plain in which it was incorporated was pushed by the winds in every direction, and at last ascended to 79° 54' north latitude. The rôle of science then unexpectedly commenced; a consoling light for the mind and will of the explorers burst forth even from the bosom of blind fatality. On the 31st of August, 1873, after more than a year of terror and endurance, the ice-bound captives saw a mass of elevated coast, sparkling with glaciers, emerging from the fog, at a distance of about fourteen miles. They immediately gave to this apparition the name of Emperor Francis Joseph's Land. But it was not till the end of October that they were able to land on shores so miraculously discovered; even then, on account of the advanced season, they found it impossible to take possession; for they were soon to enter for the second time into the sinister polar night that continues three and four months. They took advantage of the last days that were illuminated with an expiring twilight to make little preliminary excursions some leagues from the ship, and this was all they could accomplish. They were then obliged to wait patiently for the next dawn of day, that is, until the spring of 1874.

This winter was more tempestuous than the preceding, and the persistent north winds brought interminable snow-storms; the thermometer fell to 48° (Centigrade) below zero. At last, on the 24th of February, the sun having reappeared above the horizon, they hastened to improve the spring weather. Lieutenant Payer prepared three expeditions with sledges drawn by dogs to reconnoitre the nature and configuration of the neighboring land. In the first excursion, from the 10th to the 16th of March, he visited the nearest island, where he found a most picturesque fiord with an enormous glacier in the background; there were summits 2,500 feet high. The second journey was much more important; discoveries succeeded each other as if by enchantment. Mr. Payer penetrated into a sound or strait—Austria Sound—extending from south to north, and completely covered with small islands. This strait was prolonged as far as the latitude of 82° between two continuous masses of land. The eastern side was called Wilczek Land, the other Zichy Land. In going out of this pass, the explorer encountered a vast basin, from which emerged another land, named Prince Rudolph's Land. The extreme point attained by Payer and his companions was called Cape Fligely; it is situated nearly at the same distance from the pole as that reached by another route, in 1871, by the captain of the Polaris. There it was necessary to stop, on account of the crevasses and ruptures produced at this season in the