Report on the Danmark expedition to the north-east coast. 33 



On August 5th a landing was made at Cape Bismarck, after 

 which the Duke sailed southwards to attempt a landing on Shannon 

 Island. The ice prevented this, however, nor did the Duke succeed 

 in landing any farther south than this. On August 15th, when the 

 Belgica was at 71°22', only about 40 miles from Liverpool Coast, the 

 Duke resoh'ed, owng to the adA'anced time of year, to seek out of 

 the ice, and on August 18th the Belgica was already outside the ice 

 belt and on the way home. 



The Duke had thus succeeded in reaching farther north than 

 any one before him and also in making a rough sketch of the prev- 

 iously quite unknown land north of Cape Bismarck, thus determining 

 the main direction of the coast up to ca. 78°30'. Further, the Duke 

 had discovered some islands. 



Lastly, the three journeys of the celebrated American, Arctic 

 explorer R. E. Peary in 1891—92, 1893—95 and in 1898—1902 may 

 be mentioned. The expeditions had not the east coast as the object 

 of the explorations, but are nevertheless of interest in this connec- 

 tion, seeing that Peary on his first two expeditions, with the west 

 coast as base, crossed right over the inland ice and reached a bay, 

 which cuts into the north-east coast (Independence Bay), whilst on 

 the third Peary reached the north point of Greenland. In this way 

 the natural, end point was determined for the expedition (Danmark 

 Expedition), which was intended to explore the still unknown part 

 of the east and north-east coast of Greenland. 



The object of Peary's expedition in 1891 — 92 ^ was to determine 

 the northernmost point of Greenland. From April 30th to August 

 5th 1892 Peary undertook a sledge expedition over the inland ice 

 from his winter quarters. Red Cliff House in Mc. Cormick Bay at 

 77°40' N. lat. and 70°40' W. long., in order to determine this point. 

 On June 27th, however, almost on the 82nd degree of latitude Peary 

 found his way northwards cut off, the inland ice coming to a complete 

 end, and his course was now set towards the N. E. coast of Green- 

 land, which was reached on July 4th. From a height, Naл^y Cliff 

 at 81''37' N. lat. and 34°05' W. long., Peary saw out over a deep 

 bay, which he called Independence Bay. Peary concluded also, 

 that his journey had determined in the main the northern limit of 

 the mainland of Greenland, as he believed, that the land seen north 

 from Navy Cliff was separated from the mainland by a channel or 

 sound, the eastern part of which was Independence Bay. 



Partly to settle this question and to determine the boundaries 

 of this land north of Greenland Peary again undertook a journey 



' Robert E. Peary: Northward over the great ice. Vol. I, pp. 277 — 382. 

 London 1898. 



Eivind Astrup: Blandt Nordpolens Naboer, pp. 162 — 234. Kri- 

 stiania 1895. 



xi.T 3 



