THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



No. XCVII.— JULY, 1872. 



I. — Account of an Expedition to Greenland in the yeae 1870. 



By Prof. A. E. Nordenskiold, 



Foreign Correspondent Geol. Soc. Lond., etc., etc., etc. 



Part L 



(PLATE VII.) 



THE information gained by us during the first three Swedish ex- 

 peditions to Spitzbergen having, either directly through our 

 own experience, or indirectly through conversation with most of the 

 intelligent and bold whalers and walrus-hunters of Northern Norway, 

 fully confirmed the observations of Scoresby, Phipps, Tschitschagoif, 

 Parry, Buchan, Eranklin, Clavering and others, respecting the im- 

 possibility of penetrating by ship during the summer through the 

 crowded ice-masses to the north of Spitzbergen, far beyond the 80th 

 degree of latitude, an Arctic Expedition was sent out from Sweden in 

 1868, having for its object, among other things, to renew during the 

 autumn months the attempt to sail towards the pole from the 

 northern coast of Spitzbergen. I have, in a report ^ of the expedi- 

 tion of 1868, given a brief account of the result of that undertaking, 

 which showed that even at that period of the year, when the water 

 is most free from drift-ice, the polar basin, at least to the north of 

 Europe, and doubtless also to the north of America and Asia, is so 

 full of drift-ice that all possibility of passing through it in a ship is 

 out of the question. 



This unsuccessful attempt did not, however, diminish the interest 

 in Sweden for the polar question, but seemed, on the contrary, to 

 excite to new exertions in the same direction. Almost immediately 

 on the return of the expedition (1868), preparations were set on foot 

 in Gothenburg to collect the necessary means for a new polar expedi- 

 tion, the object of which was to proceed during winter from the 

 Seven Islands by sledge towards the Pole, and in less than a 

 year the amount considered necessary for the purpose was collected. 



It was our intention to use Greenland Esquimaux dogs for the 

 proposed sledge-journeys. I determined, however, first personally 

 to convince myself of the applicability of these animals as beasts of 

 draught, and of the possibility of obtaining a sufficient number, and 



1 Proceedings of Eoyal Geogr. Soc, xiii., No. iii., p. 151 (1869). 



VOL. IX.— NO. XCVII. 19 



