CHAPTER VI.

A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF KAISER FRANZ-JOSEF LAND.

In now presenting a general view of those parts of Kaiser Franz-Josef Land which were explored by us, I must be allowed to anticipate the order of my narrative which describes the subsequent sledge expeditions, by which our knowledge of the discovered country was so considerably enlarged.

1. The country, even in its already ascertained extent, is almost as large as Spitzbergen, and consists of two main masses—Wilczek Land on the east, and Zichy Land on the west, between which runs a broad sound called Austria Sound, extending in a northerly direction from Cape Frankfort till it forks at the extremity of Crown-Prince Rudolf’s Land, 80° 40′ N. L. One branch of it, a broad arm running to the north-east—Rawlinson Sound—we traced as far as Cape Buda-Pesth. Wilczek and Zichy Lands are both intersected by many fiords, and numerous islands lie off their coasts.

2. A continuous surface of ice extends from the one land to the other. At the time of our exploration, this expanse was formed of ice, for the most part not more than a year in growth, but crossed in many places with fissures and broad barriers of piled-up ice. Throughout its whole extent we saw many icebergs, which we never did in the Novaya Zemlya seas; whence it is to be inferred that they sail away in a northerly direction.[39] Our track lay over this ice-sheet. As long as it remains unbroken, every fiord might serve as a winter harbour; but if it should break up, not a single locality suitable to form one presented itself along the coasts we visited, which had no small indentations.[40]

3. The map of this country, which we present, was designed and constructed from fifteen observations of latitude, from many observations made with the azimuth compass, from drawings, and from a system of triangulation, which, from the nature of the circumstances under which it was formed,[41] makes no pretensions to absolute exactitude. The heights of the mountains were determined by the aneroid barometer. Near the ship a base of 2170·8 metres was measured by Weyprecht and Orel, and connected trigonometrically with the nearest promontories. This work of theirs formed the basis of my surveys.

4. It has always been a principle and a practice with Arctic explorers to name their discoveries either after the promoters of their special expeditions, or after their predecessors in the work of discovery. Though they are never likely to become important to the material interests of mankind, the naming the lands we discovered after those who promoted our expedition, was, we considered, the most enduring form by which we could express our gratitude for their efforts in furtherance of a great idea. The localities, I may add, were named during the work of surveying.

5. As I have had the privilege of visiting all the Arctic lands north of the Atlantic, I have been able to compare them and observe their resemblances as well as their differences. West Greenland is a high uniform glacier-plateau; East Greenland is a magnificent Alpine land with a comparatively rich vegetation and abundant animal life. How and where the transition between these opposite characters takes place in the interior is as yet utterly unknown. We may form some notion of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, if we imagine a mountain-range, like that of the Oetzthal with its glaciers, rising from the level of the sea, if that level were raised about 9,000 feet. There is more softness, however, in both these countries than is usual in the regions of the high north. But Franz-Josef Land has all the severity of the higher Arctic lands; it appears, especially in spring, to be denuded of life of every kind. Enormous glaciers extend from the lofty solitudes of the mountains, which rise in bold conical forms. A covering of dazzling whiteness is spread over everything. The rows of basaltic columns, rising tier above tier, stand out as if crystallized. The natural colour of the rocks was not visible, as is usually the case: even the steepest walls of rock were covered with ice, the consequence of incessant precipitation, and of the condensation of the excessive moisture on the cold faces of the rock. This moisture in a country whose mean annual temperature is about 3° F., seems to indicate its insular character, for Greenland and Siberia are both remarkable for the dryness of their cold, and it was singular that even north winds occasioned a fall of temperature in Franz-Josef Land. In consequence of their enormous glaciation, and of the frequent occurrence of plateau forms, the new lands recalled the characteristic features of West Greenland, in the lower level of the snow-line common to both, and in their volcanic formation. Isolated groups of conical mountains and table-lands, which are peculiar to the basaltic formation, constitute the mountain-system of Franz-Josef Land; chains of mountains were nowhere seen. These mountain forms are the results of erosion and denudation; there were no isolated volcanic cones. The mountains, as a rule, are about 2,000 or 3,000 feet high, except in the south-west, where they attain the height of about 5,000 feet.

6. The later Arctic expeditions have established the existence of vast volcanic formations in the high north, and of very recent deposits in their depressions. In fact, a vast volcanic zone seems to extend from East Greenland, through Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen, to Franz-Josef Land. The geological features of the latter are at any rate in harmony with those of North-east Greenland. The tertiary Brown-coal sandstone of East Greenland is also found in Franz-Josef Land, though Brown-coal itself is met with only in small beds, which, nevertheless, may be reckoned among the many indications that the climate of Polar lands must once have been as genial as the climate of Central Europe at the present day. The kind of rock which predominates is a crystalline aggregation called by the Swedes “Hyperstenite” (Hypersthene), identical with the Dolerite of Greenland; but the Dolerite of Franz-Josef Land is of a coarser-grained texture, and of a dark yellowish green colour; according to Professor Tschermak (the Director of the Imperial Mineralogical Museum at Vienna), it consists of Plagioclase, Augite, Olivine, titaniferous Iron and ferruginous Chlorite. The mountains of this system forming table-lands, with precipitous rocky sides, give to the country we discovered its peculiar physiognomy.

7. The Dolerite of Franz-Josef Land greatly resembles also the Dolerite of Spitzbergen. After the return of the expedition I saw in London some photographic views of the mountains of North-East Land, Spitzbergen, taken by Mr. Leigh-Smith, and I was at once struck with the resemblance between their forms and those of Franz-Josef Land. I learnt also from Professor Nordenskjöld, the celebrated explorer of Spitzbergen, as I passed through Sweden, that the rock of North-East Land was this same Hyperstenite (Hypersthene). Hence the geological coincidence of Spitzbergen and Franz-Josef Land would seem to be established; and this geological affinity, viewed in connection with the existence of lands more or less known, appears to indicate that groups of islands will be found in the Arctic seas on the north of Europe, as we know that such abound in the Arctic seas of North America. Gillis’ Land and King Karl’s Land are, perhaps, the most easterly islands of the Spitzbergen group; for it is not probable that these and the lands we discovered form one continuous uninterrupted whole.

8. Amygdaloids, so common in Greenland, were never found by us in Franz-Josef Land; and while the rocks in the southern portions of the country were often aphanitic and so far true basalt, in the north they were coarse-grained and contained Nepheline. The other rocks consisted of a whitish quartzose sandstone, with a clayey cement, and of another finely-grained sandstone, containing small granules of quartz and greenish-grey particles of chlorite, and also of yellowish finely-laminated clay slate. Erratics, so far as my opportunities permitted me to judge, were of rare occurrence; but we found many smaller pieces of petrified wood, allied to lignite.

9. Some of the islands of the Spitzbergen and Franz-Josef Land group must be of considerable extent, because they bear enormous glaciers, which are possible only in extensive countries. Their terminal precipices, sometimes more than 100 feet high, form generally the coast-lines. The colour of all the glaciers we visited inclined to grey, we seldom found the dull green-blue hue; the granules of their ice were extraordinarily large; there were few crevasses; and the moraines were neither large nor frequent. Their movement was slow; and the snow-line commences at about 1,000 feet above the level, whereas on the glaciers of Greenland and Spitzbergen the like limit is generally 2,000 or even 3,000 feet, and in these countries also, all below that line is free from snow in summer. Franz-Josef Land, on the contrary, appears even in summer to be buried under perpetual snow, interrupted only where precipitous rock occurs. Almost all the glaciers reach down to the sea. Crevasses, even when the angle of inclination of the glacier is very great, are much less frequent than in our Alps, and in every respect the lower glacier regions of Franz-Josef Land approach the character of the _névés_ of our latitudes. There only was it possible to determine the thickness of the annual deposits of snow and ice. In these lower portions, the layers were from a foot to a foot-and-a-half thick; fine veins, about an inch wide, of blue alternating with streaks of white ice ran through them, which occurred with peculiar distinctness at the depth of about a fathom. On the whole, this peculiar structure of alternating bands or veins was not so distinctly marked as it is in the glaciers of the Alps, because the alternations of temperature and of the precipitations are very much less in such high latitudes.

10. The glacier ice of Franz-Josef Land was far less dense than the glacier ice of East Greenland; whence it appears that movement, as a factor in the structure of the glacier, predominates in Franz-Josef-Land more than the factor of regelation. Even at the very end of the glaciers, granules an inch long are distinctly traceable in its layers, and in the _névé_ region especially the glacier ice is exceedingly porous. The great tendency of the climate of Franz-Josef Land to promote glaciation is manifested in the fact, that all the smaller islands are covered with glaciers with low rounded tops, so that a section through them would present a regular defined segment of a circle; hence many ice-streams descending from the summits of the plateaus spread themselves over the mountain-slopes and need not to be concentrated in valleys and hollows in order to become glaciers. Yet many glaciers occur—the Middendorf Glaciers, for example—whose vertical depth amounts to many hundred feet. Their fissures and the height of the icebergs show this. It was unfortunately impossible for us to explore the Dove Glacier, the largest of all we saw, owing to its great distance from the line of our route. Evaporation from the surface of the glacier goes on with great intensity during those summer months when the daylight is continual, and deep water-courses show that streams of thaw-water then flow over it.

11. The comparison of the temperature of the air within the crevasses of the glaciers with the external air, invariably proved, that within the crevasses the temperature was higher. The traces of liquefaction in the glacier during winter, arising from the warmth of the earth, could not be observed, because the sides and under-edge of the glaciers were inaccessible from the enormous masses of snow, and the icicles of the terminal arches and precipices could be ascribed only to the freezing of the thaw-water of the preceding summer.

12. The plasticity of the glaciers was so great, that branches of them, separated by jutting-out rocks, flowed into each other again at their base, without showing any considerable crevasses. We could only in a few cases judge of their movement by direct measurement, and we had never more than one day to test it. One observation made on the Sonklar Glacier in the month of March did not seem to support the notion of the advance of the glaciers; but the repetition of similar experiments, some weeks later, made on two glaciers on the south of Austria Sound, gave the mean of two inches as the daily movement. It is very probable that their movement begins in the Arctic regions somewhat later than in our latitudes, perhaps at the end of July or beginning of August, because the period of the greatest liquefaction then ends, while it is at its minimum in March and the beginning of April. The signs of glacier-movement were apparent in the detachment of icebergs in the month of March, but more frequently in the month of May—as at the Simony Glacier—and in the crashing-in of the ice-sheet at their base in the month of April—as at the Middendorf Glacier; and the appearance of “glacier dirt,” where there is no material to furnish a moraine,—as on the Forbes Glacier—must be regarded as a sign of its onward movement or lateral extension. The infrequency of moraines may be explained by the resistance which Dolerite offers to weathering, and may also be regarded as a sign of the slow movement of the glaciers. Red snow was seen once only, in the month of May, on the precipices westward of Cape Brünn. We never met with glacier insects, although they are common in Greenland; and however diligently I looked for them I never saw unmistakable traces of the grinding and polishing of rocks by glacier action.

13. It is well known that the north-east of Greenland as well as Novaya Zemlya and Siberia are slowly rising from the sea, nay, that all the northern regions of the globe have for ages participated in this movement. It was, therefore, exceedingly interesting to observe the characteristic signs of this upheaval in the terraced beaches, covered with débris containing organic remains along the coast of Austria Sound. The ebb and flow, which elevates and breaks up the bay-ice only at the edge, is to be traced on the shores of Austria Sound by a tidal mark of two feet.

14. The vegetation was everywhere extremely scanty, crushed, not so much by the intensity of the cold as by its long continuance, and is far below the vegetation of Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Novaya Zemlya. It resembled, not indeed in species but in its general character, the vegetation of the Alps at an elevation of 9,000 or 10,000 feet, while the Alpine region corresponding to the vegetation of East Greenland lies a thousand feet lower. We found neither the stunted birches and willows, nor the numerous phænogamous plants of East Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Novaya Zemlya. The rare appearance of soil chiefly contributes to this extremely sparse vegetation, the detritus of the country resembling the meagre “dirt” layer on an old moraine, here and there enlivened by a small patch of green. Although we visited Franz-Josef Land at the season in which vegetation begins to stir, nowhere could there be seen a patch of sward, even a few feet square, to recall the features of our latitudes, although we examined depressions very favourably situated and free from snow. Some level spots showed patches of thin meagre grasses of _Catabrosa algida_ (Fries), a few specimens of _Saxifraga oppositifolia_ and of _Silene acaulis_, rarely _Cerastium alpinum_ or _Papaver nudicale_ (L.). Thick, cushion-like tufts of mosses were more frequently discovered. There were abundance of lichens: _Imbricaria stygia_ (Acharius), _Buellia stigmatea_ (Körber), _Gyrophora anthracina_ (Wulfen), _Cetraria nivalis_ (Acharius), _Usnea melaxantha_ (Acharius), _Bryopogon jubatus_ (Körber), _Rhizocarpon geographicum_ (Körber), _Sporastatia Morio_ (Körber)—and the _Umbilicaria arctica_ of winter, which we found in Greenland at an elevation of 7,000 feet. These specifications I owe to the kindness of Professor Fenzl, director of the Botanical Garden in Vienna, and of Professor Reichhardt. The museum of this institution accepted the small collection of plants I was able to bring to Europe. Of some of these there remained nothing but withered roots, so that it was impossible to determine their character. Nature in those regions, unable to deck herself with the colours of plants, produces an imposing effect by her rigid forms, and in summer by the glare of the ice and snow; and as there are lands which are stifled by the excess of Nature’s gifts and blessings, so as even to defy efforts of civilization, here in the high North another extreme is displayed—absolute barrenness and nakedness, which render it quite uninhabitable.

15. Drift-wood, chiefly of an old date, we frequently found, but in small quantities. On the shore of Cape Tyrol, we once saw a log of pine or larch one foot thick and several feet long, lying a little above the water-line, and which might have been driven thither by the wind, as the _Tegetthoff_ was. The fragments of wood we found—the branches on which showed that they did not come from a ship—were of the pine genus (_Pinus picea_, Du Roy), and must have come from the southern regions of Siberia, as the large broad rings of growth showed.

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.

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).

The group of Amphipoda was, comparatively, largely represented among the Crustacea of the Arctic waters; we often called these _Floh-krebse_—flea-crabs—because many of them used their hind legs to hop along. Eleven species of this genus were brought home in our collections; among these were _Amathillopsis spinigera_, a new species, _Cleïppides quadricuspis_, also a new species, both described by Professor Heller; _Acanthozone hystrix_ (Owen), &c. The group—Isopoda—is represented by the interesting _Munnopsis typica_ (Sars), the _Idothea sabini_ (Kröyer), and by a new variety, _Paranthura arctica_.

Of the group Pycnogonida, our collection contained three varieties, of which two are new.

Sponges were common; but we were obliged to leave behind the specimens of the larger kinds on account of the room they took up. Among the silicious sponges, those of the genus Hyalonema were the largest in size, and included the forms described as _Hyalonema boreale_ (Lovèn), and _Hyalonema longissimum_ (Sars). There was one specimen of the horny sponge, so rare in those parts. The drag-net often brought up _Actiniæ_, _Bryareum grandiflorum_ (Sars), and June 2, 1873, from a depth of 110 fathoms, a specimen of the extremely rare _Umbellula_ described by Mytius and Ellis, 1753. Since that date this animal had been lost sight of, until it was found again by the Swedes—Gladans expedition 1871—in Baffin’s Bay, and by the _Challenger_, 1873, between Portugal and Madeira and between Prince Edward’s Island and Kerguelen’s Land. It may be assumed that our Umbellula is identical with the form first described, 1758, by Linnæus as _Isis encrinus_. I regret to say that this, the most interesting of all the objects we had collected, was left behind in the _Tegetthoff_. The sketch of it made from life will facilitate a comparison with the forms known in other regions and variously named.

Hydroid polypes, widely distributed in several varieties in the Atlantic Ocean,—_Asteridæ_ and _Ophiuridæ_, the _Korethrastes hispidus_ (Wyv. Thomson), a new variety discovered by the _Porcupine_ expedition between the Faroe and Shetland islands, _Crinoidæ_, represented by two species never before found so far north, and several _Holothuriæ_, were also among the acquisitions brought home. Our collection was rich in _Annelides_, containing seven-and-twenty varieties found in Greenland and Spitzbergen. Fourteen varieties of _Bryozoa_ were found, and single specimens of _Turbellaria_ and _Gephyrea_.