CH. XLIIl] 
Rasmussen 
379 
had sunk and that all their companions had gone home 
in a vessel that arrived in the summer. A house, needing 
much repair and full of snow, had been built out of timber 
from the wreck, and there were provisions. In view of 
the paucity of game, their companions considered that 
they would serve the absent men best by returning when 
there was a chance, thus avoiding the consumption of 
the remaining provisions. "They were all persuaded that 
Captain Mikkelsen would succeed in fighting his way 
through, armed as he was with iron energy and great 
Arctic knowledge, and with a companion who would stick 
to him through thick and thin/' 
At last a vessel arrived to rescue them, after three 
winters, and the two heroic explorers were brought safely 
back to Copenhagen. This expedition, with its aspira- 
tions accomplished and its valuable results, stands high 
in the polar record. Mikkelsen's reward was the appre- 
ciation of his work by the scientific geographers of all 
countries. His interesting narrative is contained in the 
Story of the Alabama Expedition, 1909-1912. 
Rasmussen 
The expedition across Greenland led by Knud Ras- 
mussen, a Dane born in Greenland, is of very special 
interest because it inaugurates what is intended to be a 
permanent system of exploring work, which at the same 
time undertakes the protection of the Arctic Highlanders, 
that most interesting tribe, quite uncontaminated by 
contact with civilisation when first discovered by Sir John 
Ross in 1818 and visited by the writer in 1850. Under 
modern conditions the protection of the Danish Govern- 
ment is much needed by these well-intentioned but simple 
and isolated people. 
With this most laudable object Rasmussen in July 
1910 formed a settlement among these people in Wolsten- 
holme Sound, which he called "Thule." In the following 
year, becoming anxious for the safety of Mikkelsen and 
his companion, he organised an expedition to cross 
Greenland with the hope of relieving them. This was the 
main object, discovery being secondary. 
Rasmussen's expedition was a thoroughly efficient one. 
He was accompanied by two Eskimos and by young 
