THE WINDS FROM THE "GREAT ICE" 



from it, they each passed through zones of outward 

 blowing winds which alternated in force between 

 calms and fierce blizzards of hurricane force. Here 

 in contrast to the central region the snow was 

 packed hard by the storms so that the sledges, 

 heavily laden as they were, did not sink into it. 



The storms of the slopes of the "Great Ice" 

 seem to "work themselves up" and then having 



reached their maximum of force suddenly come to 

 an end accompanied by a marked elevation of 

 temperature of the air. This so-called foehn wind 

 is the same in its nature as the foehn wind which 

 blows down the north slope of the Alps, or the 

 "Chinook" which sweeps down the eastern slope 

 of the Rocky Mountains. Before the nature of 

 such foehn winds was understood, they led to very 

 erroneous ideas and were sometimes interpreted 

 to indicate that a warm climate prevailed in the 

 interior of Greenland. It is historically interesting 

 that a military expedition with field guns was in 

 the early days actually sent out from Scandinavia 



45 



