

Gourti'sii of E. O. Hovey 



View of North Star Bay, northwest coast of Greenland. — At the right Dundas Mountain rises 



700 feet above the sea level. About one mile from its base can be seen the houses of Thule Station, 



scientific base for Danish Arctic exploration and trading station established by Mr. Knud Rasmussen 



for the Smitli Sound Eskimos in 1910. Mr. Peter Freuchen is resident manager of the station 



lowed by Peary in 1892 and 1895, and 

 reached Danmarks Fjord (just south of In- 

 dependence Fjord at the northeast corner of 

 Greenland). This expedition made surveys 

 at the head of Independence Fjord, which 

 enforced the 1907 discovery of the unfortu- 

 nate Mylius Erichsen that "Peary Channel" 

 of the maps was nonexistent, Independence 

 Fjord a fjord only, and Peary Land not a 

 separate "land" but a part of the coast of 

 North Greenland. 



Rasmussen planned a Second Thule Expe- 

 dition for the summer of 1916 to complete 

 the surveys of this region, particularly the 

 inlets and fjords of the coast between Inde- 

 pendence and Sherard Osborn fjords. For 

 the second expedition he left Copenhagen in 

 April, 1916, by the mail steamer to Holstens- 

 borg. From there he traveled by sledge 

 northward and across Melville Bay to North 

 Star Bay. He reached this point too late, 

 however, to complete the necessary prepara- 

 tions and start northward across the ice cap 

 by June 1, as planned. It was therefore 

 necessary to postpone the work until 1917, 

 spending the winter of 1916-17 at Thule. 



This led to the great advantage, however, of 

 affording opportunity to make a very early 

 start in 1917, when the sea was still frozen 

 over. Thus the original plan of crossing the 

 inland ice cap to reach the unexplored areas, 

 following the route of the First Thule Expe- 

 dition, was abandoned, and the sea-ice route 

 determined upon, northward through Ken- 

 nedy Channel to Fort Conger, across Robeson 

 Channel to the Greenland coast, thence north- 

 eastward, mapping the coast with its fjords 

 to Peary Land. 



The expedition left Thule April 4, 1917, 

 as reported by Dr. E. O. Hovey who, as a 

 member of the first relief ship sent north- 

 ward for the Crocker Land Expedition, was 

 wintering at North Star Bay at the time. 

 Rasmussen visited MacMillan at Etah on the 

 way northward about April 10. He was ac- 

 companied by Dr. T. Wulflf, Swedish botan- 

 ist, Lauge Koch, geologist and cartographer, 

 several Smith Sound Eskimos, and by Hen- 

 drik Olsen, a Greenlander who had been a 

 mem])er of the early Danmark East Coast 

 I]xpedition. Rasmussen's plans included liv- 

 ing on the supplies furnished by the coun- 



391 



