NORDENSKJOLD'S THEORY, 209 
Whenever a junction is effected with Lieut. Greely you will report to him 
with your party for duty. 
Should any important records or instruments have been left behind by Lieut. 
Greely in his retreat they may be recovered by the steamer to be sent in 1884. 
It is believed that with the stores and supplies sent last year, which are at St. 
Johns, N. F., and at the Greenland ports, a list of which is herewith furnished, 
and v/hich you will gather on your way northward, together with the provisions 
and articles supplied this year, everything needful will have been furnished for 
safety and success. I believe and expect that you will zealously endeavor to 
effect the object of the expedition, which is to succeed in relieving your com- 
rades, since upon your efforts their lives may depend, and you cannot overesti- 
mate the gravity of the work intrusted to your charge. 
A ship of the United States Navy, the Yantic, will accompany you as far as 
Littleton Island, rendering you such aid as may become necessary and as may be 
determined by the captain of that ship and yourself when on the spot. 
NORDENSKJQLD'S THEORY. 
Professor Nordenskjold sailed yesterday from Gothenburg on his tenth Arctic 
expedition. He was born in Finland just fifty years ago. Half his lifetime has 
been spent in Arctic exploration or in making preparations for it. 
The Sofia, which has been lent by the' Swedish Government, is a small 
steamer, carefully fitted for the work she has to do, which is not specially dan- 
gerous. None of the Vega staff accompany their old leader to Greenland, though 
science is well represented on board the Sofia. Nordenskjold is supported by 
Dr. Nathorst as geologist and paleontologist, Herr Kolthoff for birds and insects. 
Dr. Hamberg as hydrographer. Dr. Berlin as surgeon and naturalist in general, 
and Herr Forsstrand as preserver of specimens. As ice-master one of the boldest 
Norwegian skippers has been selected, Johanesen, who in his walrus schooner has 
sailed far beyond the north point of Novaya Zemlya. The crew consists of twen- 
ty-four men. 
His main object is to penetrate into the heart of Greenland, in order to test 
his theory that the permanent ice is really only a band surrounding the interior, 
which in summer, at least, is literally a land of greenery. In this trying journey 
Nordenskjold will be accompanied by at least one of his staff and ten of his crew, 
and will be equipped with all the appliances requisite for ice-travelHng. In pro- 
viding this equipment he has been guided not only by the experience of Alpine 
climbers, but by the knowledge he acquired twelve years ago, when in company 
with Palander, he succeeded in penetrating thirty miles inland from the head of 
Auleitsivik Fjord, his starting point in the present expedition. About thirty or 
forty miles from the coast the interior seems to rise suddenly like a huge wall of 
ice, cleft here and there, fortunately, by valleys, by means of which the expedi- 
tion will be able to reach the uneven plateau of the interior. The first forty 
