104 SHAFFNER ON COMMUNICATION WITH AMERICA [May 14, 1860. 



The landing places on Greenland require to be selected with great 

 care, and after much investigation. It is proposed to land on the 

 east coast, in one of the many bays south of latitude 61^ north, and 

 on the west coast near the town of Julianshaab, or south of that 

 place, connecting the two with a line across Greenland. The bays 

 penetrate to the interior ten, twenty, or thirty miles, and some of 

 them never freeze, nor does the ice from the sea go up them but a 

 few miles. They are very deep, and bergs never ground in them ; 

 the bottoms are of mud and sand. The characters of the bays on 

 the two coasts are much the same, and the Arctic current does not 

 approach the coast on either side. From the sea into these bays 

 the water is deep far below the reach of the greatest icebergs. To 

 make the selection of the proper bays for the landings of the cables 

 the fullest information as to the depth of water from the sea will be 

 required. Some of the inlets bring out ice, but the most of them do 

 not ; many of them are ten miles wide. As to Labrador, Hamilton's 

 Inlet affords all the desired advantages. This inlet runs interior 

 about 140 miles, and at its mouth it is thirty miles wide. The 

 water is deep, and the bottom is sand. At its mouth there is a deep 

 trench to sea, and a cable laid in that trench would never be dis- 

 turbed by the sea. Above and below the mouth of Hamilton's Inlet 

 there are shoals or reefs, some thirty miles from the coast, and 

 many icebergs ground on them. After they melt or break to pieces 

 they pass over and beyond the mouth of the inlet. They never 

 ground at the mouth, nor do they enter into the inlet. 



Icebergs. — The landings on the Faroe Islands and Iceland will 

 never be disturbed by ice. They are open ports, and vessels can 

 go and come from them at all seasons of the year. The coasts of 

 Greenland and Labrador are beset with much ice. The east coast 

 of Greenland is but little settled. The inhabitants trade with the 

 colony near Cape Farewell, and they go and return from time to 

 time in their skin boats. The Arctic or Spitzbergen current, with 

 the floe ice, does not approach the coast, and much of the time that 

 the floe ice runs between Greenland and Iceland the water near the 

 coast is free from ice. The floe ice on the east coast may be seen 

 in more or less quantities in the months of February, March, April, 

 May, and a part of June. Sometimes it appears in the last days of 

 January, and occasionally disappears in May. The coast or berg 

 ice may be seen occasionally throughout the year. On the east 

 coast neither the berg nor the floe ice penetrates the bays, and a 

 cable laid therein would never be disturbed by them even were the 

 waters shallow. The hills on the coast are covered with grass and 

 berry bushes. The climate is not severe. The native ice is not 



