CHAPTER I.

THE EXPLORATION OF KAISER FRANZ-JOSEF LAND RESOLVED ON.

1. The necessity of returning home admitted of no question; but the exploration of the Land of which we had seen hardly anything, beyond the cliffs that lay in our immediate neighbourhood, was also felt to be a necessity. That land, which we were all predisposed to imagine as stretching far beyond this wall of rocks,—of what did it consist? Was it an island or a group of islands? And those white masses lying on these lofty ranges, were they glaciers? To these questions no one as yet could give an answer. But of this there could be neither doubt nor question, that we could not count on our floe for a moment, and that those were lost who were not on board the ship if the floe with the ship began to drift. On the 1st of March the Tyrolese announced, that a fissure had appeared half-way between the ship and the shore, and the danger of being cut off became the chief subject of talk, both in the cabin of the officers and in the quarters of the men. When, however, we considered the importance of the venture, all hesitation disappeared, and there was not a man in the ship who would not have made his apprehensions subordinate to the necessity of exploration.

2. As the commander of the expedition on shore, I explained to the council we held on the 24th of February, my plan for the projected sledge-journeys, namely: that the sledge-parties count on the means of escape being left behind to supplement those they may have at their command, and that the depositing of these means be completed before the sledge-parties start; that the expeditions shall begin between the 10th and 20th of March, be continued for six or seven weeks, and take, if possible, the following directions:—one along the coast towards the North, a second towards the West, and a third into the interior, and each to be concluded by the ascent of a dominating height; that in the event of the sledge-parties not finding the ship on their return, they should attempt to go back at once to Europe, and only under the most urgent circumstances pass a third winter in the ice, though the superfluous stores, which were to be transported to the land, would to a certain extent enable them to do this. I engaged also not to extend these journeys to a date which would prevent the men recruiting their strength before the return of the whole expedition to Europe.

3. The exploration of the strange land having been resolved on, the greatest activity reigned in the ship. There was not a man on board the _Tegetthoff_ who was not eager to prepare for the sledge-journeys, though all knew that besides the two Tyrolese only four men were to accompany me. Every one longed to take part in the exploration of the unknown land, and the monotony of our life was now exchanged for a state of great excitement; a great venture had been resolved on, and expectations rose with the possibility of discoveries. The comparatively short period for which our stores had now to last enabled us to indulge in what, under the circumstances, might be called luxury. We could thus dispose of more than two hundred bottles of wine, which had been reserved for the sick in the event of a third winter being passed in the ice. Three-and-twenty men now in three months drank two hundred bottles of wine and smoked like chimneys the superfluous stores of cigars and tobacco. Potatoes, preserved vegetables and fruit, were daily on our table. Our allowance of rum was increased; lights were freely burnt in every corner, and the novel sensation of luxury was universal.

4. While we were all living as if the oppressive load under which we had lain so long had suddenly been removed, in these days of general hilarity and amid the excitement of new plans, our comrade Krisch drew toward his sad and melancholy end. From the beginning of February his malady had made great progress. His body was covered with scorbutic spots; but in spite of all this the hope of speedy recovery constantly animated our afflicted companion, who set us a lofty example of the fulfilment of duty by his zealous activity. In the summer, though already under the influence of his mortal disease, he had been busy in the construction of new ice-saws and borers, in order that he might contribute something to the liberation of the ship, and when he heard of the projected expeditions to Franz-Josef Land, he gathered sufficient strength to extort from me the assurance that I would take him with me. But his end was surely though slowly drawing on; his nights were sleepless, and pain left him neither day nor night. At the beginning of March a state of unconsciousness supervened, and the action of his diseased lungs was now to be heard in an uninterrupted rattling in his throat. Moments of mental clearness became more infrequent in his delirium; help had become impossible; all the care of our physician and of the watchers, who never left him, was now directed merely to the alleviation of his sufferings. He lingered till we returned from our first sledge expedition on the 16th of March.