New Lands within the Arctic Circle

• Main Author: Payer, Julius von
• Format: Book
• Language: unknown
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2011
• Subjects: Arctic; North Pole; Franz Josef Land; Iceberg*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139151573

This two-volume work by the nineteenth-century Arctic explorer and artist Julius von Payer (1841–1915), originally published in German and translated into English almost immediately in 1876, documents his experiences during the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition, which he commanded from 1872 to 1874 with his colleague Karl Weyprecht. Early into the expedition, of which the original aim was to find a north-eastern passage, their ship, the Tegetthoff, became trapped in ice, and its resultant drifting into unknown territories led to the discovery of Franz-Josef Land. Volume 2 describes the crew's exploration of Franz-Josef Land by sledge, and their survival by means of bear-hunting, rationing of food, and making clothes from animal skins, in severe weather conditions, and encountering the challenges posed by icebergs and glaciers, until they were able to make their way to safety. The work contains both maps and paintings, the latter by von Payer himself.