286 
may arise from the ignition of gases escaping 
from innumerable apertures in the flanks of the 
islet). 
Tebenkoff, in his description, tabulates this 
islet as in latitude 53° 52’ north, and longitude 
167° 39’ west. 
I have no doubt that during the present year 
(1884) we shall obtain its exact geographical 
position, its physical conditions, and reliable 
measures of its size and height. 
On the 20th of October, 1883, — seven days 
before Hague saw the island, —a shower of 
ashes took place, small quantities of which 
were collected at Iliuliuk, and a portion pre- 
sented to the California academy of sciences. 
There seems some doubt, however, as to the 
point whence the ashes came; as the account 
from Iliuliuk places the date of their fall at 
Oct. 16, wind being fresh from west-south-west, 
with rain and sleet. It may be that this 
pumice-dust came from the eruption of Mount 
St. Augustin (see map of Alaska) on Oct. 6, 
under the influence of an upper current of air 
from the north-eastward ; that mountain lying 
over seven hundred miles distant in that direc- 
tion from Unalashka. 
It is noticeable, that during the eruption 
from Bogosloff, or at least about that time, 
the two voleanoes on Akontan Island (about 
as far to the east-north-east of Makushin vol- 
cano as Bogosloff is to the west by north) 
ceased to smoke, and showed no signs of ac- 
tivity. These two volcanoes, only three miles 
apart, are 3,332 and 3,888 feet high respec- 
tively. Nothing was heard from Makushin: 
probably its summit was in the clouds, and 
might have been active. 
As regards the distance to which the ashes 
from such eruptions are sometimes carried, it 
may be mentioned, that at the time of the 
eruption of volcano Iliamna, in March, 1867, 
the pumice-ashes fell on St. Paul, Kadiak 
Island, one hundred and sixty-five miles dis- 
tant. 
From the natives of Lliuliuk it was quite 
recently learned that they had seen smoke issu- 
ing from the new Bogosloff — or, rather, from 
the position of the Bogosloff— some time in 
1882: the exact date could not be obtained. 
GEORGE Davipson, 
Assistant U.S. coast and geodetic survey. 
THE DANISH EXPEDITION TO EAST 
GREENLAND. 
THE report of Lieut. Holm has appeared in the 
Dagblad of Copenhagen. He left Nanortalik on 
the 28d of July last, with a party of thirty-nine 
SCIENCE. 
~~, ey ee 
people, nine kayaks, and four umiaks, and reached Bs 
Fredericksthal, the last European station, the same — 
evening. Here they were assisted and entertained 
by missionary Broadbeck until the end of July, 
while the party was detained by the presence of floe- 
ice in the vicinity of Cape Farewell. From the 31st 
of July until Sept. 11 the party was not much incom- 
moded by ice, only losing three days while detained 
in Lindenow Fiord. 
The charts of East Greenland as far as latitude 61°, 
where the work terminated, will be notably changed, 
especially by the discovery of extensive fiords, until 
now unknown. Their shores are generally bare and 
vertical, or nearly so. In many places snow lies all 
summer. The sea-ice reaches to the bases of the 
cliffs, or even several miles into the fiords. Except 
at the extreme south, vegetation is even less abun- 
dant than in West Greenland, and is sometimes 
wholly absent. The southernmost of these fiords, 
some thirty-eight miles long, reaches within ten miles 
of the head of the Tasermint Fiord, which opens on 
the western coast. Both are full of ice. South of the 
sixty-first degree of latitude, and even a few miles 
northward from it, nothing could be seen of the 
inland ice characteristic of West Greenland. In that 
vicinity, from a mountain peak three thousand feet 
in height on Iluilek Island, they were able to see that 
the interior of the country for a great distance was 
composed of grand mountains, often rising over seven 
thousand feet above the sea. 
In the fiords explored in 1883, there were found no 
remains of buildings erected by the Northmen, except 
those in Lindenow Fiord, the most southern of all, 
already described by Broadbeck. A great number of 
Eskimo ruins were noted in the different fiords. 
Sixty of these uncivilized natives were met going to 
trade with the people of West Greenland. They were 
much less like the typical Eskimo than those of the 
western coast. The men are almost always tall and 
slender, with long beards, and at a distance resemble 
Europeans. Some of them were even handsome, and 
the women were much prettier than those of West 
Greenland. In summer they lead a nomadic life, 
going from one fishing or hunting place to another. 
In winter several families unite to build huts covered 
with turf and stones, like those of West Greenland. 
They spend this season hunting seal and bears. 
When the natives of Holm’s party arrived at about 
latitude 61°, they refused to continue farther, fearing 
that the umiaks might be frozen in, as the ice began 
to knit together every night. On the most northern 
point attained, a hut was erected, and a depot made for 
the use of the expedition during the coming summer. 
Provisions and several boats were left here, and 
Holm returned with his party to Nanortalik. Here 
winter quarters were prepared, and a magnetic and 
meteorological observatory established. Magnetic 
observations are to be taken hourly from eight A.M. 
to midnight; on term days, every five minutes; and - 
from four A.M. to four P.M., every minute. Arrange- 
ments have been made for simultaneous observa- — 
tions at the commercial stations of Denmark, in West ~ 
Greenland. 
[Vou. III., No. 57. 7" 
