6. If the ascent of a mountain in the face of wind and penetrating cold demands all the self-command even of men the most inured to fatigues, it required the additional stimulus afforded by the view of an unknown land to give us endurance and energy under such circumstances, to sketch, to take azimuth measurements, and estimate the distances of important localities. To add to our difficulties, the theodolite was constantly shaken by the wind, so that every angle had to be observed repeatedly, in order that an available mean value might be obtained. It was only after several hours of the most severe labour that my work was completed. My attention was directed chiefly to the southern parts of Zichy Land, which formed a vast mountainous region beyond Markham Sound. Half the horizon was bounded by cliffs and heights gleaming with snow. The conical shape of the mountains prevailed here also; the only exception was Richthofen Spitze, the loftiest summit, perhaps, we had seen in Franz-Josef Land, which rose like a slender white pyramid to the height of about 5,000 feet. The land was everywhere intersected by fiords and covered with glaciers. Its boundaries towards Spitzbergen, or Gillis’ Land, could not be determined, because even at the distance of seventy or ninety German miles, mountain ranges were distinctly to be traced. It would appear, therefore, that masses of land stretch in this direction to at least the fiftieth degree, perhaps even to the forty-eighth degree, of east longitude. We also discovered, that the lands on the south of Markham Sound were separated by a fiord—Negri Sound. This was already open, and since some darker spots indicated fissures in the ice in Markham Sound, it is probable that sledge-journeys can be only undertaken early in the spring in Franz-Josef Land without the danger of being cut off. At the time when we made our observations, it was utterly impossible that such waters could be navigated by any ship, not even if she could be placed amid these small unconnected “ice-holes.” Haller, whose rheumatic tendencies unfitted him to bear wind and cold, had, meanwhile, posted himself in a cleft of rock sheltered from the wind beneath the summit, but I was quite satisfied with his running to my help, in order to rub my frozen hands with snow, when I was forced to drop the book in which I recorded my labours.