The Aptera have perhaps the most extensive distribution of all animals, being found in Franz Josef Land and South Victoria Land, on the snows of Alpine glaciers, and in the depths of the most extensive caves.
A connecting island-chain between Franz Josef Land and Spitzbergen is probable.
August Petermann expressed the opinion that Baffin may have sighted the west of Franz Josef Land in 1614, but the first actual discovery is due to Julius Payer, a lieutenant in the Austrian army, who was associated with Weyprecht in the second polar expedition fitted out by Count Wilczek on the ship "Tegetthof" in 1872.
After Leigh Smith came another pause, and no further mention is made of Franz Josef Land till 1894.
Meanwhile Nansen, on his southward journey, had approached Franz Josef Land from the north-east, finding only sea at the north end of Wilczek Land, and seeing nothing of Payer's Rawlinson Sound, or of the north end of Austria Sound.
