During the first winter the _Tegetthoff_ drifted through the wandering ice for the most part in a north-easterly direction. When a little north of seventy-four degrees, she took a turn towards the west in February 1873. Her course was now a generally westward one, but with variations. In the spring and summer of 1873 every effort was of course again put forth to free her from the ice. All endeavour in this direction, however, still proved ineffectual, and the little party again prepared, though with very anxious and depressed hearts, to face a second winter. But through the long gloom of that second winter they were to be buoyed up by hope and expectation. In August the ship took a turn northward, when suddenly, 'as if by magic,' the mists lifted, and behold! a vast shape, high, bold, and rocky, loomed out of the fog on the vessel's bows. It was land beyond a doubt, new land; and fresh hope and life filled every breast at the sight. The whole aspect of things suddenly changed for the explorers. They had now something to look forward to through the long winter--namely, the exploration of that new land which they had discovered, or as it may be said, which had discovered them. When the land first revealed itself to the explorers, it was too late in the season to leave the ship for purposes of exploration, and so the _Tegetthoff_ remained close by it, still fast in the ice, all through the succeeding winter, during which one disturbing thought troubled the minds of all on board, the fear, namely, that the vessel might drift away again from the land, and all the hopes of the expedition end in nothing. But no such untoward fortune awaited them. When the spring came round, and the long darkness waned, the light revealed the land still in the same position. And now preparations began to visit the new-found land. Three separate sledge-journeys were made from the ship, all under the command of Lieutenant Payer. The first journey began early in March 1874, and was a short one. The party comprised six men and three dogs; but as Lieutenant Payer contemplated making his second journey the most important one, he reserved the pick of the crew for it. It will be understood that it required no little courage and patient endurance on the part of the handful of men engaged in this first sledge-journey across the desolate wastes of ice, when it is stated that their physical condition was very far from being perfect. 'Pospischill suffered from lung-disease; Lurkinovich from palpitation of the heart; Haller from chronic rheumatism; Lettis from a tendency to bronchial catarrh.' It is therefore all the more creditable to these men that they bore up so well, and accomplished so much, for the first sledge-expedition did all that its leader expected from it. The position of the new land and its general character were determined; Wilczek Island and the south part of Hall Island explored; and from the