INTRODUCTION 



In the winter of 1914 the first attempt to realize our plans 

 was made, with Peter Freuchen, my cartographer of the first 

 Thule Expedition, as chief ; but a fall through a glacier crevasse 

 during the ascent on to the inland-ice forced him to turn back, 

 and later on, owing to his theodolite having been destroyed by 

 the fall, it had been impossible for him to get away. 



Meanwhile this expedition stood like an unredeemed pledge 

 from my Arctic Station, and as, for various practical reasons, 

 it must be finished with before I commenced my ethnographical 

 voyage to the American Eskimos (the fifth Thule Expedition — 

 the Danish Expedition to the Arctic North America), which 

 would last several years, I decided to make an attempt to realize 

 it in the year 1916. 



It will be the main object of this expedition to survey and 

 chart the last unknown reach of Greenland's north coast on the 

 stretch between St. George Fjord and de Long Fjord. We 

 shall, of course, with special keenness penetrate into the con- 

 necting land between Nordenskjold Inlet and Independence 

 Fjord. 



The survey of the districts to which we are going will, in 

 addition to the geographical result, present very interesting 

 ethnographical problems, as it will be of importance to the 

 theory of the Eskimos' wanderings to establish whether or not 

 in the above-mentioned big fjords Eskimo winter-houses are 

 to be found. As is known, tent-rings have been found in Peary 

 Land, but never winter-houses. The northern border of the 

 winter-houses is, on the east coast of North Greenland, Sophus 

 Miiller Point and Eskimo Point, respectively in Amdrup and 

 Holm Land, whilst the northern border on the west coast is the 

 vicinity of Humboldt's Glacier and Lake Hazen in Grant 

 Land. Thus, for a complete knowledge of the Eskimos' wan- 

 derings, an examination of the great fjords on Greenland's north 

 coast is wanting. 



Of the geological tasks which the expedition may be faced 

 with, I will merely mention the following : Whilst the whole 

 of Western and Eastern Greenland during the last century has 

 been geologically surveyed by various expeditions, the stretch 

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