14 NORDENSKJOLD'S AND BERGGREN'S JOURNEY IN 1870. 



crevasses in which cannot be crossed, but must be gone around, are 

 tremendously deep. If somebody should fall into them he could 

 never be saved. The reindeer-hunters used to come there. The 

 land ice enlarges rapidly," &c. 



The late Mr. Olrik, so many years inspector of North Greenland 

 and director of the Greenland trade in Copenhagen, and his 

 brother-in-law and predecessor, the well-known conchologist — 

 Inspector Moller — also visited the inland ice. In all likelihood, 

 the feat of exploring the interior will be again attempted this 

 summer by an eminent Arctic and Alpine explorer. 



8. Nordenskjbld" s and Berggren's Journey in 1870. 1 — The account of 

 this interesting attempt I give in the leader's words. It is in- 

 teresting not only as being the most successful one ever made on the 

 inland ice, but in the fact that it was conducted by a very ex- 

 perienced Arctic explorer, and by men of science so eminent and 

 accomplished as Professor Nordenskjold and Dr. Berggren — a well- 

 known botanist, lately Assistant-Professor in the University of 

 Lund, and now engaged in botanical travels in New Zealand : — 



" If the inland ice were not in motion, it is clear that its surface 

 woxild be as even and unbroken as that of a sand-field. But this, 

 as is known, is not the case. The inland ice is in constant motion, 

 advancing slowly but with different velocity in different places, 

 towards the sea, into which it-passes, on the west coast of Greenland, 

 through eight or ten large and a great many small ice-streams. 

 [For a description of these see p. 38.] This movement of the ice 

 gives rise in its turn to huge chasms and clefts, the almost bottom- 

 less depth of which close the traveller's way. It is natural that 

 these clefts should occur chien\y where the movement of the ice is 

 most rapid, that is to say, in the neighbourhood of the great ice- 

 streams ; but that, on the other hand, at a greater distance from 

 these the ground will be found more free from cracks. On this 

 account I determined to begin our wanderings on the ice at a point 

 as far distant as possible from the real ice-fjords. I should have 

 preferred one of the deep ' strom-fjords ' (stream-fjords) for this 

 purpose ; but as other business, intended to be carried out during 

 the short summer, did not permit a journey, per boat, so far 

 southward, I selected instead for my object the northern arm of 

 Auleitsivikfjord, which is situated 60 miles south of the ice-fjord 



1 From a translation of his ' Redogorelse for en Expedition till Gronland ar 

 1870,' in the ' Geological Magazine' (edited by Henry Woodward, f.r.s.), 1872 

 (vol. ix.), pp. 303-306, 355-3G2. The passages within brackets are mine, and 

 here and there I have ventured to make some slight emendations on the transla- 

 tion (apparently by the learned traveller himself) when such was obviously 

 required, but in no case have I in any way altered hie meaning. 



