38 



NA TURE 



\_May 10, 1883 



Hans Egede, by his zeal for bringing the blessings of the 

 Gospel to the descendants of the old Norse colonists, 

 caused trading and missionary stations to be established 

 on the west coast. These were subsequently considerably 

 augmented and extended, and henceforth held by the 

 Danish crown, under "The Commercial Association of 

 Greenland." 



Greenland was thus inhabited by Norsemen from 983 

 until the 15th century, and its west coast has, during the 

 last hundred and sixty years, been a place of sojourn for 

 many able Danish administrators and missionaries. 

 Besides this, nearly all expeditions which have been 

 bound for the American Polar sea have stayed here 

 more or less, while the west coast has on many 

 occasions been the object of carefully prepared expedi- 

 tions of research. This part of Greenland is, therefore, 

 scientifically and ethnographical])- one of the best-known 

 of the Arctic lands. But in spite of this we encounter 

 here several of those lacunce in the knowledge of the 

 globe which it is of great importance that we should fill 

 up, and some of these it is now my intention to deal with. 

 The east coast of Greenland was visited in 1822 by the 

 Englishman, Scoresby, jun., and in 1S23 by Sabine and 

 Clavering, in 1829-30 by the Dane, W A. Graah, as well 

 as by the second German expedition under Koldewey in 

 1868-69, and also by some whalers. It is, however, in its 

 greatest extent wholly unknown, a circumstance, which 

 must be detrimental to the proper understanding of the 

 history of the first Norse colonisation of Greenland, and 

 of early voyages of conquest and discovery therefrom to 

 the shores of America. Thus, until the east coast of 

 Greenland is fully explored, one must continue to doubt 

 the very forced explanation of the site of these colonies 

 which is now predominant in the world of science. And 

 it is, on the other hand, not worthy of the geographical 

 discoveries of the 19th century, that a coast-line extending 

 south to the latitude of Stockholm should be so utterly 

 a terra incognita. 



The interior of Greenland is even less known than the 

 east coast, and here we encounter a purely scientific 

 problem, whose great importance is apparent from the 

 circumstance that the unestablished theory, — that the 

 interior of the island is one continuous mass of ice, — forms 

 one of the corner stones in glacial science, which again 

 is closely connected with several of the fundamental 

 principles of modern geology. If we except a trip on 

 the inland ice of Greenland in 175 1, in lat. 62° 31' by the 

 Danish merchant Lars Dalager, who penetrated nearly 

 thirteen kilometres across a comparatively even plateau, 

 and the unsuccessful attempt by Whymper in 1867, in 

 lat. 69° 30', where no progress was possible, in consequence 

 of the difficult nature of the ground, only two serious 

 attempts have been made to explore the interior of 

 Greenland. The first of these was made by Dr. Berggren 

 and myself between July 19 and 26, 1870, in lat. 6S> 30'. 

 Favoured by the most magnificent weather, we were able 

 to penetrate nearly fifty kilometres across a country at 

 the outset very difficult and rent by bottomless abysses, 

 but which gradually improved in condition the further we 

 advanced. We had on starting the company of two 

 Eskimo, but they left us after two days' journey. As 

 those who claimed to know the coast glaciers of 

 Greenland had advised me not to waste time and labour 

 on such a hopeless undertaking as that of penetrating 

 over the inland ice, my outfit was very incomplete ; we 

 were in want of ropes, tent, suitable sledges, and on the 

 Eskimo leaving us we could not even carry the utensils 

 necessary for cooking. I could not therefore on that 

 occasion get very far, but I certainly came to the con- 

 clusion, that I should have been able, with a couple of 

 smart sailors or Arctic hunters and a suitable outfit, easily 

 to have extended my wanderings to 200 or perhaps 

 300 kilometres. I may also mention here that in the 

 month of June, 1873, I effected with Capt. Palander 



and nine sailors a journey of more than 190 kilometres 

 over the inland ice of Spitzbergen, which journey was 

 of special interest to me from the circumstance that I 

 here learnt to know the character of inland ice before 

 thaw sets in, as well as the difficulties which are at such 

 a time attendant on journeys on the glaciers of the Polar 

 regions. This experience, I believe, will be of great use 

 to me during the journey now in course of preparation, 

 as I shall have to cross portions of the inland ice which, 

 on account of the altitude, will still be covered with snow 

 at the time of my visit. 



The second journey of research on the inland ice of 

 Greenland was made between July 14 and August 4, 

 1878, in lat. 62° 40', by the Danes, J. D. Jensen and 

 A. Kornerup. This expedition was carefully equipped, 

 but the country being much fissured, and the weather 

 unfavourable, it did not reach much further inland than 

 the Swedish of 1870. 



None of these expeditions saw any limit to the ice 

 desert from their farthest point, but to infer from this 

 that ice covers the whole interior of Greenland appears 

 to me to be entirely unjustifiable. On the contrary, the 

 following reflections seem to demonstrate that it is a 

 physical impossibility that the whole of the interior of 

 this extensive continent can be covered with ice, under 

 the climatic conditions which exists on the globe south of 

 the 80th degree of latitude. 



The ice masses of the glaciers are commonly termed 

 " permanent," a denomination which was once taken so 

 literally that certain savants asserted that the ice in 

 course of time was transformed into mineral crystals, 

 such as those which are so frequently found in the clefts 

 of the Alps. We know now that this term is entirely 

 erroneous. The glacier which seems century after 

 century to fill the same valley is not only in constant, 

 although imperceptible, motion, by the ice masses which 

 slowly advance from higher to lower elevations, but is 

 also subjected to a change in its form by the circum- 

 stance that the lower stratum melts away through contact 

 with the mountain on which it rests ; while the surface on 

 one side wastes away by thawing in the warm season and 

 evaporation in the cold, and on the other is added to by 

 falling snow, which latter after a time changes from 

 snow dust to granular snow, then to crystals of ice, and 

 eventually to a compact homogeneous mass of ice. And, 

 if the advancing glacier is "fed'' by enormous ice-fields, 

 or what I may term " ice-lakes," situated so high that 

 snow always falls there copiously, it can penetrate far below 

 the border of the perpetual snow, yea, even to parts where 

 the snow-fall is far from sufficient to make up for the loss 

 of melting and evaporation. It is therefore clear, that 

 glaciers, or other constant ice-masses, cannot form in places 

 where they cannot be " fed " by descending ice, or where 

 the snow-fall is less than the quantity which appears 

 and disappears yearly ; a circumstance which, among 

 others, explains why no glaciers exist in the vicinity <>f 

 the north polar coasts of the new or old world. 



With regard to Greenland it is not difficult to demon- 

 strate that the above-described conditions for the 

 formation of glaciers do not exist there, if the country 

 does not rise gradually both from the eastern and the 

 western shore to the centre, and thus be like a loaf of 

 bread in shape, and with sides slowly and symetrically 

 terminating in the ocean. Such a land-formation is, 

 however, not found in any part of the orography of the 

 known world, and one may therefore safely conclude 

 that neither is it to be found in Greenland.' In fact, the 

 geological nature of Greenland, very similar to that of 

 Scandinavia, seems to indicate a similar orographical 

 formation, viz., a formation formed of mountainous ridges 

 alternating with deep valleys and plains ; while one may 

 even assume that the culminating line of the land in 

 Greenland runs, as in England and Sweden, and in 

 both American continents, along the west coast. 



