New lands within the Arctic circle: Narrative of the discoveries of the Austrian ship "Tegetthoff" in the years 1872-1874Payer, Julius
History
New lands within the Arctic circle: Narrative of the discoveries of the Austrian ship "Tegetthoff" in the years 1872-1874
Payer, Julius
Admiral Tegetthoff (Ship); Arctic regions; Franz Josef Land (Russia) -- Discovery and exploration
some remarkable star. It was against the grain with them to have to drag
in the teeth of the wind, and if they had to push on amid hummocks of
ice, they immediately began to growl. They were fed in the morning, and
more particularly in the evening, and they showed a delicacy of taste
in discriminating between bear’s flesh and the despised seal’s flesh.
While they carefully avoided coming near us before our start, provided
they were not very hungry, in order to escape being harnessed, yet when
harnessed nothing could exceed their vigour and persistence in dragging.
[Illustration: ICEBERGS AT THE BASE OF THE MIDDENDORF GLACIER.]
5. As we approached the promontory on the south of Crown-Prince Rudolf’s
Land, we came upon innumerable icebergs, from one hundred to two hundred
feet high, which made an incessant cracking and snapping sound in the
sunshine. The Middendorf glacier, with an enormous sea-wall, ran towards
the north to a great distance. Deep layers of snow and great rents in
the sea-ice, the consequence of the falling-in of icebergs, filled the
intervening spaces between them. Into these fissures we were continually
falling, drenching our canvas boots and clothes with sea-water. But the
aspect of these colossal fragments of glaciers engrossed us to such an
extent, that we wandered a long time with unflagging interest among
these pyramids, tables, and cliffs. It was only when I sent on Klotz to
mark out by his footsteps a path by which we might ascend the Middendorf
glacier, that we came to a more open region, and, all putting their
strength to the work of dragging, we gained its summit, crossing in our
progress many crevasses bridged over with snow. Three of these yawned
across the lower part of the glacier, needing but a slight movement of
the ice to detach them and transform them into icebergs. Further on, the
glacier appeared smooth and free from crevasses, although its inclination
amounted to several degrees. Towards the north it seemed as if it might
be crossed without excessive exertion, if all took part in the work of
dragging. But before we began this part of the day’s work we rested, and
recruited ourselves with dinner, and setting up our little tent at about
400 paces above the edge of the glacier, we looked down with feelings of
delight on its semi-circular terminal precipice and the gleaming host
of icebergs which filled the indentations of the coast. While we were
sitting in the tent Klotz made the fatal communication to me, that he
was not the man he should be, that for some days his foot had swollen
and ulcerated, so that he could walk only in shoes made of hide. However
vexatious this mishap, there was nothing for it but to send him back to
Hohenlohe Island. Laden with a sack and carrying a revolver, he set off,
and soon disappeared from our eyes in the labyrinth of icebergs beneath
us.
[Illustration: THE SLEDGE FALLS INTO A CREVASSE ON THE MIDDENDORF
GLACIER.]
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