20 G. Amdrup. 



more accurate conception of the form of the globe. Such observations 

 had been made by Sabine in the previous years at other places on 

 the globe ^. 



On August 8th the "Griper" approached the coast at about 74°20' 

 and on August 11th a landing was made on the south point of Shannon 

 Island. On the afternoon of the same day the "Griper" again stood 

 northwards but was stopped in the evening by impenetrable ice off 

 the north end of Shannon Island, where Clavering landed (75°12'). 

 In the north high land was seen and to the inside of Shannon Isl. 

 were several fjords (Ardencaple Inlet). On August 13th Sabine began 

 his observations on Sabine Island (ca. 74°30'), the largest of the Pen- 

 dulum Islands. From Sabine Isl. Clavering made an excursion by 

 boat southwards between the 16th and 29th, on which Gale Hamskes 

 Bay, discovered in 1654, was explored. On the large island in the 

 bay, Clavermg Island, Clavering fell in with Eskimo, the first and 

 only time Eskimo have been seen north of the Angmagsalik district. 



On August 31st the "Griper" weighed anchor and stood south- 

 wards along the coast. On September 4th a landing was made on 

 Jackson Island off Cape James and another on the 6th at Cape Broer 

 Ruys. On the following day they sailed past a large bay, which was 

 named "Foster Bay", the same bay that the 2nd German North Pole 

 Expedition more closely explored in 1870 and called "Kejser Franz 

 Joseph Fjord". The course southwards was held until the 13th; on 

 the 14th the "Griper" sailed out through the ice belt and made for home. 



Clavering's voyage meant a very great increase in our know- 

 ledge of the coast between 73 and 75°20', which had been sketched 

 in the previous year by Scoresby, though only to ca. 75°00'. 



Scoresby's voyage was calculated naturally to make a great 

 stir in Denmark. Here expedition after expedition had been sent 

 out during centuries, without any succeeding in penetrating the ice 

 belt and land on the east coast and now this had been accomplished 

 by Scoresby, whose main object further was the whale fishing and 

 not the exploration of the east coast. 



With OUI' present knowledge of the ice conditions along the east 

 coast of Greenland, however, this was quite natural, for all the earlier 

 expeditions had tried to get through the ice belt to the south of 69° 

 or 70", where the ice owing to the comparatively narrow breadth of 

 the south-going arctic current is much denser at most places and more 

 pressed together than north of 69° or 70°, where the current and thus 

 the ice is spread out over a wider area. For the same reason there 

 is no open, navigable coastal water between the ice belt and land 

 south of ca. 69° or 70°, such as is usually found in summer north of 

 69° or 70° right up to at least 75° N. lat.^. 



' Peterniann's MittheiluiiKeii, IG. Band, 1870, p. 320. 



- Meddelelser om Grönland, Bd. Vi, pp. 44—45, Bd. XXVII, pp. 142—143. 



