Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1874 — The Austrian Arctic Expedition. [ARTICLE]

The Austrian Arctic Expedition.

The New York Tribune of the Bth contains a letter from Hamburg, giving an account of the reception bf the returned Austrian Arctic explorers. At a meeting of the Geographical Society, Capt. Weyprecht, the leader of the expedition, related the story of the voyage. He told how they sailed from Bremen, and first encountered ice, and how they struggled with it. —In the autumn of" 1872 they were firmly inclosed and frozen in. At one time they had thirty feet of ice under the keel, and were in a region of intense cold. They drifted slowly though not with regularity, and perfectly helpless. No power of steam or sails could do anything against the ice of the North, and they were quite at its mercy. The summer brought them no release. They made excursions with sledges, and discovered land hitherto unknown, which they christened Franz Josef’s Land, in honor of their Emperor. When Lieut. Payer returned to the ship from his last expedition it was necessary to consider the question of abandoning the Tegethoff. The ship was firmly blocked in the ice, and was lurching so much that it became necessary to shore her up with §pars. There was no prospect of an escape, and no prospect that by remaining longer they could accomplish much muse. Besides, the loss of the ship was quite probable in the crushing and heaving of the ice; and if this should happen in the winter, the, destruction of the entire party was inevitable. So it was decided to return to Europe, and on the 20th of last May they left the ship with boats drawn upon .sledges, The way was terrible; they had to break down hummocks with axes and picks so as to make a road for the sledges, and there were frequently days when they did not make a nautical mile in twentyfour hours. Sometimes they oeuld not stand, and were forced to craw Lover the rough way, and as they approached broken water they found there ice which would not support them standing and where they were again forced to crawl. Several days after leaving the ship a part of them returned to get a smaller boat. They found everything safe in the vessel, and Capt. Weyprecht thinks it not impossible that she may yet be recovered. Through the broken watenthey made their way with many hardships, and at last reached open water. Once on the sea, they made the " best of their way southward, rowing by relays at the rate of about forty miles ,a day. They were picked up by a Russian fishing smack and treated with every kindness. Lieut. Payer spoke of his discovery of Franz Josef’s Land, which he describes as very rough, with a reddish-gray beach showing through the snow, and with mountains of various heights up to 3,000 or -1,000 feet.