Report on the Danmark expedition to the north-east coast. 29 



and then Ryder held south-west down along the coast, but already 

 on the 14th at 69°07' all further progress was stopped by a solid mass 

 of continuous sea-ice. Ryder was obliged to turn north again and 

 out of the ice, after which he followed the ice-edge down to 68^/4° 

 N. lat. without any chance presenting itself of penetrating through 

 the ice and in to the coast. 



From the 20th to the 29th of August the Hekla lay in Dyre Fjord 

 in Iceland. When Ryder again went out, he did not succeed in reach- 

 ing into the land until off Angmagsalik and on September the 10th 

 Hekla anchored in Tasiusak, at the same place as Nordenskiöld 

 in 1883. From here Ryder made a journey by boat northwards 

 but did not reach beyond the region already travelled over by Holm 

 in 1884. On September 26th Ryder left Tasiusak and sailed home 

 to Denmark, without succeeding in the exploration of the stretch 

 between 66° and Scoresby Sound. 



Many years were not to pass, however, before this stretch was 

 explored. During his winter stay at Angmagsalik Holm had been 

 able to learn, partly from his own observations, partly from infor- 

 mation given by the eskimo, that in the autumn vessels could come 

 into the coast ■v\athout great hindrance from the ice, at least at Ang- 

 magsalik ^. This led to Denmark founding a mission and trading 

 station at Angmagsalik in 1894 ^, whereby specially favourable con- 

 ditions were created for an exploration of the coast from 66° N. lat. 

 and up to Cap Brewster. 



It may be mentioned in this connection, that С F. Wandel al- 

 ready in 1879 had put forward the A^ew ^, that if the east coast from 

 Cape Farvel to Cape Brewster were to be reached by ship, the at- 

 tempt should be made off Angmagsalik *, and it was also just at this 

 place that Nordenskiöld, as mentioned above, reached into the 

 coast and was the first to pass through the ice-belt vAdth a vessel on 

 this stretch. Nordenskiöld, however, only remained about 24 hours 

 in at the coast and was thus unable to determine, whether the fa- 

 vorable conditions he had met with were the normal or not and 

 the honour of converting the supposition to a fact is thus due to Holm. 



With the founding of the trading and mission station at Ang- 

 magsalik a basis was laid for the exploration of the stretch between 

 ca. 66° N. lat. and Scoresby Sound, whereby the districts explored 

 respectively by Holm and Ryder would become connected — an 



' Meddelelser om Grönland, Bd. IX, p. 143. 



2 Geografisk Tidsskrift, Bd. 12, p. 247. 



' Meddelelser om Grönland, Bd. VI, p. 31. 



■■ Regarding the causes, why the ice in the autumn is more scattered оЯ 

 Angmagsalik than off other places on the coast between Cape Farvel and Cape 

 Brewster, reference may be made to Meddelelser om Grönland, Bd. XXVII, 

 p. 143. 



