Fuly 16, 1885 | 
Augmaksalik, in lat. 654° N., before the winter, where there is 
a settlement of Greenlanders, but which has never been visited 
by Europeans. It lies near the place where Nordenskiold 
landed in 1883 without seeing any natives. In the spring of the 
present year the coast will be explored, but we shall have no 
news of the party until they return home. Lieut. Holm states 
that the east Greenlanders were very kind and friendly. They 
were all heathens. They were particularly remarkable for their 
features, being tall people, generally with dark eyes and hair, 
and without any trace of the Eskimo. However, that they 
should be descendants of Norsemen seems hardly probable on 
account of their uncivilisation and want of religion, Norse lan- 
guage, and traditions. The party at Nanortalik have explored 
eight great fjords, between lat. 624° and 604° N., right to the 
bottom, without finding the least trace of Norse remains. 
The expedition may be expected to return at the end of 1885. 
There is, however, great probability of the party under Lieut. 
Holm having to spend another year on these inhospitable shores, 
where the European, in order to exist, has to live like the Eskimo, 
While the above-mentioned two expeditions were chiefly con- 
fined to explorations, the third one despatched last entered upon 
an almost unbroken field for research, viz., the sea on the west 
coast. Between 1876 and 1879 researches of the Denmark 
Sound—z.e., the sea between Iceland and Greenland—were 
effected by the Danish Admiralty Expedition, whereas Davis 
Strait and Baffin’s Bay have only been cursorily studied, as, for 
instance, by H.M.S. Val/ovous on its return journey in 1875, 
after having provisioned Sir George Nares, and by the 
Nordenskiold Expedition of 1883. 
The vessel employed for last year’s researches was the Fylla 
gun-boat, in command of Capt. C. Normann. Thescientific staff 
were—Prof. E. Warming, botanist; Mr. Th. Holm, zoologist ; 
and Dr. H. Topsde, chemist and mineralogist. The hydro- 
graphical researches were made by the officers; and for the 
- purpose of examining the flora and fauna of the sea the expe- 
dition was provided with trawls and scrapers of most improved 
American pattern, and, for the deep-sea researches and measure- 
ments of temperature, with a Sigsbee’s sounding-apparatus with 
wire rope and a good collection of the necessary instruments. For 
the determination of the temperature of the sea, thermometers 
by Negretti and Zambra were mostly used, some of which were 
fitted with the splendid automatic reversing apparatus invented 
by Capt. Magnaghi, of the Italian Navy, and some with one 
constructed by Capt. G. Rung, of the Copenhagen Meteoro- 
logical Institute, by which the turning of the instruments is 
effected at a given time by the simultaneous freeing of a weight 
running in the line. The Miller-Casella thermometers, with 
which the expedition were furnished, were used very little, on 
account of the existing high bottom temperatures. 
_ For fetching water from various depths, water-carriers on 
Sigsbee’s (American), Ekman’s (Swedish), and Rung’s (Danish) 
principles were used, the latter being a new invention, which 
was very practicable for lesser depths, as it not only brings the 
sample of water required, but also gives the exact temperature, 
a thermometer being hidden in the axis of the vessel, the mer- 
cury column of which is broken as soon as it is full. 
The yd/a left Copenhagen at the end of May, and arrived, 
at the end of June, at Godthaab, a colony with 300 to 400 
Eskimo inhabitants, on the west coast of Greenland, in lat. 
642° N. Hydrographical researches were commenced early by 
following the edge of the Polar ice from Cape Farewell, which, 
during the summer, filled the southern and eastern parts of 
Davis Strait in vast quantities, and by studying the position of 
the ice-belt and the composition of the water inside and outside 
the ice current. 
We have no space to give a detailed account of the move- 
ments of the expedition in the Greenland seas; it must be 
sufficient to state that the expedition, being chiefly stationed at 
Holsteinborg (67° N. lat.), visited most of the Danish settle- 
ments in Central Greenland, its field of research lying between 
64° and 70° N. lat., and from the innermost creek at Disco Bay 
(about 50° W. long.) to the middle of Davis Strait,—z.e., to 
about 574° W. long. An attempt to get further west, and, if 
possible, reach the coast of America at Cape Walsingham and 
Cumberland Bay, had to be abandoned on account of the enor- 
mous ice-masses which were encountered there in July, and 
which, in the middle of August, when the 7y//a was on her 
return journey, had, in 67° N. lat., approached within 50 to 60 
miles of the shores of Greenland, which is very unusual at that 
season. 7 
NATURE 
251. 
The deep-sea researches consisted in sounding, trawling, and 
scraping, both on the extensive banks which, between 62° and 
68° N. lat., nearly everywhere surround the shores of Greenland 
with a deep channel between them and the coast, and in the 
Davis Strait. 
‘he researches did not extend to very low depths, the greatest 
found being only about goo fathoms south-west of Godthaab, 
while on the érid¢ge connecting Greenland with Cape Walsing- 
ham, at the place where Davis Strait is narrowest—in about 
lat. 67° N.—depths of 400 fathoms only were struck. In the 
Disco Bay, where no soundings had previously been taken, a 
depth varying from 200 to 270 fathoms was found, and it has 
been discovered by the Ay//a Expedition that at the mouth, at 
a depth of 180 to 190 fathoms, a barrier separates this basin 
from Davis Strait, and thus prevents icebergs of a greater 
draught from passing from the great fjord of Jacobshavn into 
the ocean. Judging by the results of the measurements of ice- 
bergs effected during recent years in this fjord by Prof. Steenstrup 
and Lieut. Hammer for the purpose of ascertaining the pro- 
portion between the part above and the part below the surface 
of the water, it has been found that only icebergs with an 
average height above the surface of 150 feet can float over this 
threshold, the proportion between the part above and the part 
below water being 1 to 8°8—7.e. 1: 8:41 for blistered glacier 
ice, and 1 : 9°23 for glacier ice without blisters. For sea-water 
ice with a water saltness of 3°3 per cent. the proportion is only 
I: 5°29. 
The numerous samples of water taken from the surface, 
bottom, and intermediary depths, during the voyage have not 
yet been thoroughly analysed, and before this has been done, it 
is hardly possible to say anything definite as to the currents at 
various depths. This much is, however, certain—that a com- 
paratively warm current of water fills the eastern and central 
parts of the narrowest portion of Davis Strait—as far as the 
western ice limit—but that the highest temperature of the same, 
when the depth is more than a couple of hundred fathoms, is 
not, as is generally the case, found at the surface, éut nearest the 
bottom, and that the coldest layer seems to lie between 30 and 
100 fathoms. As an example may be taken the following series 
of temperatures obtained in lat. 67° 07’ N. and long. 56° 31’ W. 
on July 8, 1884, the temperature of the air being + 1°°9 C. 
o 
At the surface +2°8C. 
», Io fathoms ... 1'9 
~ 8o 99 io, (3 roe) 
55) LOO! G5 hs ae mS ds Toe 
SE ZOO ss a Ee: 3°6 
77G02" 95;) (bottom)... 42 
Similar conditions were also found everywhere in Disco Bay, 
but the surface water in this confined basin was considerably 
warmer, while the bottom temperature was proportionately 
lower. 
We will give an example from lat. 69° 14’ N. and long. 
52° 54’ W., on the morning of July 23, the temperature of the 
air in calm sunny weather being +10°°2C. in the shade :— 
At the surface +7°7C. 
5 fathoms Gat 
5, (LOM os 4°2 
5 20 1°4 
oi 308 Wes Leg oe eed ae +o'1 
7 5Oneas “is & - ee +0°2 
eR (oan S00 oes axe Se +0'1 
55) LOOM aes foMe) 
ma 3t8{e) ; oe) 
S200" ees a, as oe 1°8 
264), as (bottom) a 21 
That the influence of the ice-fjord is here felt at the inter- 
mediary depths is obvious even without any chemical analysis of 
the water of the various layers. It is, however, very remarkable 
that the surface-temperature in such a high latitude, and in 
water constantly covered with enormous icebergs, caz, in the 
short summer, reach such a height as the above series show. This 
is, by the bye, so far from being a solitary example that most 
serial temperatures from this locality, which were, however, all 
taken in calm weather, and extended over seven days, show a 
much higher surface-temperature. 
The highest temperature was registered off the colony of 
Christianshaab, in the Disco Bay, in the south-eastern corner, 
viz. +11°°4C. at the surface. At five fathoms it fell, however, 
