August Petermann expressed the opinion that Baffin may have sighted the
west of Franz Josef Land in 1614, but the first actual discovery is due
to Julius Payer, a lieutenant in the Austrian army, who was associated
with Weyprecht in the second polar expedition fitted out by Count
Wilczek on the ship "Tegetthof" in 1872. On the 13th of August 1873, the
"Tegetthof" being then beset, high land was seen to the north-west.
Later in the season Payer led expeditions to Hochstetter and Wilczek
islands, and after a second winter in the ice-bound ship, a difficult
journey was made northward through Austria Sound, which was reported to
separate two large masses of land, Wilczek Land on the east from Zichy
Land on the west, to Cape Fligely, in 82 deg. 5' N., where Rawlinson Sound
branched away to the north-east. Cape Fligely was the highest latitude
attained by Payer, and remained the highest attained in the Old World
till 1895. Payer reported that from Cape Fligely land (Rudolf Land)
stretched north-east to a cape (Cape Sherard Osborn), and mountain
ranges were visible to the north, indicating lands beyond the 83rd
parallel, to which the names King Oscar Land and Petermann Land were
given. In 1879 De Bruyne sighted high land in the Franz Josef Land
region, but otherwise it remained untouched until Leigh Smith, in the
yacht "Eira," explored the whole southern coast from 42 deg. to 54 deg. E. in
1881 and 1882, discovering many islands and sounds, and ascertaining
that the coast of Alexandra Land, in the extreme west, trended to
north-west and north.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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