TOWARDS THE NORTH POLE. 65 



additions to our knowledge of the Greenland ice-cap are very important, 

 seeing how little is known of the interior of the country. Geological 

 investigations carried out by Giesecke in 1806-14 along the west coast 

 of Greenland for 60 N. to 73 N. form the basis of our knowledge 

 of the geology of this vast island. The Danes have done much useful 

 work along the southwest and southeast coasts, and the comparatively 

 narrow strip of territory between the sea and the ice-cap is very well 

 known from the 66th parallel on the east coast round to the 75th paral- 

 lel on the west. Attempts to cross Greenland from west to east were 

 early made. In 1728 Major Pars even set out at the head of an armed 

 mounted force. But for long all attempts failed. Dalager, Rae, Brown 

 and Whymper were unsuccessful in their efforts to explore the ice-cap. 

 In 1870 Baron A. E. Nordenskiold could only penetrate some 35 miles 

 inland from the head of Auleitsivik Fiord, to an elevation of 2,200 feet. 

 In 1878 Lieutenant Jensen reached a point 47 miles inland from 

 Frederikshaab, where he found the ice 5,000 feet above sea level. In 

 1883 Nordenskiold again visited Greenland, and made fifteen marches 

 on the inland ice from the same point as before. He himself penetrated 

 only a little way, but the Lapp ski-runners whom he had taken with him 

 mounted the ice for 140 miles, reaching an elevation of 6,600 feet. At 

 last Nansen effected the crossing from east to west. Umivik, the start- 

 ing point, in 64 45' N. latitude, was reached only after many hard- 

 ships on August 10, 1888. By August 27 he and his companions, five 

 in number, had ascended 7,000 feet, but only advanced forty miles. 

 The ice-cap, however, was found to terminate in a broad flat plateau 

 from 8,000 feet to 9,000 feet high, and over this such rapid progress 

 was made that the west coast was reached, some fifty miles south of 

 Goothaab, on September 29. Peary's crossings were effected in the 

 reverse direction, and across the northern end of Greenland. After 

 a preliminary journey from Disco Bay in 1886, Peary made his first 

 attempt from McCormick Bay early in 1892, and, striking due north- 

 east, came out on the north coast at Independence Bay. This journey 

 was repeated in 1894, and briefly Peary may be said on these occasions 

 to have determined the relief of an exceptionally large area of the 

 inland ice, to have delineated the northern extension of the great in- 

 terior ice-cap, to have demonstrated the insularity of Greenland, and 

 to have proved the existence of detached land masses to the north. A 

 valuable account was also obtained of the Smith Sound Eskimo. 



VOL. LXII. 5. 



