THE LAST ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 154, 1 December 1874, Page 4

THE LAST ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

The Argus correspondent writes :—Austria is proud of her explorers. The members of her Arctic expedition, who had been compelled to abandon their good ship Tegethoff to the ice, arrived home last week, and were received as heroes should be. Never before had travellers such an ovation. When rescued in their attempt to reach a habitable region by sledges they were in rags, and for a fortnight had been short of provisions and firing. From Christiansund they crossed to Hamburg, where they were received by the Geographical Society and the townsfolk with due honors ; but it was reserved to Vienna to give them a welcome such as is usually accorded only to soldiers returning from a battle field. " They were met and congratulated at the Northern Railway Station by the municipal authorities, by the Admiralty officials, aud by officers from all the Vienna regiments. The streets for three miles were crowded with spectators, and there was vociferous cheering all along the line of route. Everywhere flags were displayed and bells were rung." And these men had sustained a combat with the inhospitable forces of nature as severe as any struggle on a field of war. The Tegethoff sailed from Bremerhaven in June, 1872, a small ship of about 220 tons, with an auxiliary screw, to find a north-easterly passage towards the coast of Siberia. For months together it was a daily struggle with the great ice masses that bore down on either side. Set fast not far beyond Nova Zembla, she was in constant danger of being crushed, but gradually drifted in a massive bed of ice towards the north-east. The winter was passed in disheartening circumstances, but in the August following they were rewarded by the discovery of land. Towards the end of October the ship drifted to about three miles off an island which lay before the mainland. There the second winter was passed, and with the return of the sun expeditions were organised for exploring the new territory, henceforth to be added to the known globe. The newly-discovered land as far as seen is about the size of Spitzbergen, and consists of several large masses intersected by fjords and surrounded by islands. A large passage called the Austria Sound separates these masses and forks under 82deg N. lat into a north-easterly arm, which could be followed up to Cape Pest in the furthest north. "The mountains are dolomitic. Their middle elevation is from 2000 ft to 3000 ft, only towards the south they may rise up to 5000 ft. All the depressions between the summits are occupied by glaciers of gigantic size, as they only occur in Arctic regions. The vegetation is much poorer than that of Greenland, Spitzbergen, or Nova Zembla, and in the south, except for Polar bears, it is devoid of animal life too. Several attempts were made to pass through the country, but they were found impossible; mountains barred the road, so progress was tried along the coast line, and the more the explorers panetrated north by west the more the temperature rose, and the coasts of Crown Prince Rodolf Land were found to be tenanted by myriads of birds, elks, &c; traces of bears, foxes, and hares appeared, and seals lay on the ice. In spite of the treacherous nature of the road, it was continued to 82deg smin, where at Cape Fligley a wide expanse of water, only covered with ice of recent formation was seen. In spite of this the explorers think the open Polar sea a delusion. Without raising a theory about the possible connection of this new laud with Gillis Land in the south-west, the opinion is that it bears out up to a certain point Peterman's assumption of an inner Arctic archipelago." After setting up a flag and cairn with documents inside on the northernmost point, the way was made back over 160 miles to the ship, which had ultimately to be abandoned. It may especially interest some Australians to know that these gallant explorers report that " preserved meats in tins contributed not a little to keep up health and strength." Sir Henry Rawlinson has sent a congratulatory letter to the Vienna Geographical Society. He says that the members of the Austrian Arctic Expedition will now " take the first rank among Polar explorers, and that nowhere will their great service to science and their personal gallantry be more highly appreciated than iu England."