12. The land on our right was a monotonous waste of ridges and terraces of parallel raised beaches, partially covered with snow. Following its line as we marched onwards, we passed iceberg after iceberg. Towards evening I ascended one of these, and made the joyful discovery that Austria Sound stretched in a northerly direction at least as far as a cape—afterwards called Cape Tyrol. In the midst of my observations Orel called to me from below that a bear was coming near us. We awaited his approach with the greed of cannibals, for his flesh would be priceless while we were making such great exertions and had only the insufficient nourishment of boiled beef. I promised Haller and Klotz the bear-money of 30 gulden, usual in Tyrol, if the bear should be bagged. The animal received three shots at the same moment and at first stood stock still, but then began to drag himself slowly off. We rushed after him, and to save our cartridges struck him with the butts of our rifles, and finished him by thrusting our long knives into his body. We appropriated 50 lbs. of his flesh to our own use, and gave the rest of his carcase to the dogs, and deposited 50 lbs. of boiled beef on the iceberg, close by which we erected our tent.
13. On the 2nd of April (the thermometer marking -11 F.) we again started with renewed vigour, though in the face of a strong north wind. I myself left the sledge in order to examine the raised beach for some distance. It was for the most part bare of snow, and exhibited laminæ of brown-coal sandstone amid the Dolerite. Close beside the scanty remains of some drift-wood, I was surprised to find a circle of large stones resembling those erections which I had seen in East Greenland in deserted Eskimo villages. As, however, there were no other marked traces of former settlements, this circle of stones was no doubt something accidental. The magnitude of Franz-Josef Land seemed to grow before our eyes, as we saw the broad Markham Sound opening up towards the west, and ranges of high mountains stretching away towards Cape Tyrol. The coasts abounded in fiords, and glaciers were everywhere to be seen. Wilczek Land disappeared under ice-streams, and only reappeared again in the rocky heights of Cape Heller and Cape Schmarda, opposite Wiener-neustadt Island. In the evening we reckoned that we had reached latitude 80° 42′.
14. On the 3rd of April (the thermometer standing at -9° F.) we should have reached Cape Tyrol, had not snow-storms from the south kept us in the afternoon in our tent: a delay with which Lukinovich was by no means displeased, for this being Good Friday he had counted on a day of complete rest,—for our friend Lukinovich was prone to turn his eyes to heaven, spoke constantly of the saints, could mention their festivals as they occurred in the calendar; but, alas! was a snow-eater, and could march not a whit better than Falstaff. On the 4th of April the temperature, with constant driving storms of snow from the south, rose from -4° to 23° F.; and the snow accumulated to such an extent even in the tent, that it had to be shovelled out. It was towards the afternoon before we could continue our march, the delay made being not so much on account of the cold, as from dread of the moisture. Our start proved, however, useless, for the snow began to drive so furiously, that, as we dragged, those behind could scarcely see the men in front. We again travelled by the compass and used our sledge-sail; but we constantly deviated from the right course, though we pressed on, passing Cape Tyrol without seeing it, and entered an unknown region in which we were guided by mere chance—expecting every moment to stumble on a fissure in the ice or open water. This day we sustained a painful loss—the loss of my dog Sumbu. For two long years he had been almost our only source of amusement by his cunning and his impudence. He had long been the rival of the frolicsome Torossy, in dragging the sledge; and it was often almost touching to see how at evening he would sink down exhausted in the snow, in the very spot where he was unharnessed. It cannot well detract from the merit of such services—and after all they were rendered in the interests of science!—that they were those of an animal and sprang from attachment.[43] To this vigorous lively animal, what more natural than that he should be almost beside himself if in one of these vast solitudes he should get sight of a living creature? So it happened to-day. A gull flew over his head, and Sumbu burst away from the sledge. In hot pursuit of the bird he disappeared from our sight and never returned again. All our shouts were thrown away. Our track was soon covered over by the drifting snow, and there cannot be a doubt that our faithful companion, after wandering about for days, either died of hunger or fell a victim to a bear.
HOW SUMBU WAS LOST.
15. April 5, after a short rest, we again started about midnight in order to economize our time (the thermometer being at 19° F.). The weather had greatly improved. Klotz, who was the first to step out of the tent, startled us by the information that some high land barred our further progress. But when we followed him into the open air, we found that Klotz had looked to the west instead of to the north, and we discovered the true state of things, that Zichy Land ran on our left in a northerly direction, while Wilczek Land trended towards the north-east. We pursued, therefore, our course on the vast icy wastes, over which hung Cape Easter (81° 1′), and Cape Hellwald shining in the sun, and hoisted the flag on the sledge to celebrate our passage of the eighty-first degree of north latitude, and in commemoration of Easter Sunday.
CAPE EASTER AND STERNEK SOUND.