438 



NA TURE 



\Scpt. 4, 1 8S4 



structure, their extraordinary variety and diversity, their 

 beauty, form great attractions. To these may now be 

 added the interest, indeed excitement, to be obtained by 

 intelligent and judicious cross-fertilisation. Altogether 

 we need not wonder that the cultivation of orchids is 

 spreading rapidly among the garden-loving people of 

 these isles. For they interest equally the man of science 

 and the gardener. We trust that Mr. Fitzgerald may 

 bring his labour of love to a successful termination, and 

 that descriptions of the orchids of other parts of the 

 world, equally complete, accurate, interesting, and intelli- 

 gent, may be taken in hand by botanists equally competent 

 and enthusiastic. T. L. 



GRINNELL LAND 



'THE following is the Times report of the paper read 



-*• by Lieut. Greely at the British Association on 



Tuesday on some of the results of his recent Arctic 



expedition : — 



Lieut. Greely stated that the geographical work of the 

 Lady Franklin Bay Expedition covers nearly 3 of lati- 

 tude and over 40° of longitude. Starting from lat. 

 81° 44' N., long. 84 45' W., Lieut. Lockwood reached, 

 on May 18, 1882, on the north coast of Greenland, lat. 

 83° 24' N., long. 40 46' W. From the same starting- 

 point he reached to the south-west, in May 1883, in 

 Greely Fjord, an inlet of the Western Polar Ocean, in 

 lat. 80° 4S' N., long. 78 26' W. The journey to the north- 

 ward resulted in an addition to our charts of a new coast- 

 line nearly 100 miles beyond the furthest point seen by 

 Lieut. Beaumont of the Royal Navy. It also carried 

 Greenland over forty miles northward, giving that con- 

 tinent a much greater extension in that direction than it 

 had generally been credited with. The furthest point 

 seen on the Greenland coast was estimated at about lat. 

 83° 35' N., long. 3S 3 W. There were no indications that 

 the furthest point seen was the northern termination of 

 Greenland. The newly-discovered coast resembled in 

 many respects that of Southern Greenland ; the mainland 

 was intersected by many deep fjords, with numerous out- 

 lying islands. The interior of the country, as seen from 

 an elevation of some 2000 feet, consisted of confused 

 masses of mountains, eternally snow-clad or covered 

 with ice-caps. The fjords presented to the eye nothing 

 but broad, level expanses of snow and ice, being devoid 

 of any marked ice-foot, floebergs, pressed-up hummocks, 

 or any other indications tending to prove their direct 

 connection with the Spitzbergen Sea. In. general, 

 the immediate coast was high, rugged, and preci- 

 pitous ; the formation very like that around Dis- 

 covery Harbour— schistose slate, with a sprinkling of 

 quartz. The vegetation resembled closely that of Grinnell 

 Land. Among the specimens brought back is the Arctic 

 poppy. Several saxifrages were identified above the 83rd 

 parallel. Traces of the Polar bear, lemming, and Arctic 

 fox were seen. A hare and ptarmigan were killed at the 

 furthest north, and the snow bunting was heard. A re- 

 markable fact noted was the existence of a tidal crack — 

 so called for lack of a better name — which extended from 

 Cape Bryant along the entire coast, running across 

 various fjords in a direct line from headland to headland, 

 varying from one yard to several hundred yards in width. 

 Inside the crack, rough hummocky ice was but rarely 

 seen, while outside prevailed the pateocrystic ice, over 

 which Commander Markham struggled so manfully and 

 successfully in his wonderful journey of 1875, midway 

 between Capes May and Britannia. A sounding was 

 made, but no bottom was found at 800 feet. Apparently no 

 current existed. It may be well to state that the latitude 

 of the furthest northern point, Lockwood Island, was deter- 

 mined by a set of circum-meridian and sub-polar observa- 

 tions, which were reduced by the Gauss method. The 

 latitude of Cape Britannia and several other points was 



determined by circum-meridian observations. It affords 

 me pleasure to testify to the accuracy of Lieut. Beau- 

 mont's maps ; the only correction made places Cape 

 Britannia a few miles south and Cape May a few miles 

 west of their assigned positions. These points were 

 Io:ated by Lieut. Beaumont from bearings. His com- 

 parative exactness was remarkable considering the disad- 

 vantages under which he laboured. The journeys made 

 by Lieut. Lockwood and myself across Grinnell Land into 

 its interior revealed striking and peculiar physical con- 

 ditions which have been hitherto unsuspected. Between 

 the heads of Archer and Greely Fjords, a distance of 

 some seventy miles, stretches the perpendicular front of 

 an immense ice-cap, which follows closely from east to 

 west the Sist parallel. Its average height was not less 

 than 150 feet. The undulations of the surface of the ice 

 conformed closely to the configuration of the country, so 

 that the variations in the thickness of the ice-cap were 

 inconsiderable in about sixty miles. But two places were 

 found where the slope and face were so modified as to 

 render the ascent of the ice possible. This ice-cap, 

 extending southward, covers Grinnell Land almost en 

 tirely from the 81st parallel to Hayes Sound, and from 

 Kennedy Channel westward to Greely Fjord on the Polar 

 Ocean. The glacier discharging into Dobbin Bay is but 

 an offshoot of this ice-cap. Without doubt glaciers can 

 be found at the head of every considerable valley de- 

 bouching into Richardson, Scoresby, or other bays. 

 Several valleys which were visited during the retreat 

 southward displayed at their entrances evident signs of 

 such occupancy in the past. In July I was fortunate 

 enough to ascend Mount Arthur, the summit of which is 

 4500 feet above the sea. The day was very clear ; to the 

 northward of Garfield Range a similar ice-cap appeared 

 to view, from which extensive glaciers projected through 

 every mountain gap. One of these, Henrietta Nesmith 

 Glacier, had been visited by me in the preceding April, 

 and was found to have a perpendicular face of about 

 200 feet. It discharged into a small bay, part of Lake 

 Hazen. Gilmar, Abbd, and other glaciers feed the 

 streams which empty into that lake. Similarly glaciers 

 were found at the head of the rivers discharging into St. 

 Patrick and Lincoln Basins, Norris Bay, and Discovery 

 Harbour. From these indications I estimate the north- 

 ern ice-cap of Grinnell Land as not far from 6000 

 miles in area. This southern limit closely coincides 

 with the 82nd parallel. The country between the Sist 

 and 82nd parallels, extending from Kennedy and Robe- 

 son Channels to the Western Polar Ocean, was found 

 in July entirely free from snow, except on the very 

 backbone. In over 150 miles travel into the interior 

 my foot never touched snow. Vegetation abounded, 

 being exceedingly luxuriant as compared with Cape 

 Hawkes, Cape Sabine, or other points further south 

 visited by me. Dead willow was found in such abun- 

 dance as to serve for fuel in more than one instance. 

 Willow, saxifrages, grasses, and other plants grew in such 

 profusion as to completely cover large tracts of ground. 

 These valleys afford excellent pasturage for musk cattle, 

 which feed towards the sea coast during summer, but 

 withdraw to the interior as winter advances. I frequently 

 noted evidences of recent elevation above the sea of the 

 region now free from ice-cap. Such indications consisted 

 of raised beaches, marine shells, and driftwood. At one 

 place the trunks of two large coniferous trees were found 

 in such a state of preservation as to allow of their use for 

 fuel. It seems probable that these ice-caps were originally 

 united. It is certain that both the northern and southern 

 ice-caps have recently retreated, even if such a process is 

 not going on now. Along the frontier of the southern ice 

 were found many small glacial lakes and moraines. To the 

 north, Lake Hazen for some fifty miles borders the ice- 

 cap. In front of Henrietta Nesmith Glacier there weie 

 three parallel moraines. Between the face of the glacier 



