1. The weather during the last days of April was truly delightful; calms and bright sunshine made work and exercise in the open air exceedingly pleasant, and the temperature never fell below -2° F. But even this amount of cold was sufficient to retard the softening of the snow for some days, and favoured the carrying out of a third sledge expedition. Its intention was the exploration of the western portions of Franz-Josef Land; for the question of its extension towards Spitzbergen was scarcely less interesting than its extension towards the North. I should have liked to devote weeks to the undertaking, but our impending return left a few days only at my disposal.
2. On the 29th of April (the thermometer marking -2° F.) Lieutenant Brosch, Haller, and myself left the ship. Jubinal and Torossy were selected to drag the small sledge, which was equipped for a week’s expedition; Pekel accompanied us as a volunteer. The measurement of the angles necessary to complete my survey detained us so long on the heights of Wilczek Island, that we could not make our start on the level ice till the next morning. The power of the sun some days was so great, that the temperature of the tent at noon, when there was no wind, rose to 63° F., while in the two preceding months it was from 10° F. to -13° F. If the temperature during the day did not fall more than 6° below freezing-point, we required no clothes beyond our woollen underclothing and stockings. As we started in the morning of April 30, some snow fell, and the mountains were covered with masses of mist, which lay in horizontal layers half way up their sides. Cape Brünn, however, which was our goal, lay before us, clear and distinct, and the long glacier walls, running to the west of it round the edge of MacClintock Island, were under the constant play of refraction, and could be traced as far as Cape Oppolzer, from which point they seemed to trend to the north-west.
3. The snow-track of the Sound was still firm, so that our dogs needed little help in dragging our baggage, especially after we had buried provision for the return journey in an iceberg. We had scarcely finished this labour when we discovered a bear’s hole in the layer of snow at its base, and immediately afterwards we beheld its occupant coming furiously towards us. Several hasty shots were fired at him, but the bear escaped, though evidently wounded. The nearer we approached MacClintock Island, the more frequently we found fissures in the ice running parallel to the coast and communicating with a small “ice-hole” in the south about four miles off. Trusting, however, that during the next few days these fissures would not open so much as to prevent our re-crossing them, we went on and pitched our encampment near the terminal front of one of the glaciers of the island.
4. Our dogs continued now, as before, the implacable enemies of bears. Matotschkin’s sad end had not frightened them into prudence and caution, doubtless because they counted on our prowess against the common foe. To them nothing could be a more joyous spectacle than a wounded bear. If in his flight he became faint and exhausted they surrounded him, bit at his legs, and did all they could to prevent his getting away, and courage, as well as love of mischief, was visible in all their actions. Pekel, small as he was, was the leader in all attacks, and Torossy grew under his tuition to be at length a formidable assailant. So things proved now. While we were busily preparing our supper in the tent a young bear appeared on the scene; before we could stop them, out rushed the dogs on our visitor, who at first retreated, while the dogs followed hard on his heels. As it generally happened that the bear, after a time, turned on his pursuers and gave them chase, we were somewhat alarmed for the safety of the dogs, especially of Torossy, who sometimes was so stupid as not to find his way back to the tent without guidance. Just as we expected, the bear turned and became the pursuer; Torossy taking the lead in the retreat. Our small stock of cartridges and superfluity of bears’-flesh might have induced us to gaze at him while he gazed on us, if he had only kept at a respectful distance; but he would come too near, and reluctantly we found ourselves under the necessity of killing him and depriving him of the dainty morsel of his tongue. Forster says that the flesh of the Polar bear tastes like bad beef, an opinion which we are able to endorse and confirm, as we had consumed in this expedition about four bears apiece.
MARKHAM SOUND, RICHTHOFEN PEAK FROM CAPE BRÜNN.
5. On the 1st of May (the thermometer standing at 4° F.) we purposed to cross the Simony glacier and ascend the pyramid-like Cape Brünn, whence we might hope to see at a glance as much of the surrounding country as would have required a journey of several days on the level to discover. Unfavourable weather, however, prevented the execution of this project, and we were obliged to keep in our tent. Lieutenant Brosch, whose duties in taking magnetical observations stood in the way of his accompanying me in the previous expeditions, had now the misfortune to injure his foot; and in consequence of this accident I had to start next morning (May 2) accompanied only by Haller, to attempt the ascent. Fastened together with a rope, we passed over the Simony glacier amid heavy snow-storms from the W.N.W., and in a zigzag course went up the steep pyramid of Cape Brünn. Never have I made a more disagreeable ascent. A steep, snowy gorge led through a crown of rocks to the summit, which we reached after a march of five hours. By an aneroid observation we found the height to be 2,500 feet.
6. If the ascent of a mountain in the face of wind and penetrating cold demands all the self-command even of men the most inured to fatigues, it required the additional stimulus afforded by the view of an unknown land to give us endurance and energy under such circumstances, to sketch, to take azimuth measurements, and estimate the distances of important localities. To add to our difficulties, the theodolite was constantly shaken by the wind, so that every angle had to be observed repeatedly, in order that an available mean value might be obtained. It was only after several hours of the most severe labour that my work was completed. My attention was directed chiefly to the southern parts of Zichy Land, which formed a vast mountainous region beyond Markham Sound. Half the horizon was bounded by cliffs and heights gleaming with snow. The conical shape of the mountains prevailed here also; the only exception was Richthofen Spitze, the loftiest summit, perhaps, we had seen in Franz-Josef Land, which rose like a slender white pyramid to the height of about 5,000 feet. The land was everywhere intersected by fiords and covered with glaciers. Its boundaries towards Spitzbergen, or Gillis’ Land, could not be determined, because even at the distance of seventy or ninety German miles, mountain ranges were distinctly to be traced. It would appear, therefore, that masses of land stretch in this direction to at least the fiftieth degree, perhaps even to the forty-eighth degree, of east longitude. We also discovered, that the lands on the south of Markham Sound were separated by a fiord—Negri Sound. This was already open, and since some darker spots indicated fissures in the ice in Markham Sound, it is probable that sledge-journeys can be only undertaken early in the spring in Franz-Josef Land without the danger of being cut off. At the time when we made our observations, it was utterly impossible that such waters could be navigated by any ship, not even if she could be placed amid these small unconnected “ice-holes.” Haller, whose rheumatic tendencies unfitted him to bear wind and cold, had, meanwhile, posted himself in a cleft of rock sheltered from the wind beneath the summit, but I was quite satisfied with his running to my help, in order to rub my frozen hands with snow, when I was forced to drop the book in which I recorded my labours.
7. But however great our delight at the discovery of these unknown lands—trophies of our endurance—we were much discouraged by the view towards the south. An enormous surface of ice extended before us—a sad outlook, as we thought of our return homeward. Although one single serpentine thread of water, gleaming in the sun, stretched towards the south-east, separating the land-ice from the field-ice, yet it was but too certain that the next breeze from the south would again close it. All save this was a close sheet of ice. We spent some time in exploring the lower glacier region of the island, so that it was towards evening before we reached the tent. Much as we desired to prosecute our explorations, reflection forced us to limit them. In order to penetrate in a north-westerly direction several days would have been needed; but as it had been arranged that we must at once begin our return to Europe, we were constrained to abandon the thought of such a scheme and return at once to the ship. On the night of the 2nd of May we began our forced march of two-and-twenty hours, during which we were often bathed in perspiration, though the temperature on the 3rd of May varied between 5° F. and -4° F. The dogs alone drew the sledge with ease, though it carried a load of 3 cwt., giving us such a striking example of what they could do, that we felt persuaded that a sledge, with a strong team of dogs, must be the best form, beyond comparison, of sledge-travelling. In the evening we reached the Tegetthoff and our sledge expeditions came to a close, after we had travelled in this fashion about 450 miles.