TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 821 



It took them a week in their dog sledges to round Inglefield Gulf, during 

 which they discovered thirty glaciers, teu of them of tlie first magnitude. During 

 the next three months they explored the north coast of Greenland, as far east as 

 longitude 34° W., when a great bay was reached which they named Independence 

 Bay, as they discovered it on July 4. The northern shore of this bay was free 

 from snow and ice. On August 6 they regained their winter quarters in McCormick 

 Bay. On the 8th the steamer arrived, and on the 24th they started for home, 

 reaching Philadelphia on September ti3. During the sledge journey they travelled 

 for a fortnight at an average elevation of 8,000 feet above the sea. Besides their 

 important additions to the map of Greenland, the suggestive fact that the 

 thermometer can rise to 41° F., and torrents of rain can fall in the middle of 

 February as far north as latitude 78°, must be regarded as a valuable discovery. 



It was hardly to be expected that so successful a journey should not be followed 

 by a second attempt in order to follow up the discoveries of the first. Peary has 

 already started for the north of Greenland with a more carefully organised stafi' 

 for a longer expedition. They expect to be absent two years or more. It has 

 been arranged to spend the coming winter not far from their previous quarters. 

 In March they hope to start for Independence Bay, which was discovered on the 

 previous expedition, and there the party will divide, with the object of completing 

 the survey of the coast line of Greenland by reaching Cape Bismarck if possible, 

 a'ad at the same time to explore the northern coast line of Independence Bay, 

 hoping that it may land them further north than the highest point yet reached by 

 any Arctic traveller. 



In the summer of 1888 Dr. Nansen was bold enough to cross the continent of 

 Greenland about latitude 64°, reaching an altitude of 9,000 feet, and he told his 

 story to this Section in his own simple words on his return. The distance across 

 was about ten degrees, and the highest point was about one-third of the way across 

 from the east coast. If the scientific results were necessarily somewhat meaore, Dr. 

 Nansen established a reputation for bravery and physical endurance which he hopes 

 to increase by an attempt to reach the North Pole. The ' Fram ' has already 

 started from Hammerfest, and was telegraphed a few weeks ago from the east 

 coast of Norway. The intention is to enter the Kara Sea and to push northwards 

 and eastwards, hoping that the warm currents caused by the great Siberian rivers 

 will enable them to get well into the ice before winter begins. Once frozen into 

 the pack ice, Nansen hopes to be carried by the currenTs somewhere near the 

 North Pole, and, after drifting for two or three years, he hopes finally to emerge 

 from his ice prison somewhere on the east coast of Greenland. Foolhardy as the 

 •expedition appears, it is nevertheless planned with great skill, and its chances of 

 success are supposed to be based upon a sufiiciently accurate knowledge of the 

 ■ocean currents of the Polar Basin. 



Thebe currents, so far as they are known, are very interesting. The Mackenzie 

 ■and the great Siberian rivers fiow into the Polar Basin, and the current through 

 Behring Strait is supposed to do the same ; but both these sources of supply can 

 only be regarded as of minor importance. Between Spitzbersen and Finmark, 

 however, the Gulf Stream enters the Polar Basin 300 or 400 miles wide. To 

 compensate for these inward currents there are two outward currents, one on 

 each side of Greenland, which, coming from the centre of cold, do their best to 

 intensify the rigours of that mountainous island. 



Nansen hopes that the current which carried the ' Jeannette ' from Herald 

 Island, north of Behring Strait, in a north-westerly direction, for 500 or 600 miles is 

 the same current that flows down the east coast ofGreenland, and he bases his hopes 

 upon three facts. First, that many articles from the wreck of the 'Jeannette' were 

 found on an ice floe oft" the south coast of Greenland three years afterwards ; 

 second, that a harpoon-thrower of a pattern unknown except in Alaska was picked 

 up on the south-west coast of Greenland ; and, third, that drift-wood supposed to 

 "be of Siberian origin is stranded regularly in considerable quantity on the coasts of 

 Greenland. The Norwegian at Hammerfest, about latitude 70°, is dependent for his 

 firewood upon the Gulf Stream, which brings him an ample supply from the Gulf 

 of Mexico, whilst the Eskimo on the Greenland coast, in the same latitude, trusts 



