22. At length on the 3rd of September—the 812th day from the day we sailed from Bremerhaven—we sighted the little seaport of Vardö. Forthwith the Austrian flag was displayed at the foretop of the Nikolai, while each of us, clad in his fur-coat, stood with beating hearts on deck ready to land. Soon she ran into the little harbour, and about three o’clock in the afternoon of that same day we put our feet on Norwegian soil with the glad thought that our dangers and our toils were over at last. While Weyprecht attended to our money affairs, I hastened, amid the wondering looks of the inhabitants, to the telegraph station to despatch the news of our happy rescue and safe arrival, and as each message sped on its way, our hearts glowed with joy as we thought that in a few minutes friends and countrymen would learn the good tidings and share in our joy.
23. On the 5th the mail steamer from Vardö to Hamburg took us on board, and stopping at Tromsö, we put ashore, with many adieus, our friend and companion Captain Carlsen. He had been one of those who believed that we should return home by Behring Straits; but here he landed, a touching instance of the vanity of human hopes. Apart from his linguistic acquirements—for he had learnt to speak several languages on board the Tegetthoff—the hardy old Arctic voyager went ashore with three things only; his carefully preserved reindeer coat, his wig, and trusty walrus spear. But all our hearts burned to reach home—home for its own sake; for no presentiment had any of us of the honours that awaited our arrival there. The favours shown to us by our monarch, the enthusiasm which greeted the news of the discoveries we had so marvellously made, the sympathy so abundantly expressed for our sufferings, made us feel that we were rewarded far beyond our deserts, and that we had gained the highest men can gain—the recognition of their services by their fellow-countrymen.
APPENDIX.
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 winds, the amount of precipitation, the form and character of the clouds were carefully noted down. As their labours were zealously and conscientiously carried out for one year and a half, and chiefly in regions never before visited, the results are of peculiar importance.[59] The direction and force of the winds seemed in the first year to be nearly in equilibrium, save that in the south air-currents from the south-west generally prevailed, while in the north the prevailing air-currents were from the north-east.
Thunder-storms never occurred; even on the northern shores of Siberia they are seldom experienced. The forms of the clouds in Arctic regions have never the sharply-defined contours of those in more southerly latitudes. In summer they increase in fulness, and in winter they consist chiefly of vapours and frosty mists which throw dark inky hues over the brightness of the nights. The proverbial clearness of the heavens, of which Koldewey, Kane, Middendorf, and Wrangel speak, is found in the high north, as also in the tropics only over the greater masses of land. “The clouds,” says Weyprecht, “have either the uniform dull grey aspect of elevated fog, or they assume the cirrus form, and the latter is not as with us the fleecy mass rising high above the horizon, but consists of masses of mist rising little above it, which very seldom assume the sharply-defined forms which are seen in more southern regions. Instead of clouds gloomy fogs prevail, sometimes rising high, sometimes also close to the ground as if they were nailed to it. Four-and-twenty hours of clear weather rarely occur in summer; generally after shining for a few hours the sun disappears behind dense fogs. Dull and gloomy as these fogs are, they maintain the conditions which we find in the regions of ice,—they prevent the escape of the sun’s heat and they act more potently on the ice than its direct rays.” With respect to the winds he adds: “Until the autumn of the second year, the winds were of a very variable nature. In the neighbourhood of Novaya Zemlya we had many south-east and south-west winds; in the spring the winds were more from the north-east. A prevailing direction of the wind was only discernible when we lay in our second winter under Franz-Josef Land. Here all snow-storms and about 50 per cent. of the winds come from east-north-east. These winds were mostly accompanied by clouds, which were dispersed only when the wind veered more to the north. The force of the wind is mitigated by the ice. Very frequently fog masses are seen driving rapidly at no very great height above the ice, while below them there is almost a calm. In the January of the two years we passed in the north, it was very interesting to observe the struggle between the cold winds from the north and the warmer winds of the south. The approach of warm winds from the south and south-west brought masses of snow, and in a short time produced a rise of temperature amounting to 67° to 79° F.”
Falls of snow take place at all seasons of the year; but as they generally occur accompanied with strong winds, it is not very easy to determine the depth of the layers. Apart from extreme cases of snow-drifts the mean depth of the snow on the ice during winter was about three feet, and it is more considerable under the land than at a distance from it. Rain falls almost exclusively only during the few months of summer, and generally in fine showers, never in the sudden torrents of southern latitudes. More rain fell with us in our second than in our first summer.