72° 30′ lat., 44° long.|77° 26′ lat., 44° long.|76° 40′ lat., 55° long. 12 to 114′ + 4·8° C. | 6′ to 30′ + 2·2° C. | 6′ to 39′ + 2·5° C. 144 + 2·5 | 36 + 1·8 | 48 + 1·0 174 + 2·0 | 45 + 0·3 | 60 - 0·0 204 + 1·5 | 60 + 0·3 | 72 - 0·6 234 + 1·3 | 75 - 0·9 | 90 - 0·6 264 + 1·0 | 90 - 0·8 | 120 - 1·3 294 + 0·5 | 120 - 1·6 | 180 - 1·2 360 + 0·5 | 180 - 1·8 | 300 - 1·2 450 + 0·0 | 360 - 1·6 | 600 - 0·4 | | 800 - 1·3 | |
24. These inferences rendered the despatch of a well-equipped expedition to the Novaya Zemlya seas very desirable, either to penetrate towards the north, or to pursue the direction of the north-east passage. To this idea a most gracious reception was given by the Emperor of Austria. Hence arose the Austro-Hungarian expedition of 1872. The promoters of this undertaking assumed neither the existence of an open Polar Sea, nor the possibility of reaching the Pole by sledge or boat expeditions. Their object, simply and broadly stated, was the exploration of the still unknown Arctic regions, and it was their belief, that a vessel could penetrate further into this region by the route between Novaya Zemlya and Spitzbergen, where the _Isbjörn_ in her pioneer voyage found the ice more loose and navigable than had been imagined possible. But in addition to the causes already specified, the influence of the warm currents, produced by the great rivers of Siberia discharging themselves into a shallow sea, was also supposed to co-operate in producing this phenomenon. Of these rivers, the Obi and Jenisej alone discharge into that shallow sea a body of water as great as the waters of the Mediterranean or the waters of the Mississippi. The course of the current produced by these mighty rivers is as yet unknown; but it was natural to suppose, that old and heavy pack-ice could not be formed on a coast submitted to such an influence. This is confirmed by the observations of the Russians, who in the coldest period of the year always find open water in the Siberian seas. Middendorf, August 26, 1844, found the Gulf of Taimyr quite free from ice; our own observations, made in 60° E. Long., and those of the Norwegian Mack, who advanced to 81° E. Long. (75° 45′ N. Lat.), support the supposition of a still navigable sea. Of the region between Cape Tscheljuskin and the ice-free spaces asserted to exist by Wrangel, and others, we know but little; but it is probable that the character of the ice in those seas does not greatly differ from the character of the ice in contiguous seas. Of the seas between Novaya Zemlya and Behring’s Straits, at the distance of a few miles from the Asiatic coast, nothing is known. No ship has ever navigated this enormous Eastern Polar Sea.