Kaiser Franz Joseph Land is an archipelago, of about equal dimensions to Spitzbergen, extending from eighty degrees or thereabouts to at least eighty-three degrees north latitude, but how far from east to west was not determined. It is a very barren region, as may be believed, containing mountains from two to five thousand feet high, glaciers of great size, and many deep fiords. Animal life is abundant, bears and seals and Arctic birds in great variety, vast numbers being found by the explorers in many parts. No trace of human beings was anywhere discovered, and Lieutenant Payer believes the region to be uninhabitable by man. By the geological formation of the islands, which seem to be of volcanic origin, the explorer was reminded of the north-east coast of Greenland. A third and final sledge-journey was made by which the north-west coasts of M'Clintock Island were visited. The sledge-expeditions began on March 10, 1874, and ended May 3d, during which period a distance of four hundred and fifty miles was traversed. While these expeditions were being made, the ship was all the while fast in the ice; and as there seemed no prospect of getting free, it was resolved to abandon her. To remain another winter with the hope of further discoveries, would have been, under the circumstances, a very great risk. Provisions were becoming scant, and the physical condition of the men, so severely tried by the two winters already passed amid the ice, was far too low to make it safe to face a third. And all now felt that they could return to their country at least with honour. The _Tegetthoff_ was abandoned on the 20th of May 1874, and the return journey to Europe began. But the dangers and hardships of the explorers were by no means yet over. The progress southward, now in the sledges, now by boats, was toilsome, painful, and slow in the extreme. To convey a conception of this it is sufficient to state that 'after two months of indescribable efforts, the distance between us and the ship was not more than two German miles;' a space that would be equal to about nine English miles. Does not this rate of progress correspond in a striking degree with the experience of our own recent Arctic expedition in traversing the terrible 'sea of ancient ice?' But had the ice of the Novaya Zemlya seas remained much longer as formidable as it did to the sledge-parties of Commander Markham and his colleagues, the Austrian expedition party must have one and all perished. But fortunately, at the end of two months' travelling, and when the men had almost begun to despair, 'leads' unexpectedly opened up in the ice; and after one more month of sledging and boating, the open ocean was reached in 77° 40′; an unusually high latitude. Ultimately the party were picked up, as they had hoped for, by a Russian fishing-vessel, off Cape Britwin, minus one only of its members, poor Krisch the engineer, who had died of consumption shortly before the abandonment of the ship.