8. As we advanced further, we went round Schönau Island[42] so remarkable for its columnar structure and environed by ice which had been raised up by pressure. In a cleft of its precipitous rocky walls we buried a depôt of provisions and a supply of alcohol for two days, together with some articles of clothing, covering them up with four feet of snow. We could not, however, conceal from ourselves the danger of placing a depôt within sight of a bear’s hole, and greatly deplored that we were not able, like the fox in the fable, to obliterate the marks of our footsteps. Towards evening the temperature fell to -10° F., and the tent was frozen as stiff as a board. On the 30th of March the temperature fell to -22° F., and a strong north wind was blowing as we came out of the tent, and curling billows of snow, reddened by the rising sun, rolled round us, hiding from us at last even the sun himself. A march in the teeth of a wind at so low a temperature is quite useless and only exposes to the great danger of frost-bite. This was now clearly seen when, the tent being taken down as usual immediately after breakfast, the laggards, imperfectly clad, faced the wild weather. One was binding a stocking round his face with his braces, because his frozen fingers would not permit him to button on his nose-band and wind-guard; another had put on reindeer shoes instead of boots after a vain attempt to thaw them; a third had put on the wrong boot, and I myself was obliged to wind a long rope round my body, because I was unable to fasten my coat. Such a state of things is opposed to order and safety, and may degenerate into serious mischief. There was nothing for it therefore but to set up the tent again and to get back into our sleeping-bag. But the damp tent was frozen hard, and we felt much as if we were lying between two plates of cold metal. It would be difficult to say whether we suffered more from cold than from vexation. Zaninovich spread the sail over us, and shovelled down the snow from the walls of the tent;—who could be so serviceable as this comrade of ours, who on every occasion displayed such hardihood against cold? Orel and I made vain attempts to shorten the time by reading a volume of Dessing which we had brought with us; but we soon renounced the effort, finding that we could not fix our attention in such a situation. We had some compensation, however, in the amusement of listening to the Dalmatians learning to speak German with Klotz, who was far from the weakness of uttering a single word in Italian. As usual, when the weather was bad, the dogs gathered close to the wind-sheltered side of our tent. Sumbu forcing himself in among us had to be driven out, for he growled if he had the faintest suspicion that we meant to move or to smoke; but failing to make himself comfortable among the other dogs, he avenged himself by again rushing in among us, shaking the snow from his coat, and forced us to admit him.
LIFE IN THE TENT.
9. On the 31st of March, the weather having cleared, we continued our journey northwards, halting as usual at noon to refresh ourselves with soup. We measured the meridian altitude of the sun with a theodolite, and surveyed and sketched our surroundings. When we came to 80° 16′ N.L. we found a broad barrier of hummocks piled one upon another. This was succeeded by older ice, whose undulating surface was broken by numerous icebergs and high black basaltic cliffs. Here ended the possibility of determining the route to be taken; for although there was an opening between Cape Frankfurt and the Wüllersdorf mountains, we could not enter it, until we ascertained whether it led northwards. In order to settle this point Haller and I left the sledge and made a forced march to Cape Frankfurt, whence we hoped to discover the direction of our course. Meanwhile Orel and the rest of the party dragged the sledge with great exertions between hummocks and icebergs towards the north-east. Cape Frankfurt is a promontory of Hall Island, 2,000 feet high and surrounded with glaciers. The small difference of level in the sea-ice at the base of its cliffs showed that the tide did not rise high. Its glaciers flowed towards Markham Sound and Nordenskjöld fiord. When we arrived at the summit everything lay steeped in the rosy mists of evening. Flocks of birds flew from its massive basaltic crown, and as it was evident that they had not come there to breed, we inferred that open water was not far off.
CAPE FRANKFURT, AUSTRIA SOUND, AND THE WÜLLERSDORF MOUNTAINS.
10. Our attention was directed, however, especially to the configuration of the country, and great was our delight when we beheld beneath us a broad inlet, which promised to be of considerable extent and to run towards the north. This inlet was covered with icebergs and could be traced up to the faint outlines of a distant promontory (Cape Tyrol). It now appeared certain, that we could reach the eighty-first degree of latitude on an ice-covered sea, and the measurement of some angles furnished us with a provisional guidance for penetrating into these new regions. The coasts of Wilczek Land appeared to run in a northerly direction, and then to trend gradually to the north-east. At a great distance below us we saw a dark point moving over the dimly-seen plain of sea-ice. Its advance was discernible only when for a short time it disappeared behind an iceberg, and again reappeared. It was Orel with the large sledge; but neither the snowy mountains bathed in carmine light, which surrounded our point of view with picturesque effect, nor the crimson veil spread over them, nor the profound solitude of the wastes that lay around us, could so rivet our attention as that little point in which lodged forces apparently so insignificant, but yet made potent by human will. With pain and toil we descended the mountain in our canvas boots between steep precipices of ice, and pressed on for six miles in the rapidly-waning light over hummocky-ice to rejoin our companions, whose position we had marked by the stars, from the elevation we had ascended. We reached our friends before midnight and our news excited great joy.
11. On the 1st of April (the thermometer marking -20°F.) we penetrated by Cape Hansa into the newly-discovered passage, which was covered with heavy ice; I called it Austria Sound. The nearer we approached the coast of Wilczek Land, the more unquestionable did it appear that the Wüllersdorf mountains extended far into the interior; but it would have cost more time than the attempt was worth to ascend them. The latitude taken at noon was 80° 22′. Nothing can be more exciting than the discovery of new countries. The combining faculty never tires in tracing their configuration, and the fancy is restlessly busy in filling up the gaps of what is as yet unseen, and though the next step may destroy its illusions, it is ever prone to indulge in fresh ones. Herein lies the great charm of sledge expeditions, as compared with the tiresome monotony of life on board ship—a charm which is only then diminished when we have to wander for days over wastes of snow, with the coasts at such a distance, that they do not change sufficiently rapidly, or leave scope for indulging in surmises and fancies of what is coming. The discomforts incident to this mode of travelling are in this case doubly felt. The sledge is dragged with great difficulty in the hours of the early morning, for the hard edges of the snow crystals have not yet felt the smoothing effects of evaporation under the power of the sun. The goal itself appears as if it were never to be reached, because the limited horizon of the travellers constantly retreats. Thirst and languor then set in. The small quantity of water which we were able to prepare during the march had no more effect than a drop on a plate of hot iron. Klotz felt unwell to-day, and cured himself by swallowing his ration of rum at one gulp. Even the dogs seemed languid, and crept along with drooping heads and their tails between their legs.