82 Prof. O. Heer on the last Discoveries 



But exploring-voyages in these unknown regions have not 

 lost their attraction on this account. With these expeditions 

 it is as with the ascent of our mountains. At first we are im- 

 pelled by a scientific interest. We wish to study nature even 

 on the most elevated crests of the Alps. Then there is an 

 irresistible attraction in perilous enterprises which leads man 

 to the frightful solitudes of the high mountains. When he has 

 succeeded in reaching a spot never before trodden by human 

 foot, and his eyes glance over the marvellous scenes which 

 surround him, he esteems himself fully recompensed for all 

 his trouble and for all the risks which he has run. 



It is true that no lofty summit attracts exploration towards 

 the polar regions. But (and the chief of the polar expedition 

 of last year has written to me to this effect within the last few 

 days) the naked rocks and the dazzling ice-fields of the high 

 nortliern regions, desert and frozen as they may be, possess a 

 marvellously captivating charm for any one, whether a philo- 

 sopher or an untutored sailor, who has once trodden them. 

 To reach the pole, or at least a latitude to which man has 

 never yet penetrated, seems to them an object as worthy of 

 their efforts as to the tourist the ascent of a virgin peak. 

 In themselves both these results are of equally little impor- 

 tance. But if scientific researches are combined with these 

 polar expeditions, and if they extend the field of our know- 

 ledge, they are entitled to the interest of the public. 



It is this that encourages me to make known briefly the 

 results of two voyages in the glacial zone, undertaken during 

 the last two years, — namely, that of Mr. Whymper in North 

 Greenland in the summer of 1867, and that of the Swedish 

 expedition to the north pole in the course of last summer. 



I. Mr. Whymper's Expedition. 



The results obtained by the study of the fossil flora of the 

 high northern latitudes had attracted the attention of the Royal 

 Society of London and the British Association. Upon the 

 proposition of Mr. E. H. Scott, Director of the Meteorological 

 Observatory of London, they voted a considerable sum, with 

 the object of collecting in North Greenland new fossil remains, 

 which would allow the investigations already commenced to 

 be pursued further. This mission was confided to Mr. Edward 

 Whymper, well known among us for the first ascent of Mont 

 Cervin. He took with him Mr. Robert Brown, who had just 

 returned from a voyage to Vancouver's Island. 



Every spring a ship sails from Copenhagen to the north of 

 Greenland. In this vessel the travellers made the passage, in 



