302 jP^'o/. Nordenskibld — Expedition to Greenland. 



in the parts of Greenland colonized by Danes,^ to advance in that 

 direction was made by— 



A Danish expedition, fitted out for the purpose in 1728. — A Danish 

 governor, Major Paars, vrith an armed company, artillery, etc., was 

 that year sent from Denmark to Greenland, and took with him, 

 among other things, also horses, with which it was intended to ride 

 over the mountains, in order to rediscover, by an overland course, 

 the lost (East) Greenland. The horses, however, died, either during 

 the voyage out or shortly after their arrival in the country ; and thus 

 this expedition, really magnificent, but prepared in entire ignorance 

 of the real nature of the country, was abandoned. 



Dalager's attempt, 1751. — This year the Danish merchant Dalager 

 made an attempt, in about 62° 3V latitude, to advance in the be- 

 ginning of September over the inland ice to the east coast. In the 

 first volume of Kranz'a " History of Greenland " * there is a short 

 description of this journey, interesting, among other reasons, as 

 recording an instance of a glacier, which since Greenland has been 

 an inhabited land has forced its way forward and closed the en- 

 trance of a previously open fjord. We find further from that 

 account, that Dalager, partly on foot and partly in a canoe, in 

 company with five natives, reached the border of the inland ice 

 near the bottom of a deep fjord situated north of Fredrikshaab. 

 For two days they continued their journey over the ice, but suc- 

 ceeded during this time in advancing only eight English miles to 

 some mountain summits rising above the ice-field, where a rein- 

 deer hunt was undertaken, Dalager would willingly have continued 

 the journey a day or two longer, but was unable to do so, partly 

 because the two pairs of boots taken with them for each person were 

 so cut to pieces by the ice that they walked " as good as barefoot," 

 partly because the cold at night was so severe that their limbs be- 

 came stiff after a few hours of rest. On the other hand, the route 

 chosen by Dalager seems not to have been interrupted by very 

 many or deep chasms — in the beginning of the journey the surface 

 of the ice was even " as smooth as a street in Copenhagen." Further 

 on however it was extremely rough. 



E. Whymper^s expedition, 1867.— All that I know about this ex- 

 pedition is, that Mr. Whymper, in company with Dr. E. Brown, 

 three Danes and a Greenlander, endeavoured to make their way 



1 Dr. Hayes's remarkable journey, in October, 1860, over the fields of ice that cover 

 the peninsula between Whale Sound and Kennedy Channel (78° N.L.), was performed, 

 not upon the real inland-ice, but upon a smaller ice-field connected with the inland- 

 ice, like the ice-fields at Noursoak peninsula. The character of the ice here seems to 

 have differed considerably from that of the real inland-ice. Hayes ascended the 

 glacier at Port Foulke, on the 23rd of October, and advanced on foot, the first day 5, 

 the second 30, the third 25 miles, in all 60 English miles. He was here forced to 

 return, in consequence of a storm. The height of the spot where he turned back 

 over the level of the sea was 5000 feet [The Open Polar Sea, by Dr. J. J. Hayes, 

 pp. 130-136). 



^ I have not had access to Dalager's original account. " Gronlandske Relationer, 

 indehaaldende Gronlandernes Liv og Levnet, deres Skicke og Vedtagter, sanit Tem- 

 perament og Superstitioner, tillige nogle kovrte Reflexioner over Missionen, sammen- 

 skrevet ved Fredrickshaabs Colonia i Gronlaud, by Lars Dalager, Merchant. 



