290 Frof. Nordenshibld — Expedition to Greenland. 



this gave occasion to the expedition to Greenland, which forms the 

 subject of the present desciiption. But, before specially entering 

 upon this subject, I take the opportunity to offer a few brief observa- 

 tions on the many suggestions that have been made and discussed by 

 geographers concerning the most practicable way of approaching the 

 Pole, and thus explain more in detail the reasons for the choice made 

 by us of the proposed starting-point, plan, etc., of our expedition. 



The real polar basin north of the 80th degree may be approached 

 by the following ways : — 



1st. — Way to the east of Spitzhergen. — Petermann has proposed that 

 an attempt be made to pass, by ship, through the broad channel that 

 separates Spitzbergen from Nova Zembla. 



Eespecting the condition of that sea (" Spitzbergen Sea," Peter- 

 mann), as regards ice, we are in possession of numerous observations, 

 made partly by older polar travellers, or rather searchers after a 

 north-east passage ; partly jDy the expeditions repeatedly sent to that 

 part by the Eussian Government ; and lastly by sundry German, 

 English, and especially Norwegian hunting and fishing expeditions 

 of late years. These observations all agree that an unbroken ice-belt 

 extends between these islands, at least as far as the 78th or 79th 

 degree of latitude, leaving, in favourable years only, a broad channel 

 running to 80'^, partly along the east coast of Spitzbergen, and partly 

 along the western coast of Nova Zembla. 



How difficult it is, east of Spitzbergen, to reach as far as 80°, is 

 evidenced by the circumstance that out of all the many attempts that 

 have been made to sail round Nova Zembla, only one has succeeded, 

 viz., Johannessen's remarkable voyage in the summer of 1870.^ 

 Norwegian fishermen from the south, though attracted by a rich 

 booty, have never, on the eastern coast of Spitzbergen, reached 80°, 

 and, although one might probably on the western coast reach the 

 Seven Isles every year, the passage round the north-eastern ex- 

 tremity to the Thousand Isles has only once been successfully 

 attempted, and even then with the hazard of being driven by the 

 adjacent ice-fields upon the steep glaciers of the north-east land, 

 and there crushed, as happened in 1864: to three fishing vessels. It 

 is therefore utterly impossible to proceed by ship in this direction, 

 nor does either Nova Zembla, or the eastern coast of Spitzbergen, or 

 the as yet but little known Gillies Land, offer any easily accessible 

 starting-point for sledge-journeys, situated sufficiently north. This 

 course is then hardly to be thought of for a polar expedition with 

 any prospect of success. 



2nd. — The loay along the eastern coast of Greenland, also ardently 

 urged by Petermann. Numerous expeditions — of which only a few 

 have been able to penetrate the ice so as to approach the coast, and 

 only two, viz. Clavering and Sabine's in 1 823, and the German polar 

 expedition of 1869-70, reached 75°-76° — have made known that 

 portion of the Arctic Ocean ; and we know that the sea here, even at 



^ This was written in December, 1870. The expedition of the last summer seems to 

 me wholly to confirm the result of the older expeditions, but by no means to prove 

 the existence of an open polar sea extending to the Pole. 



