Rink.] '^"'-' [March 20, 



The death of Mr. Samuel Powel was announced as having 

 taken place at Newport, K. I., on March 5, 1885, in the sixtj- 

 seventh year of his age. On motion, the President was author- 

 ized at his discretion to appoint a member to prepare an obit- 

 uary notice of the deceased. 



The Committee on the Michaux Legacy was, on motion, 

 reconstructed by the Society as follows: Thomas Meehan, 

 Frederick Fraley, J. Sergeant Price, Aubrey H. Smith, and 

 William M. Tilghman. 



Nomination No. 1049 and new nominations Nos, 1050, 1051, 

 1052 and 1053 were read. 



The rough minutes were read and the Society was adjourned 

 by the President. 



The Recent Danish Explorations in Greenland and their Significance as to 

 Arctic Science in General. By H. Rink. 



{Read before the American Philosophical Society, March 20, 1885. ) 



No country appears to be better qualified to throw light on the problems 

 of polar geography in general than Greenland. Unto its southern point, 

 though reaching the latitude of Southern Norway, it thoroughly maintains 

 an arctic nature. Its northern extremity has not as yet been explored ; 

 here it disappears in regions which hitherto have braved the efforts of the 

 boldest discoverers. This extent from south to north offers a peculiarly 

 favorable opportunity for establishing meteorological stations and for 

 observing how organic life on the terra firma gradually succumbs to the 

 severity of the climate. Here also human inhabitants in their struggle 

 for existence have advanced further towards the pole, the utmost limit of 

 their abodes not being as yet pointed out with certainty. Moreover the 

 mountains of the Greenland coast contain fossil remains important for 

 illustrating the conditions of the Arctic regions during an earlier geological 

 epoch. Its interior can be considered as not yet visited by travelers, but 

 nevertheless we know about it that in its central regions those masses of 

 snow accumulate which, converted into ice as floating icebergs, are spread 

 over the north western Atlantic, stragglers even reaching the latitude of 

 Spain. Upon the northern hemisphere Greenland is the only country 

 that provides the ocean with these enormous fragments, and it is the un- 

 broken continental character of its interior part which enables it to afford the 



