Second Thule Expedition under Rasmussen 



DURING the stay of the Crocker Land 

 Expedition in the Arctic, the Jour- 

 nal was privileged to report from 

 time to time various courtesies extended to 

 this expedition by Mr. Knud Rasmussen, 

 Danish explorer. It now wishes to call at- 

 tention to the Second Thule Expedition, un- 

 der Rasmussen, which has returned to its base 

 in Northwest Greenland, reporting success- 

 ful explorations of the fjords of the North 

 Greenland coast. 



A telegram received on May 27 by Presi- 

 dent Henry Fairfield Osborn at the Ameri- 

 can Museum reads : "Knud Rasmussen on his 

 way back from Greenland. Carried out his 

 expedition and reached DeLong's Fjord. Has 

 mapped all great fjords [extreme North 

 Greenland coast]. No traces found of for- 

 mer [Eskimo] immigration. No game and 

 generally very bad conditions. The Swedish 

 Dr. Wulff and one Greenlander perished." 

 A Reuter's Copenhagen correspondent trans- 

 mits a further telegram in which the Danish 

 explorer says that his advance was attended 

 with greatest difficulties; that after Hen- 

 drik Olsen's death "we started on our home- 

 ward journey and reached land on August 

 :J90 



24 at Cape Agassiz, in bad plight, without 

 provisions." After Etah was reached sledges 

 with supplies were sent back to the rest of 

 the party but too late to save Dr. Wulff. 



The telegrams have been sent out by Mr. 

 M. lb Nyeboe, chairman of the committee 

 in charge of the Thule Station, Northwest 

 Greenland, and imply that Rasmussen re- 

 turned from his expedition in the fall of 1917 

 and probably wintered at Thule, sending let- 

 ters from there to Copenhagen. Letters sent 

 out from Thule in January by Eskimo mes- 

 senger across Melville Bay to Upernivik, 

 would catch the regular mail sledge going 

 southward through the Danish colonies to 

 Holstensborg and the steamer there for Co- 

 penhagen. Thule, situated on North Star 

 Bay, Northwest Greenland, is the northern- 

 most trading station of the world, and was 

 established by Mr. Rasmussen in 1910 for 

 special service to the Smith Sound Eskimos 

 as well as a scientific base for Danish polar 

 exploration. 



The First Thule Expedition under the 

 leadership of Rasmussen left this station in 

 1912. It crossed the inland ice cap of 

 Greenland, somewhat south of the routes fol- 



