6 H. G. SIMMONS. [SEC. ARCT. EXP. FRAM 
Then came in 1871 Cuartes Francis Haut in the “Polaris”, who, 
finding the ice conditions unusually good, sailed up to the northern ex- 
tremity of the Robson Channel, where the Greenland coast begins to 
trend more eastward. A long stretch of coast was made known by 
this expedition, which was soon followed by the english government 
expedition under the command of G. S. Nares, who, in 1875, went along 
the route of the Polaris up to the northern part of Robson Channel. 
Indeed, most of the explorations carried out by this expedition fell on 
the west side of the channels; but it has also contributed to our know- 
ledge of the Greenland coast along them as well as to the north, where 
Beaumont reached lat. 82° 25’. 
After the lapse of a few years, the northern parts of Greenland 
were again visited by an exploring party of an expedition, which had 
its principal field of work in Grinnelland. Lieutenant Locxwoop, of the 
GrEELY-expedition, then made a sledge journey along the Greenland 
coast, from which he was able to state that it extended to lat. 83° 35’, 
a little south of which Locxwoop turned in May 1882. 
Some other expeditions have contributed to the knowledge of these 
parts of Greenland, or have at least visited them on the way to other 
fields of work. I may mention among them the english Franklin Search 
expedition under Penny in 1850; the swedish expedition in the Sofia in 
1883; the ill-fated expedition of Bsérure in 1893 which, after visiting 
the Carey Islands and the Greenland coast, proceeded up to Southern 
Ellesmereland never to be seen again; the Fram expedition in which | 
myself took part, which visited Foulke Fjord in 1898 and 1899; and the 
Danish literary expedition under the late Mr. Mytius Ericusen, who has 
since succumbed to the hardships of another expedition. 
A wide field of work in the northern parts of Greenlands is that — 
which has been covered by R. E. Peary in his different voyages be- 
tween 1891 and 1906. He has also had an opportunity of stating that 
Greenland does not extend as far as, or beyond, the Pole, as has for- 
merly been believed, but that it ends at lat. 83° 39’. It is only to be 
regretted that so indefatigable an explorer should not have shown more 
interest in the different fields of scientific investigation, that could have 
yielded so rich a harvest and that would have given a far greater value 
to his voyages. Some important work is, however, done both by mem- 
bers of his own expeditions and of the auxiliary parties which have been 
sent up year after year. 
Before I pass on to the special botanic information due to the 
different expeditions, I will try to give a summary account of the phys- 
