4 H. G. SIMMONS. |SEC. ARCT. EXP. FRAM 
at Cape Hold with Hope, south of which the great fjord district begins, 
stretching to the south side of Scoresby Sound (about lat. 70°) and 
showing a climate and other natural conditions that make it little apt 
to be drawn into comparison with North-Western Greenland. I shall 
not here enter further upon the question about the possibilities of distin- 
guishing phyto-geographical subdivions of this coast-land, but will only 
mention that when in the following pages, I speak of North-Eastern | 
Greenland, I draw the southern boundary at Cape Dalton in 69° 25’, 
where the comparatively well-examined area of Scoresby Sound ends 
and a coast-strech with many great glaciers begins. 
Of these different parts of Greenland, the first mentioned is by far 
the best surveyed in botanical as well as in other respects. The Danish 
colonization, now of nearly two hundred years’ standing, has made it 
more easily accessible, many of the officials of the colonies have 
materially contributed to our knowledge about it, and the Danish Govern- 
ment has encouraged and supported the scientific exploration of its 
colonial districts in many ways, so as to make that district the best 
known of all the arctic lands. The other parts of the country have 
been explored only by casual expeditions, many of them even lacking 
members qualified for careful and reliable scientific work; long stretches 
of the coast have never been visited, at least not during the favorable 
season and therefore they still form a veritable terra incognita so far 
as their natural conditions are concerned. 
This also is the case with North-Western Greenland, notwithstand- 
ing the many expeditions that have visited at least some parts of it. 
I am now going to give a sketch of the nature of this region, so far 
as it may be compiled from the works of the different explorers; but 
first I will give a historical summary of the expeditions which have 
contributed to our present knowledge about Greenland north of Mel- 
ville Bay. 
The first European who sighted the land north of that wide bay 
was WituiaM Barrin', who in 1616 navigated up through the great 
inland sea now bearing his name. After passing Melville Bay by the 
“middle passage” as the whalers have since termed it, he entered the 
“North water” which led him up to Smith Sound. His northernmost 
I now leave quite out of consideration the very problematic voyages of the first 
scandinavian colonists of Greenland who are thought to have gone beyond 
Melville Bay. Some passages in the chronicles of the Greenland colonies point 
indeed to their having visited the “North water” but they certainly did not 
pass Smith Sound, and their discoveries were at all events lost. 
