16. Franz-Josef Land is, as may be supposed, entirely uninhabited, and we never came on any traces of settlements. It is very questionable whether Eskimos would have been able to find there the means of subsistence, and if anywhere most likely on the western side of Wilczek Island, where an “ice-hole” of considerable extent remained open for a great part of the year.
17. In the southern parts it is destitute of every kind of animal life, with the exception of Polar bears and migratory birds. North of Lat. 81°, the snow bore numberless fresh tracks of foxes, but though their footmarks were imprinted on the snow beyond the possibility of mistake, we never saw one. Once we found their excrements, and on Hohenlohe Island those of an Arctic hare. The scanty vegetation forbade the presence of the reindeer and musk-ox. It is not, however, impossible that there may be reindeer in the more westerly parts of the country, which we did not visit. The character of that particular region approximates to that of King Karl’s Land and Spitzbergen, on the pastures of which herds of these animals live and thrive.
LIPARIS GELATINOSUS.
18. Of the great marine Mammalia, seals only (Phoca grœnlandica and Phoca barbata) abounded; although we saw some White Whales. Walruses we saw twice, but not close to the shore; it is, however, probable that the absence of open water prevented us from seeing the walrus nearer the shore, for the character of the sea-bottom would present no obstacle to its existence.
19. Of fish we saw only the species Liparis gelatinosus (Pallas) and a kind of cod (Gadus), which were taken with the drag-net.
20. The birds, which we found in the region between Novaya Zemlya and Franz-Josef Land were of the following species:—the long-tailed Robber Gull (Lestris, K.); the black Robber Gull without the long tail-feathers; the Burgomaster Gull (Larus Glaucus, B.); the Ice or Ivory Gull (Larus eburneus); the Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla, L.); the Sea-swallow (Sterna macrura, N.); the Arctic Petrel or Mallemoke (Procellaria glacialis); Ross’s Gull (Rhotostetia rosea); two species of Auks (Uria arra, P., and Uria mandtii, L.); the Greenland Dove (Grylle columba, Bp.); the Rotge (Mergulus alle, V.); the Lumme (Mormon arcticus); the Eider-duck (Somateria mollisima, L.); the Snowy Owl (Strix nivea); the Iceland Knot (Tringa canutus); the Snow-bunting (Plectrophanes nivalis, M.). Most of these occurred also on the coasts of Franz-Josef Land.
21. We can here only allude generally to those forms of animal life which were taken by the drag-net on the south of Franz-Josef Land, and brought to Europe in the collection of Dr. Kepes, and of which I made seventy-two drawings. To Professor Heller, of Innspruck, and Professor Marenzeller, of Vienna, the expedition is indebted for the naming and arrangement of those specimens, and while I refer my readers to their fuller account in the Mittheilungen of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna, I limit myself here to a few of the results of their observations. The investigation of the invertebrate Fauna of the sea through which we passed was necessarily limited from the moment that the course of the Tegetthoff ceased to be under our control. We had, in the first place, no zoologist on board, and from the drifting ship nothing more could be done than letting down the net almost daily during the weeks of summer—which Lieutenant Weyprecht did—and dragging it for some hours. The greater part of the animals so taken were immediately sketched by me, in order that, in the event of the loss of the original objects, some sort of representation of the animal world of a region never before investigated might be preserved. The issue justified a caution which must always be kept in view in Polar expeditions.
Of the abundant shrimp-family of the Arctic seas there are four species among the collections we formed, namely:—Hippolyte payeri, Heller, n. sp., Hippolyte turgida (Kröyer), Hippolyte polaris (Sabine), and Hippolyte borcalis (Owen). The Hippolyte payeri was found at the depth of 247 metres, and was of a beautiful pink colour and had blue-black eyes. There were found besides: Crangou boreas and Pandalus borealis (Kröyer).
