Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/676

 656 POLAR SEAS unable to carry out the original plan of estab- lishing winter quarters on Parry island, further N., the expedition established itself at Mussel bay, lat. 79 50' N. It had been intended that the Gladan and Onkel Adam should return at once to Sweden, leaving but 21 men in. all for the winter ; but before they could make their escape all three vessels were shut in the ice, and 67 men found themselves left with provi- sions and other necessaries for only 21. An- other misfortune followed. Their reindeer, brought to draw the sledges northward, es- caped from their keepers, and thus the objects of the expedition were rendered impossible. After successfully withstanding the severity of the winter, by dint of great care and prudence in the use of their provisions, the explorers found themselves compelled to abandon their project, and returned in the summer of 1873. Payer and Weyprecht, the very successful Austrian arctic explorers (see AEOTIO DISCOV- ERY, vol. i., p. 680), after returning from their journey of 1871, had undertaken, with the aid of liberal subscriptions and appropriations, to make a further exploration. According to their instructions they were simply to visit the seas N. of Siberia, and thoroughly explore them. As it turned out, they were led to widely dif- ferent results. A vessel, the Tegetthoff, was built especially for the expedition, and fitted with every appliance which experience could suggest. The final arrangements were made at Tromso, and the expedition sailed thence on July 14, 1872. Count Wilczek, an influen- tial Austrian, one of the chief supporters of the plan, in the yacht Isbjorn, started a little earlier toward Spitzbergen to establish a pro- vision depot; and after reaching that island and going to Nova Zembla, he joined the Te- getthoff, which had pursued a more direct course, on Aug. 12. On the 21st, however, the Isbjorn took leave of her more important companion, and returned to the south. For more than a year nothing was heard of the Te- getthoff, and great anxiety prevailed through- out Europe as to her fate. Directions were given to northward-bound whalers to search for her ; and a relief expedition had been pro- posed in Russia, when suddenly, on Sept. 3, 1874, the party of the Tegetthoff were brought safely into Wardo, Norway, by the Russian schooner Nikolai. On the very day of her parting from the Isbjorn the Tegetthoff had been caught in the ice (only temporarily, as her crew then supposed) N. W. of Cape Nas- sau, in lat. 76 30' N. Every effort to set her free proved vain. The ice closed round her in a solid mass, which no storms sufficed to break up, and the pressure forced her up upon the floe and nearly destroyed her hull. This continued during the whole winter, and the position of the ship varied as the winds and currents moved the ice field; but the direc- tion of this was generally northward, and into regions which the expedition might not have reached by other means. On Aug. 31, 1873, they saw high land to the northward, and their observations soon revealed to them an island or continent hitherto unknown. Late in October they landed upon it in lat. 79 54' N., between Ion. 55 and 60 E., at a point which they called Wilczek island. The whole body was named Francis Joseph Land, after the Austrian emperor, and in the arc- tic night which succeeded they explored it for some distance inland. On the reappear- ance of daylight, Feb. 24, 1874, Payer under- took three sledge journeys, in the second of which he reached a little beyond the 82d par- allel of latitude. The new region, so far as explored, consisted of a wild and mountainous country, with peaks more than 2,500 ft. high, several of which Payer ascended, and with enormous and picturesque glaciers, the whole nearly surrounding an extensive sound (Aus- tria sound), dotted with islands. The E. coast of this was named Wilczek Land, the W. coast Zichy Land, and the region at the head of the sound Crown Prince Rudolph Land. The fur- thest point attained by him, lat. 82 5' N., Payer called Cape Fligely ; he reached it on April 12, and saw from it another sound still further N., and other mountains about it. A far-off promontory of this mountainous shore, which was plainly visible, was named Cape Vienna, and the furthest land to be seen was called, in gratitude to the great German ge- ographer, Petermann Land. The third sledge journey was toward the west, and during it Payer saw the highest peak discovered, Mt. Richthofen, about 5,000 ft. high. After the return from this journey, the party abandoned the Tegetthoff and journeyed to the south for 96 days by sledges and boats, over the ice and water. On Aug. 18, 1874, after much suffer- ing, they sighted the Admiralty peninsula of Nova Zembla, and six days later discovered the Russian schooner Nikolai, by which they were at once taken up and carried to Wardo. From this point to Vienna they were every- where greeted with great rejoicings. This expedition is the most important of those un- dertaken in the last decade. Its results had a great effect upon the discussion of the prob- lem of reaching the pole, and upon the ques- tion of an open polar sea, and everywhere directed the attention of scientific men and governments again to arctic discovery. Short- ly after Payer and Weyprecht's return, a new expedition was resolved upon by the British government. Two ships were placed in the dockyards to be fitted up for the explorers, and Capt. Nares of the British navy, who commanded the scientific cruise of the Chal- lenger, was assigned to their command. The Alert and the Discovery (formerly the Blood- hound) were the vessels selected, and the ex- pedition sailed on May 29, 1875. The fol- lowing brief abstract of the instructions has been published : The Alert and the Discovery are to push up Smith sound as far as practi- cable during the coming season. The Discov-