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
the icebergs under Cape Habermann I picked up, one by one, the clothes I
had thrown away. Reaching the glacier, we tied ourselves together with a
rope. Going before the rest, I approached with beating heart the place,
where the sledge had disappeared four hours and a half ago. A dark abyss
yawned before us; not a sound issued from its depths, not even when I
lay on the ground and shouted. At last I heard the whining of a dog,
and then an unintelligible answer from Zaninovich. Haller was quickly
let down by a rope; he found him still living, but almost frozen, on
a ledge of snow forty feet down the crevasse. Fastening himself and
Zaninovich to the rope, they were drawn up after great exertion. A storm
of greetings saluted Zaninovich, stiff and speechless though he was, when
he appeared on the surface of the glacier. I need not add that we gave
him some rum to stimulate his vital energies. It was a noble proof how
duty and discipline assert themselves, even in such situations, that the
first word of this sailor, saved from being frozen to death, was not a
complaint, but thanks, accompanied with a request that I would pardon him
if he, in order to save himself from being frozen, had ventured to drink
a portion of the rum, which had fallen down in its case with the sledge
to his ledge of snow. Haller again descended, and fastened the dogs to
the rope. The clever animals had freed themselves from their traces in
some inexplicable way, and had sprung to a narrow ledge, where Haller
found them, close to where Zaninovich had lain. It was astonishing how
quickly they discerned the danger of the position, and how great was
their confidence in us. They had slept the whole time, as Zaninovich
afterwards told us, and he had carefully avoided touching them, lest
they should fall down deeper into the abyss. We drew them up with some
difficulty, and they gave expression to their joy, first by rolling
themselves vigorously in the snow, and then by licking our hands. We then
raised Haller by the rope some ten feet higher than the ledge on which
Zaninovich had lain, so that he might be able to cut the ropes which
fastened the loading of the firmly wedged-in sledge. At this moment Orel
arrived, and with his help we raised one by one the articles with which
the sledge was loaded. It was ten o’clock before we were convinced that
we had lost nothing of any importance in the crevasse.
[Illustration: KLOTZ’S AMAZEMENT.]
[Illustration: THE ALARM OF THE HOHENLOHE PARTY.]
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