35° Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
boat wantonly injured, and the depot robbed. Isachsen 
and Buy meanwhile explored the south coast of Jones 
Sound, and all the parties had returned to the ship 
by July. 
This year the ice cleared out of the fjord and the 
Ft am was soon beyond Gaasefjord on her return home, 
after four winters. The explorers arrived in Christiania 
in September 1902. Captain Sverdrup had very ably 
conducted a most successful expedition, Lieut. Isachsen 
had specially distinguished himself as a sledge traveller. 
Meteorological, magnetic, and tidal observations were 
regularly taken throughout the long period, and the 
biological and geological collections were of quite excep- 
tional interest. 
The discoveries of Sverdrup and Isachsen complete 
the delineation of the great Parry Archipelago, for Axel 
Heiberg and the Ringnes Islands must be included in 
it, especially from a geological point of view. Ellesmere 
Island, North Devon, and Baffin Island stand apart as 
more allied to Greenland in character. The Parry 
Archipelago presents quite a different aspect, both 
geologically and physiographically, and is fairly uniform 
in structure, with similar strata representing different 
geological periods, when wanting in one place supple- 
mented in another. Thus the indications of the lias 
formations discovered by M'Clintock on Prince Patrick 
Island, and by Sherard Osborn on the north point of 
Bathurst Island, were repeated in the discoveries of 
Sverdrup's expedition. On the other hand in Baumann 
Sound, on the west coast of Ellesmere Island, there was 
a coal field and impressions of tertiary plants such as 
are found on Disco Island and the Noursoak Peninsula 
in Greenland. 
On the whole it may be said that the Sverdrup 
expedition made the largest addition to our Arctic 
knowledge of any other since the return of the Franklin 
search expeditions. 
Captain Gunnar Isachsen continued his affection for 
Arctic work, and took special interest in bathymetrical 
researches. He made further valuable oceanographical 
investigations during his Spitsbergen expedition in 1910. 
