38 MAKIOX EXPEDITIOX TO DAVIS STRAIT AXD BAFFIX BAY 



••stoiis" near (jodtliaab. west Greenland. Xsinsen di'ifted on tlu* 

 pack in fluly. USS.S, from near An<rniao:issalilv. latitude i')')° 85' X__ 

 lon<ritude 3.S° W. to 61° 35' X., 42° W.. near Cajie Farewell at the 

 rate of '24: miles ])er day. (See Helland-Hansen-and Xansen. 1909. 

 p. 300.) Wreckaiie of the famous Jea/ieffr after leavin<r the polar 

 basin must have drifted southward alon<>- (rreenland because several 

 ])ieces have been recovered on the southwest coast. Siberian tree 

 trunks and many other unmistakable types of oriental driftwood 

 have been picked up along- the shores of southern Greenland — addi- 

 ti(Hial evidence of the drift of the ice. 



U])()n the ai)])roa(di of summer the east (ireenland })ack lecedes 

 inversely as it advances. The southwest coast otf Julianehaab is 

 usually free from ice l)y early Au<>ust : Ga])e Farewell in late August 

 or early September: and Angmagissalik during September.-* 

 Score.sby Sound district is more likely to be free in late September 

 than at any other time, but in severe ice years it may not imcover 

 at all; or other parts of the east Greenland coast, for that matter. 

 During late summer or fall, when the ea.st Greeland ice pack 

 shrinks to a miniuuim. ojxui water may be found close in. or even 

 along the coast in favorable ])laces. Angmagissalik. in latitude Wi 

 north, on the other harul. has occasionally been isolated by ice the 

 entire year. The sup})ly shij) usually finds comuuinication easiest 

 during the months of September and October, but sometimes it ha> 

 not been able to land there until early Xovember, while in one year. 

 Wandel (1S93. ]). 252) mentions that the coast around Angnuigis.salik 

 was free of ice from Sej)tember 10 until Xovember 25. It is inter- 

 esting to know that Angmagissalik was selected in 1894 as Denmark'.- 

 chief trading ])ost in east (ireeidand because the ice belt at this point 

 is most ])enetrabl('. It is rare indeed for the pack ice to retreat 

 as far north as the Arctic Circle, but there are records of such 

 occurrences. 



The fact that (rreenland is one of the earliest discovered land>. 

 affords opportunity to investigate possible changes that have slowly 

 developed in the character and behavior of the drift ice. The leireud- 

 ary accounts of the early voyages of the Xorsemen during the eleventh 

 century suggest that (xreenland waters were icier then than they are 

 to-day. These adventurous colonizers apj)ai-ently cruised directly 

 from Iceland to (ireenland in their o])eu ^^ikiug shii)s and followed 

 the coast southward to Ga|)e Farewell on coui'ses to-day completely 

 bh)ckadeil. The eaidiest reports, in the first century of the 

 young colony, mention good pasturage and large Hue farms ir. 

 Greenland, but latei-. conditions apj)arently (dianged foi- the worse 

 and we learn about the advance of great nmsses of ice. Recent 

 archeological excavations in southwest Greenland -' have disclosed 

 the root-entwined frozen bodies of souu' of these early settlers, evi- 

 dence of a i-ecord of a (diange of (diuuite. In the thirteenth century 

 the slow advance of the pack is again corroborated by the southward 

 migi'ation of the Eskimos; the chain of evidence being traceable ni 

 the economic ridation between the gradmil encroatdnueut ot the pack 

 and the conseipient disappearance of seals and of man. 



=' Xo pack ice whatsoever was sifihted around Cape Farewell V)y tlie Marion expe«llli"" 

 cruisinsi in Hint vicinity. Soptcniber. I'.tl's. 



-■■See IlDV^aard dliLM. p. CUi. I'oixild. in discussing the archcolonical linds. tola ni' 

 that til." roots were those of annii;ils. not perennials': therefore tlie evidence 19 """ 

 eonilusive. 



