45' N.) he was unable to reach the sea-bottom with 500 fathoms of line.

The magnetic variation is not very great in that vicinity, the maximum being 20° W., and there being a line of no variation, running north and south, at a short distance to the eastward of the islands. Near Parry's highest he observed the variation of the needle to be 13° 41′ W. The ice conditions in the vicinity of Spitzbergen will be included in the general description of the "Ice of the Polar Regions." From a careful study of information from the most authentic sources, it appears that Spitzbergen is the most interesting and best favored country within the arctic circle. No traces of native inhabitants have been found. It is a fine country for walrus hunters and sportsmen, as well as being a grand field for the botanist and the geologist.

It would be a safe and excellent station for meteorological observations, but the experience of Parry and Nordenskiöld clearly indicates that there is little chance of success for a polar expedition from its shores. The Swedish scientific expeditions have met with fair success in Spitzbergen and its locality. Speaking of the voyage of the Sofia, the distinguished savant, Professor Oswald Heer, of Zürich, declared: "In my opinion the Swedish Expedition, by the rich collections it has brought home, has achieved more and has widened our horizon of knowledge more than if it had returned merely with the information that the Sofia had hoisted her flag at the North Pole."

Before leaving the subject of this route, let me say a few words about Sir W. E. Parry's "Attempt to reach the North Pole." In my judgment it was the best planned and executed attempt that has ever been made before or since its date. The outfit of boats and the organization of his party have not been excelled in the recent efforts of explorers. His line of retreat was well arranged with boats and provisions placed at suitable points, and the expedition was conducted with admirable skill and judgment.

THE FRANZ JOSEF LAND APPROACH.

Attempts to explore the icy seas north of Europe and Asia were made as early as 1556, in search of a northeast passage to China. It is an historical fact that in the spring of that year Stephen Burrough, afterwards Chief Pilot of England, fitted out a little pinnace called the Search-thrift, and sailing to the northeastward, discovered the Kara Strait between the islands of Novaya Zemlya and Wai

gatch, and then returned for three causes, viz.: the continual north winds, "the great and terrible abundance of ice which we saw with our eyes," and thirdly, "because the nights waxed dark."

Burrough was followed by many other intrepid explorers, among whom were Pet, Jackman, Barents and Henry Hudson. Important discoveries near the coast were made, and the distinguished Barents explored parts of Novaya Zemlya, and after passing the winter with sixteen Dutch companions at the northeast end of the island he died in June, 1597, and was buried on shore. The survivors reached Lapland and went to their homes. Their abandoned winter quarters were not visited for two hundred and seventy-four years, when a Norwegian skipper, Elling Carlsen by name, circumnavigated the island with his sixty-ton sloop, and on the 7th of September, 1871, visited Ice Haven, where he found Barents' house yet standing. He brought away cooking utensils, implements, etc., that had been used by the gallant band nearly three centuries ago.

Let us, however, turn from the attractive episodes of this region and seek for information about the great effort that was made to gain a high latitude north of Novaya Zemlya. For our knowledge about this subject we are indebted to the excellent work of Lieutenant Julius Payer, entitled "Austrian Arctic Voyage," one of the most readable in the literature concerning that region, from which I shall make numerous quotations.

Attention was first given to Barents Sea, the part of the ocean between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, because it was hoped that favorable ice conditions might be found there and a great advance towards the pole be made practicable. This hope was based on the supposition that a branch of the Gulf Stream penetrated beyond Novaya Zemlya. During the summer of 1871 Lieutenants Weyprecht and Payer chartered the Isbjörn (Ice Bear), a small sloop, and made a dashing reconnoissance of Barents Sea. From the experience of this voyage they made some conclusions and inferences which, formulated briefly, were as follows, viz.:

(1) "The Novaya Zemlya Sea is not always filled with impenetrable ice, making navigation impossible."

(2) "The Novaya Zemlya Sea is a shallow sea-a continuation and connection of the great plains of Siberia. In the extreme north its depth is 600 feet, and southeast of Gillis Land about 300 feet." (3) "The time most favorable for the navigation of this sea falls at

Markham's Threshold of the Unknown Regions.

the end of August and lasts till the end of September. During this period the ice may be said to be at its minimum."

(4) "Gillis Land is not a continent, but either an island or a group of islands. Whereas from the circumstance that in the highest latitude, 79° N., we found drift-wood covered with mud, sea-weed, creatures which live only near the land, decreasing depths of the sea, sweet-water ice and bergs covered with dirt, it may be inferred with great probability that there exist large masses of land to the northeast of Gillis Land."

(5) "The appearance of Siberian drift-wood only in the most northern seas reached during our voyage seems to point to an easterly current there" (means westerly set).

(6) "The Russian expeditions in the past and present centuries which attempted to penetrate by the northwest coast of Novaya Zemlya miscarried because they sailed before the favorable season for navigation, and also because they had not the advantage of steam."

(7) "How far the Gulf Stream has any share or influence in the favorable conditions for the navigation of the Eastern Polar Sea which have been described cannot as yet be positively determined. The state of the ice, the observations of the temperature of the sea, its color and the animal life found in it, seem to speak in favor of the action of this current in that region. It is possible that the Gulf Stream may exercise its culminating influence on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya at the beginning of September."

'But, in addition to the causes already specified, the influence of the warm currents produced by the great rivers of Siberia discharging themselves into a shallow sea was also supposed to co-operate in producing this phenomenon. Of these rivers the Obi and the Yenisei alone discharge into that shallow sea a body of water as great as the waters of the Mediterranean or as those of the Mississippi. The course of the current produced by these mighty rivers is not yet known; but it is natural to suppose that old and heavy pack-ice could not be formed on a coast submitted to such an influence."

The Isbjörn reconnoissance having been very successful, the deductions and inferences of Lieutenant Weyprecht so favorable, and the route north via Novaya Zemlya so promising, it was determined that the Austro-Hungarian Expedition of 1872-73 should try its fortunes in that region, with the hope also of making its way to Bering Strait, in case a high northern position could not be attained. The

line of retreat was to be provided for by making a deposit of coal and provisions on the coast of Novaya Zemlya near Cape Nassau, and stone cairns with suitable records placed within them were to be erected at prominent places during the advance. Should the ship be crushed off the Siberian coast, the party would retreat up one of the principal rivers. The attempt was to be made during the latter part of August, and the Tegetthoff (220 tons) was fitted out for two and a half years, and placed under the joint command of Lieutenants Weyprecht and Payer. "Our ideal aim," says Lieutenant Payer, was the northeast passage, our definite object was the exploration of the seas and lands on the northeast of Novaya Zemlya." In a few days it was found that 1872 was a very unfavorable ice year for explorers, heavy fields similar to those on the East Greenland coast were encountered before reaching latitude 75° N. The rough and tumble work commenced July 29, when a close barrier of ice was forced by ramming, and the ship got into the coast-water of Novaya Zemlya, in which she worked slowly along, impeded by ice and dense fogs. On August 20, after separating from her consort, the Isbjörn, which returned to Europe, the Tegetthoff, as chronicled by Lieutenant Payer," ran into an ice-hole, and in the night barriers of ice stopped our further progress. As usual, the ship was made fast to a floe, the steam blown off, and we awaited the parting asunder of the ice." (The position was then latitude 76° 22′ N., longitude 63° 3′ E.) "Ominous were the events of that day, for immediately after we had made fast the Tegetthoff to that floe, the ice closed in upon us on all sides, and we became close prisoners within its grasp. No water was to be seen around us, and never again were we destined to see our vessel in the water." Thus the self-agency of the AustroHungarian Expedition was paralyzed by the mighty grasp of the ice, and the chances for making valuable discoveries depended on the drift of the pack-ice in which the ship was irrevocably beset. The similarity of this experience to that of the Jeannette seven years later is very marked. In both instances, after the ship had just entered the ice-fields and further progress seemed impracticable, they were made fast to the ice and remained quietly awaiting an opening. One axiom in arctic navigation is that a steamer, after being caught in the ice, should keep her engines in motion until after all chance of getting out is gone. A ship tied up to an ice-floe becomes a nucleus about which other floes collect. But if the engines are kept moving, the floes will gradually work away from the center of disturbance to

spaces of least resistance, and sometimes thus afford chances for escape. Vessels in Baffin's Bay and the Greenland Sea may risk forcing icebarriers to the northward, for the southerly drift almost ensures a speedy liberation.

The

Instances are known of whale-ships having been beset in the ice for weeks and then liberated in time to make a successful season. notable cases of the Tegetthoff, Jeannette, Vigilant, Mount Wollaston, Eira, and North Star all show that besetment in the Arctic Ocean north of Novaya Zemlya and Siberia is sure to be fatal to an expedition.

The position of the Jeannette was about 1400 miles east-southeast of that of the Tegetthoff, yet the ice conditions and the way in which they were hemmed in by the floes were very similar. "The ship and her rigging were stiff with ice, and everything indicated that for us winter had begun. As the masses of ice that enclosed us consisted of small floes, we were led to hope that the strong east wind would disperse them. But the very contrary really happened, for the low temperatures, the calms, and falls of snow bound the floes together the more closely, and within a few days congealed them together into a single field, in the midst of which the ship remained fast and immovable." During the autumn of 1879 the floes moved in upon the ice which encased the Jeannette and became bound together by great sinews of newly formed ice made during the calm weather and comparative inaction of the ocean. The ship was near the center of

a large island of ice, the greatest distance across which was more than three miles. This great natural bulwark repelled the encroachments of the contending masses on its borders, which, however, broke into and disrupted the island of ice, and the ship was eventually crushed. Such also would doubtless have been the fate of the Tegetthoff had not the surrounding ice, after drifting more than fourteen months at the caprices of the winds and currents, been stranded in the shallow waters south of Franz Josef Land, which was thus accidentally discovered. The two winters during which the crew stood by the ship were fraught with great perils and anxieties, and the hard-contested battle for life and return to civilization are among the most interesting in the annals of arctic adventure.

The geographical results of this expedition were important from the discovery of a group of extensive islands north of the eightieth parallel, the extreme northern point of which being Cape Vienna, in latitude 83° N. The islands, as described by Payer, are very rugged,