384 



GEOGKAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



ported that the river held its depth of not less 

 than two fathoms and its width of half a mile 

 for not less than 300 miles beyond where Mr. 

 Stoney turned back. They further reported 

 that, by making a small portage near the head 

 of this river, they could reach another stream 

 flowing northward into the Polar Sea. The na- 

 tives, many of whom had evidently never seen 

 a white man before, were kind and harmless. 

 Baron Nordenskjold sailed in May for Green- 

 land, with the intention of exploring the in- 

 terior in order to test a theory of his that, after 

 crossing a belt of ice which skirts the coast, he 

 would find an open country possibly mountain- 

 ous, and probably covered with forests. He 

 also hoped to find the remains of the ancient 

 colony of Osterbygden on the coast east of 

 Cape Farewell, founded by Norwegians in the 

 middle ages. These theories were generally 

 considered chimerical, the interior of Green- 

 land having been found to be covered with one 

 great glacier, and all reports of a plateau free 

 of ice having been considered mere Esquimau 

 wonder-tales, while the eastern coast is not now 

 habitable, and there is no reason to suppose 

 that there has been any considerable change 

 in its climate during historic times. Baron 

 Nordenskjold's party was admirably equipped, 

 and included two Esquimaux and a missionary 

 who served as interpreter. The first attempt 

 of his vessel, the Sophia, to reach the east coast 

 through the sounds north of Cape Farewell, 

 Ikek, and Ikernsak, failed. She was obliged to 

 put to sea and skirt the outer edge of the great 

 ice-pack which borders the east coast and 

 makes approach almost impossible. For a long 

 time the Baron sought in vain for an opening, 

 but on the 4th of September, being then abreast 

 of Cape Dan, under whose shelter he thought 

 the ice likely to be less closely packed, he re- 

 solved to make an effort to work his way 

 through. The belt was two or three miles 

 broad, but happily there was no current, and 

 the Sophia succeeded in pushing her way 

 through and reached an anchorage in a fiord 

 free from ice-floes, about latitude 65. This 

 they named Auleitsivik Fiord and made the 

 starting-point of the expedition. At first their 

 progress was slow, not over two and a half 

 miles a day, but they gradually increased their 

 rate of travel to six or eight miles a day. For 

 a time the land rose in height very rapidly, so 

 that on the ninth day they found themselves 

 2,400 feet .above the level of the sea. From 

 this point the ascent was so gradual that it 

 could be discovered only by means of the ba- 

 rometer. On the eighteenth day an altitude of 

 4,600 feet was reached. Here Nordenskjold 

 determined to turn back, but he remained in 

 camp and sent his Esquimaux farther into the 

 interior. They were gone fifty-eight hours 

 and on their return said they had explored a 

 distance of seventy-two miles, and reached an 

 elevation of 6,600 feet. They had seen no trace 

 of land above the surface of the ice, nothing 

 but an unbroken expanse of ice covered four 



feet deep with snow. Nordenskjold now ad- 

 mits that no ice-free land, no vegetation, and 

 no moraine, exist in the interior, at least be- 

 tween 68 and 69. The absence of protecting 

 coast-ranges, and the gradual rise of the land to 

 a plateau, would be sure to produce an interior 

 covered with ice. Nordenskjold was equally 

 unfortunate in his archaeological researches. 

 The scientific world long supposed that of the 

 two villages founded by the Norsemen, the 

 Vesterbygd was on the west coast and the 

 Osterbygd on the east. Modern research, par- 

 ticularly that of Graah's expedition about fifty 

 years ago, demonstrated that this was an error 

 due to the imperfect reading of the Sagas, and 

 that both bygds were on the west coast, the 

 one a little farther east of the other. Nor- 

 denskjold had refused to accept this later opin- 

 ion, but the result of his journey confirms it. 

 Such ruins as he found were entirely of Esqui- 

 mau villages, and there was no evidence of any 

 other habitations east of Cape Farewell. The 

 expedition was, however, in many respects suc- 

 cessful. It reached a part of the coast of Green- 

 land which has not been approached since the 

 days of Eric the Red, for, though north of the 

 Arctic Circle the coast has been often visited, 

 between 62 and 69 it has been so ice-locked 

 as to be unattainable. The observations made 

 during the journey over the ice of the in- 

 terior have an important bearing on the glacial 

 theories of the geologists, and fine collections 

 were made in geology, paleontology, zoology, 

 and botany. In many of the cavities in the 

 ice Nordenskjold found a muddy sediment 

 which he called kryokonite. He believed it 

 to be formed of dust brought by the wind 

 over the ice, and mixed with a metallic sub- 

 stance which he is convinced is metallic dust 

 from cosmical space. In this kryokonite a 

 kind of fungoid vegetation found a holding- 

 ground. After a very dangerous passage out 

 through the ice-belt, the Sophia attempted to 

 reach land again in a higher latitude, but the 

 pressure of the ice was so strong that Nor- 

 denskjold thought the risk too great and shaped 

 his course for Reykjavik. It is considered that 

 a properly-built ship would be able in most 

 years to anchor on the southeast coast, but she 

 would have to seek her place and opportunity 

 with great care, and would not be likely to find 

 a regular "land- water" within the ice-pack. 

 This conclusion is the same as that arrived at 

 by Graah, and more recently by Mourier, and 

 is supported by other Danish settlers and ex- 

 plorers. 



Sonth America. A pass across that part of the 

 Andes that divides Chili from the Argentine 

 Republic has recently been discovered, and is 

 likely to become of great military importance. 

 Hitherto the only practicable passes known 

 have been the Patos and the Cumbre, those 

 farther north being very difficult of ascent, 

 and in m6st cases approached over barren re- 

 gions. The Cumbre is the more accessible, but 

 is so narrow and winding as to make it impas- 



