98 THE ICE AGE IN NORTH AMERICA, 



pitable and difficult of approach. From latitude 65° to lati- 

 tude 69° little or nothing is known of it. In 1822-'23 

 Scoresby, Cleavering, and Sabine, hastily explored the coast 

 from latitude 69° to 76°, and reported numerous glaciers 

 descending to the sea-level through extensive fiords, from 

 which immense icebergs float out and render navigation dan- 

 gerous. In 1869 and 1870 the second JSorth German Expe- 

 dition partially explored the coast between latitude 73° and 

 77°. Mr. Payer, an experienced Alpine explorer, who ac- 

 companied the expedition, reports the country as much 

 broken, and the glaciers as " subordinated in position to the 

 higher peaks, and having their moraines, both lateral and 

 terminal, like those of the Alpine ranges, and on a still 

 grander scale." Petermann Peak, in latitude 73°, is reported 

 as 13,000 feet high. Captain Koldewey, chief of the expe- 

 dition, found extensive plateaus on the mainland, in latitude 

 75°, to be " entirely clear of snow, although only sparsely 

 covered with vegetation." The mountains in this vicinity, 

 also, rising to a height of more than 2,000 feet, were free 

 from snow in the summer. Some of the fiords in this vicin- 

 ity penetrate the continent through several degrees of longi- 

 tude. An interesting episode of this expedition was the 

 experience of the crew of the ship Hansa, which was caught 

 in the ice and destroyed. The crew, however, escaped by 

 encamping on the ice-floe which had crushed their ship. 

 From this, as it slowly floated toward the south through sev- 

 eral degrees of latitude, they had opportunity to make many 

 important observations upon the continent itself. As viewed 

 from this unique position, the coast had the appearance every- 

 where of being precipitous, with mountains of considerable 

 height rising in the background, from which numerous small 

 glaciers descended to the sea-level. 



In 1888 Dr. F. Nansen, with Lieutenant Sverdrup and 

 four others, was left by a whaler on the ice-pack bordering, 

 the east of Greenland about latitude 65°, and in sight of the 

 coast. For twelve days the party was on the ice-pack float- 

 ing south, and so actually reached the coast only about lati- 



