Introduction. 



'^ 



T, 



he northernmost great island of the Arctic American Archipelago 

 was first sighted in 1616 by Baffin and Bylot and got its first name, 

 Ellesmereland, that is, the first apart from the Eskimo name "Umingma 

 nuna", the land of the muskoxen, which is probably of very much older 

 origin. The next European who visited these parts was Captain, after- 

 wards Sir, John Ross, who sailed up to Smith Sound in the "Isabella", 

 1818. Both expeditions, however, only sighted the land from their ships, 

 no landings were made. Then, in 1851, two of the ships in the expedi- 

 tion in search of Sir John Franklin under the command of Sherard 

 OsBORN and Cator, went into Jones Sound, and the first landing was 

 effected on the south coast of Ellesmereland, not however on the main- 

 land but on Gone Island. Again, in 1852, a search-expedition visited 

 the same parts under the command of Inglefield, who went further 

 up Smith Sound than his predecessors had done, and looked into the 

 great basin to the north, where also points of a coast were visible to 

 the north-west, which was afterwards regarded as belonging to another 

 island, but he did not land on the west side of the Sound. 



The first map of the south coast was drawn by the officers of the 

 above-mentioned expedition in 1851. It gives only the eastern parts of 

 both coasts of Jones Sound, and is so far very well in accordance with 

 the true trend of the coast. Such is not the case with the map of 

 Inglefield from 1852, his additions to the chart being almost entirely 

 wrong. He has, however, placed an island. Sir Inglis Peak, about 84— 



O 85 ° W., close to the coast of Ellesmereland. Now a considerable island 

 really exists, and even if its relative position to the coast is another than 

 in Inglefield's map, still I think his name for it must be kept. Conse- 



OO quently I use it instead of the later name "Skreia" of Sverdrup (Neues 



Land). 



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