1885.] Geography and Travels. 65 
to the summit. The Danish gunboat 7y//a has returned to 
Orkney from a successful expedition of four months’ duration, 
during which a scientific exploration of the inland glaciers of 
Greenland was effected, and meteorological observations taken 
along the coast as far north as 70° N. lat. Much dredging aad 
trawling was done, the former to a depth of goo fathoms, and 
many unknown species were obtained. A new island, in the 
form of a rounded flattened cone of considerable size, was seen 
on July 26 by the lighthouse-keeper at Cape Reykjanes, the 
south-west point of Iceland. Several earthquake shocks had been 
felt during the preceding days. A large part of one side of the 
cone has since slipped or fallen down into the sea. Mr. 
Whitely contributes to the Proceedings of the Royal Geographi- 
_ cal Society an account of his journey to the foot of the flat- 
topped mountains, Roraima and Kukenam, in British Guiana. 
He reckons the direct vertical sides of the latter (above the slop- 
ing part) at 1090 feet, and declares that its ascent seems impos- 
sible except by balloon. The vertical part of the Roraima seems 
rather less, and there is a break by which ascent may be possible. 
A report of considerable interest has been received from the 
Danish: Expedition to East Greenland, dated Namortalik, March, 
1884. Namortalik has thirty turf-covered houses, including a 
brewery and a bakery, also a Lutheran mission, a church, and a 
school. It is on an island, surrounded by several others, which 
are visited by the natives for seals and eider-duck. The whole 
southern part of Greenland is a region of wild mountains, rising 
in peaks to nearly 8000 feet. Close to Namortalik is the Taser- 
miut fjord, some 50 miles long, with a most luxuriant vegetation 
in summer, and with heat and mosquitos enough to make one 
The observations of Axel Ham- 
66° N. lat. and Cape Farewell, flows upon warm water. Its depth 
the heavier. The quantity of ice on the east coast diminishes in 
spring and summer, and, according to numerous observations 
made by Danish settlers and navigators on the south coast of 
Greenland, the polar drift-ice appears there in May, June and 
July, whereas in November, December, January and February 
there is no ice. Mr. Hamberg believes, therefore, that the polar 
current is at its maximum in spring, diminishes in force during 
summer, and is insignificant in autumn and winter. He hints that 
Nordenskjold owed his comparative success in reaching the east 
coast to the fact that he chose September instead of an earlier 
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VOL, XIX,—NO, I, 
