8 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



64 30' N. lat. until August 15th, when the expedition commenced 

 its arduous task. Strange to say, at first the intense heat compelled 

 the party to travel at night. A heavy gale was encountered the 

 second day, which confined the party to their tents three days. 

 In the early part of September an extensive plateau between 8,000 

 and 9,000 feet above the sea-level, and resembling a frozen ocean, 

 was reached, which occupied three weeks to cross. The cold at 

 this altitude was excessive, but Doctor Nansen was unable to 

 register it as his thermometers were not adapted for so low a 

 temperature ; he calculates that some nights it was 80 or 

 90 Fahr. below freezing point. The mountains of the west coast 

 were first sighted on September 19th, when they were arrested by 

 dangerous ice and crevasses, which were happily safely traversed, 

 and on September 26th the party reached the coast at Ameralik 

 Fjord, 64 12' N. lat. The sledges of the expedition were propelled 

 over the ice by sails, which relieved the party considerably when 

 the wind and weather were favourable. Doctor Nansen and his 

 party were obliged to spend the winter at Godthaab, as the last 

 ship of the season had left, and they did not reach Copenhagen 

 until May last, 1889. Doctor Nansen's main object was to prove 

 the possibility of traversing the Continent of Greenland, and in 

 this he was eminently successful. He considers that Greenland 

 is completely covered over by snow, the accumulation of ages, 

 which in some instances cannot be less than 600 feet thick, and 

 which covers the tops of the mountains with glaciers and crevasses. 

 The pressure of this enormous mass, with running streams under- 

 neath, which are the sources of the ever-flowing rivers, prevent 

 an excessive growth of the ice. It seems more than probable that 

 the configuration of Greenland is similar to that of Norway and 

 Sweden with their rugged mountain masses, high ridges, and 

 fjords. Doctor Nansen's description of the mass of frozen snow 

 forcing its way from the high plateaux of the interior to the 

 coast with a resistless, crushing, grinding pressure gives some idea 

 of the changes the earth's crust has been subject to under glacial 

 conditions. 



