124 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



important conclusion arrived at by the expedition was that 

 small vessels were suited for polar exploration, and that it 

 would be madness to attempt, as is proposed by the French, 

 the use of a thousand-ton ship. Steamers, too, were believed 

 to be the only form of vessels suited for research on the east- 

 ern coast of Greenland, any thing like reaching the coast in 

 a sailing vessel being entirely out of the question. 3 (7, Octo- 

 ber 8,1870,981. 



GREENLAND A CLUSTER OF ISLANDS. 



Lieutenant Payer, well known for his geological investiga- 

 tions in the Alps, has lately communicated some facts in re- 

 gard to discoveries in Greenland by the late German expe- 

 dition, of which he was a member, and in this he calls at- 

 tention* especially to the probability of the hypothesis that 

 Greenland is essentially a congeries of islands similar to that 

 west of it, and not a huge continental mass, as has been sup- 

 posed by most authors. One strong evidence of this he con- 

 siders to be furnished by the deep inlet discovered by the ex- 

 pedition, previously unrecorded on any chart, and which re- 

 ceived the name of Emperor Francis Joseph's Fiord. This 

 was found to extend deep into the interior. of the land, con- 

 tinually opening into new arms, and widening in places until 

 it was traced out for over one third of the estimated breadth 

 of Greenland, and without any indication of coming to an 

 end. Indeed, in a southwesterly direction it opened out into 

 what looked like a great basin into which the fiord itself emp- 

 tied. The circumstance also that the saltness of the fiords is 

 generally greatly diminished by the fresh-water streams pour- 

 ing into them when they are simply cul de sacs, and the fact 

 that the great Greenland fiord, notwithstanding the enor- 

 mous addition of fresh water, retained all its saltness, point- 

 ed to a maritime communication with the opposite side of 

 the country. 



Time was not allowed to the party to prosecute the explo- 

 ration of this supposed strait ; but it is believed, as stated, 

 that it finds its opposite opening in Baffin's Bay. Another 

 still more potent argument in favor of the assumption that 

 Greenland is a congeries of islands, and not a continent, was 

 found in the apparent absence of great longitudinal valleys, 

 such as usually characterize continents, these being entirely 



