J56 



NATURE 



[January 21, 1909 



cartographers (under Captain Koch, R.D.I.), two meteor- 

 ologists, two zoologists, one botanist, one geologist, one 

 hydrographer, one ethnologist, one physician, and two 

 painters, besides one ice-master, two mates (both of whom 

 belonged to the cartographers' staff), two engineers, two 



Fig. I. — Typical Fjord in ihe interior of King Frederick VIII. Land 



Stokers, three Eskimo, and only three sailors. The scien- I 

 lific staff, however, had agreed to do the common ship's | 

 work besides their own special work, and, upon the whole, I 

 this arrangement worked rather satisfactorily. I 



The e.\pedition left Copenhagen in June, ic)o6. On 

 July 31 we saw our first ice, passing along the outer rim 

 of some small hummocks, and on the next dav \vr wc ro I 

 at the border of the heavy pack-ice, as 

 well as at the edge of the continental 

 shelf. We knew this because our 

 sounding-lead, which had just shown a 

 depth of 1300 fathoms, now only 

 showed 165. This seems to indicate 

 that the chief branch of the south- 

 going polar current runs across thi' 

 shoals which are found everywhere out- 

 side the east coast of Greenland, but 

 gradually lessens its strength over the 

 deep sea. 



We fought our way through the ice, 

 one day, in spite of cotitinuous efforts. 

 only advancing a mile or two, the ne,\i 

 day perhaps proceeding ten to fifteen 

 miles. Twice we were surrounded b\ 

 the ice for a period of thirty-six hours, 

 and in the beginning it looked danger- 

 ous enough, but the conditions soon 

 became better, and we got through. 



On .August 13 — we had taken thir- 

 teen days for 140 miles — we reached 

 land. .At last we were sailing in the 

 so-called shore-water, where the ice 

 was very loose. \\'c had reached as f.ar 

 north as we had ever dared to hope, 

 but we tried to go still further in the 

 shore-water. At Isle de France (772° 

 N. lat.) we were stooped by imnene- 

 trable pack-ice, and had to go back, 

 after having landed Captain Koch and 



several other cartographers, together with sone big 

 caches of provisions, at the most northerly point of the 

 continent. The harbour place which we chose w.as one 

 w'e had previously found inside the outer range of ice, and 

 thus protected against the heavv pressure of the pack. 



NO. 2047, \'OL. 79] 



We anchored the Danniarh, the bow pointing southward, 

 and with hawsers from the stem to the shore. After that 

 we built some houses ashore, in which the various branches 

 of scientific research werb to be carried on, and the latter 

 commenced. 



The land of King Frederick \TI1. is 

 a beautiful mountainous countrv, in 

 many places very much like Norway — 

 the same picturesque valleys, the same 

 deep fjords, with steep mountains, as 

 liigh as 2000 feet on both sides, which 

 have inspired our two painters. Fries 

 and Berthelsen, numerous islets and 

 rocks intersected with sounds. Every- 

 where there were traces of glaciers 

 from the Ice period, but still earlier the 

 rountry must have had a milder 



■ limate. The geologist, Jarner, found 

 inpressions of animals and plants from 



ibis period in the sandstone of the 

 Malemuk Mountain, on Koldewey 

 Island, and Hochstetter Foreland, and 

 l)rought a fine collection home. 



The country is not very wide. .\t 

 77° lat. the bottom of the interior fjords 

 is reached about forty to sixty miles 

 from the coast, and here generally a 

 ^'lacier is coming down from the in- 

 land ice. F'arther north, at Jbkel Bay, 

 liowever, the inland ice goes directly 

 into the sea, and the coast-line here 



■ ijnsists of two ranges of islets. .At 

 ihc Malemuk Mountain there is some 

 inore free land, but it is narrower, and 

 bpcoiies lower and lower, until it finally 



l.M. 77' N. disappe.-irs, and the inland ice again 



goes straight into the sea. Danmark 

 Fjord is a big, mountainous fjord, eighty miles deep. 

 Peary Land is not covered with inland ice ; its southern 

 coast is very low, and in the interior there are moun- 

 tains to a height of 2000 feet. All this coast-line 

 up to Cape Bridgeman and most of the edge of the 

 inland ice has been mapped by the cartographers' staff, 

 under Captain Koch, by theodolite measurements in a very 



77 N 



exact manner. The country in the neighbourhood of the 



harbour has been mapped topographically, and thi? 



triangulation there is brought in connection with the 

 German triangulation in 1S70. 



The most interesting geographical feature is the big 



