304 CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 



Of the many expeditions sent to explore the east coast only the following 

 have had much success or brought back any information beyond the simple 

 fact of the existence of land. Scoresby, in 1822, forced his way through the 

 ice and surveyed the coast line from Gale Hamke's Bay, in latitude 74°, down 

 to latitude 69°. He found the coast to be bordered by lofty mountains 

 which rose precipitously from the shore to the height of 3,000 feet and more. 

 The coast line was deeply indented, so that he thought the land probably 

 consisted of an assemblage of islands. Large glaciers coming down from 

 the mountains sent off icebergs, and these helped to swell the belt of ice 

 which stretched alona; the coast with a width of a hundi'ed miles. 



Clavering and Sabine, in 1823, in the coui'se of their jjendulum expedition 

 to the north, laid down a stretch of coast between the parallels of 72° and 

 76°. The same accounts of lofty precipitous shores, deeply indented by 

 bays and fiords, w^ere brought Inivk by these explorers. They also reported 

 having met with natives in the Bay of Gale Ilamke. 



Graah, in 1828-31, made an adventurous exploration of the coast, in 

 native boats, from Cape Farewell north, penetrating with great difficulty as 

 far as latitude 65° 15'. Previous to the Second North German Expedition, in 

 1869-70, nothing was known of East Greenland, beyond the fact that it 

 is bordered by lofty and precipitous mountains, from which great glaciers 

 descend, and that the coast line is so broken as to leave it uncertain whether 

 it is a group of islands, or a single mass of land deeply indented with 

 immense fiords. This information applied, however, only to the line of coast 

 between the parallels of 70° and 75°, visited by Scoresby and Clavering. 

 North of 75°, and between Graah's farthest northern point (65°) and Scores- 

 by's most southern (70°), the map was a blank, and indeed it remains nearly 

 so to this day. 



The officers and crew of the crushed ship '• Hansa," of the Second North 

 German Expedition, were carried near it in their drift south, while camped 

 on an ice-floe, and they were able to fix the position of a few points. In 

 latitude 67° they were within two miles of the coast, which is described as 

 precipitous, and having here and there small glaciers at the bottoms of the 

 bays, with high snow-covered mountains in the background. The scientific 

 corps of the second ship of the same expedition, the " Germania," among 

 Avhom was Payer, a skilful Alpine explorer, made important additions to our 

 knowledge of the coast between the parallels of 73° and 77°. The published 

 results of this expedition show that tlie glacial and topographical conditions 



