H. G. SIMMONS. [SEC. ARCT. EXP. FRAM 



at Cape Hold with Hope, south of which the great fjord district begins, 

 stretching to the south side of Scoresby Sound (about lat. 70) and 

 showing a climate and other natural conditions that make it little apt 

 to be drawn into comparison with North-Western Greenland. I shall 

 not here enter further upon the question about the possibilities of distin- 

 guishing phyto-geographical subdivions of this coast-land, but will only 

 mention that when in the following pages, I speak of North-Eastern 

 Greenland, I draw the southern boundary at Cape Dalton in 69 25', 

 where the comparatively well-examined area of Scoresby Sound ends 

 and a coast-strech with many great glaciers begins. 



Of these different parts of Greenland, the first mentioned is by far 

 the best surveyed in botanical as well as in other respects. The Danish 

 colonization, now of nearly two hundred years' standing, has made it 

 more easily accessible, many of the officials of the colonies have 

 materially contributed to our knowledge about it, and the Danish Govern- 

 ment has encouraged and supported the scientific exploration of its 

 colonial districts in many ways, so as to make that district the best 

 known of all the arctic lands. The other parts of the country have 

 been explored only by casual expeditions, many of them even lacking 

 members qualified for careful and reliable scientific work; long stretches 

 of the coast have never been visited, at least not during the favorable 

 season and therefore they still form a veritable terra incognita so far 

 as their natural conditions are concerned. 



This also is the case with North- Western Greenland, notwithstand- 

 ing the many expeditions that have visited at least some parts of it. 

 I am now going to give a sketch of the nature of this region, so far 

 as it may be compiled from the works of the different explorers; but 

 first I will give a historical summary of the expeditions which have 

 contributed to our present knowledge about Greenland north of Mel- 

 ville Bay. 



The first European who sighted the land north of that wide bay 

 was WILLIAM BAFFIN 1 , who in 1616 navigated up through the great 

 inland sea now bearing his name. After passing Melville Bay by the 

 "middle passage" as the whalers have since termed it, he entered the 

 "North water" which led him up to Smith Sound. His northernmost 



1 I now leave quite out of consideration the very problematic voyages of the first 

 Scandinavian colonists of Greenland who are thought to have gone beyond 

 Melville Bay. Some passages in the chronicles of the Greenland colonies point 

 indeed to their having visited the "North water" but they certainly did not 

 pass Smith Sound, and their discoveries were at all events lost. 



