in the extreme North. 83 



May 1867. In the first week of June (June 6), they landed 

 at Egidesminde, a Danish establishment of desolate aspect. 

 Vegetation is almost entirely wanting on this little island. 

 The granite rocks were still covered with snow, and the ponds 

 with a layer of ice. The dwarfish herbage, which was just 

 beginning to grow, announced the first awakening of spring. 

 Thence the travellers went in a boat to Jakobshaven (in 69*^ 

 10' N. lat.), which they selected as their headquarters, and 

 from which they would endeavour to penetrate into the interior 

 of the country. 



Ofi" the mainland along the western coast of Greenland there 

 are innumerable islands and peninsulas, cut out by fiords which 

 deeply indent the shore. These advanced lands are the only 

 parts inhabited and known at present. Starting from them 

 the ground rises, most frequently in scarped slopes or in abrupt 

 walls of rock, to a height of 2000 and 8000 feet, and forms a 

 plateau covered by an immeasurable sea of ice — no doubt the 

 largest that exists in the world. How were these glaciers to be 

 traversed and explored ? Mr. Whymper hoped to succeed by 

 means of sledges drawn by dogs. Much time was required to 

 procure these animals and the provisions necessary for their 

 nourishment ; for scarcely anything was to be found in the 

 little settlements of the Esquimaux. When the expedition 

 was ready to start, the Esquimaux who ought to have accom- 

 panied it had disappeared ; they had gone to a neighbouring- 

 colony to take part in a dance. Consequently it was the 

 middle of July before they could start. The travellers passed 

 in boats through the long fjord of lUartlek, filled with moun- 

 tains of ice detached from the two glaciers which abut upon 

 it. They then ascended to the plateau, which at this point 

 rises to about 2000 feet above the sea. Thence, as far as the 

 eye could reach, they discovered nothing but a vast extent of 

 ice, without elevations, without any depressions, without val- 

 leys — a continuous sheet filling up and covering equally the 

 ridges and valleys, and thus forming an icy plateau, which loses 

 itself in the interior in an unlimited distance, emitting on the 

 shore side very numerous arms which descend even into the sea. 

 These branches follow the primitive valleys, and incessantly 

 convey new mountains of ice to the ocean. As no naked 

 rocks are to be seen anywhere projecting above the glacier, the 

 latter has no moraines ; but it is furrowed with crevasses and 

 fissures innumerable, and from place to place it was cut by large 

 lakes. Mr. Whymper soon convinced himself by experience 

 of the impossibility of penetrating into the interior by ad- 

 vancing upon this ice. The sledges could not advance ; they 

 were continually being upset upon this rugged and crevassed 



