The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-09-04 00:00:00

From the Daily News.)

_ .
We are indebted to a friend of one of the membera
of the expedition for the following letter :

It is June 21st, and we are still between SCO and 400 miles
from Cape Farewell. Up to the present time, excepting the
fair wind which cleared us of the Channel and all its dangers,
we have experienced head winds and hard gales. No light
summer breezes to wait us across the Atlantic No; we
started to invade the most sacred territory of Nature, and
Instead of remaining quietly at home till we had arrived
at the threshold of her jealously-guarded domain, she has
met and opposed us from the very start with some pretty
strong head winds and a gale or two; but still we have got
on little by little, and shall even now, I hope, reach Disco
by the let of July, which is the date we wish to arrive there
that is, no later than that date; and I only hope that these
same winds that have been doing so much to stop our ad-
vance may be blowing with equal strength in Smith's Sound
and Melville Bay, and then, far from doing us any harm,
they will be doing us the utmost good. There is nothing
that could help u more, or which we should have more
wished for.

We left Bantry Bay on Wednesday, June 2, about eleven
a.m. The Valorous was waiting for us just outside, and
having joined her we all proceeded together under sail, the
wind, what there was of it, being fair. By the morning it
was quite calm, so steam was got up, but soon after a breeze
springing up again we made sail. The poor old Valorous
could hardly keep up with us, even by using steam (slow
speed) in addition to her sail. We had to keep under such
easy sail that we rolled a great deal more than there was
any need fur. At last, on the evening of Saturday, sth, the
Valorous was informed by signal that for the present we
would relieve ourselves of her company, but that she was
to be at Disco by July 1. We accordingly ran on and soon
lost sight of her However, we saw her again in the
distance for one or two days after, as the winds were
light and variable, and she used steam. By Wednesday,
the 9th, we had reduced the distance to Cape Farewell
from 1,250 miles, which is, I think, about the distance
from Bantry Bay, to 800 miles, but on Wednesday a
foul wind set in after our first strong one; and by
Saturday, 12th, we had brought the distance sip to 632 miles,
having been driven to the southward. On Sunday, at noon,
we were 778 miles off, having made en our course 22 miles in
four days. There was too much wind and sea all that time
for us to use steam, let alone the waste of coal. On Sunday,
13th, our first real gale commenced, at ahout 1 a.m. The
wind came from the westward, blowing pretty fresh up till
7 a.m., when it very suddenly increased, and continued doing
so until about 11 p.m., when it blew its hardest. There was
a very rapid fall of the barometer As we stood to the north-
ward, the fall increasing in rapidity as we approached the
centre of the storm ; for by the rapidly falling barometer, the
confused state of the sea, the heavy and violent squalls,
we knew we were in a circular storm. This warned
us to get on the other tack, as it is not desirable
to get into the centre of a circular storm. So at
about 10.30 p.m. we wore ; the wind shifted sud-
denly as we did so about five points. We now stood away
to the westward. The barometer commenced rising almost
immediately, but the wind did not go down much till Tues-
day morning, and by the evening it was calm. From the
13th to the 27th we had a succession of hard head winds,
shert intervals of calm, during which intervals we steamed.
The ship was pretty wet, taking in a great deal of water, of
which, to our great disgust, a large amount found its way
below. On the 27th we came upon our first ice, heavy pack,
along which we skirted, sometimes getting into it, until the
I.t of July, on which day we saw the last of the floe and pack
ice on this side of Disco. During this time we had seen only
a few bergs, and those not at all large ones. July 2nd, 3rd, and
4th were three lovely days. We were steering to the nortb,along
the land, about thirty or forty miles off. The coast line consists
of a rugged mountain chain running north and south, the
tops and sides of which were covered with snow in many
places. hut whether unusually so or not we cannot tell. The
coast line was broken with numerous inlets and deep fiords
running far inland ,• the sea was beautifully blue and quite
calm, and the sun shining brightly made the mountain sides
and tops glisten and sparkle like diamonds, which a few
black, enowless patches helped to show out all the more
brilliantly. Here and there a few icebergs out at sea broke
the uniformity of the horizon in that direction. In fact,
except that the air was rather too cold, it was easy to
imagine oneself in the Mediterranean. As weeapproached the
Island of Disco icebergs became much more numerous, and
we saw some very large ones, but still, especially in height,
nothing to what I expect we shall see.

On Sunday 4th, in the evening, we crossed the Arctic
Circle, and on Monday the sun was shining brightly all night.
It seems very odd going to bed In the bright sunlight, On
Tuesday, the 6th, we arrived and anchored at Godhavn
Disco, where we found the Valorous. She got in on Sunday,
thanks to her power of steam, in spite of our calling her
dummy, dm., at first. She came through some ice, but not
so much as we did, having kept more to the westward. She
has 250 tons of coal left, and between us we shall take from her
something like 120 or 130 tons, so I expect they wilt have to
go to a place on the mainland called Ritenbank, just oppo-
site Disco, and dig for coal, which will be a long disagree-
able job, as the ground must still be very hard from the frost
and the coal is so bad that the Danish Government sends out
every year the coal required for the settlements. How-
ever, as long as they get enough to clear them
of the ice on the way to Cape Farewell, and for
the sounding and dredging they have to do on their way
home It will do, as they can sail the rest of the time. On
Sunday, the 11th, I record that we have been hard at work
ever since our arrival at Disco getting in coal and stores

from the Valorous, sand taking observations of all descrip-
tions on shore, the naturalists making excursions after
flowers, drc. There are a good many different kinds of plants
and flowers growing on the sides of the mountains, but not
In any very great abundance. There are except dogs, no
animals on this island, and not many birds, some ducks have
been shot—eider—but not many. There are a few cod to be
caught in the harbour, and some salmon trout in the rivers,
but not many of either; still they are very acceptable in
supplementing our other provisions.

There was a little excitement about some " Meteorites"
the other day. A place near here in "Disco Fijord," called
" Oflvak," is celebrated for them, though there are none
now, a Swedish Professor having carried them all off a few
years ago. Well, EV,MO Esquimau' came in and said that
whilst near there, fishing or something, a day or so ilefore,
they had seen some " Meteorites " fall, and marked the
spot. A party was sent off at once—en the evening of the
9th—to try and find them, and see if it was possible to bring
them to the ship; the next morning the steam pinnace of
the Valorous also went to look for them. The expeuition
returned last night without having seen the ghost of a
"Meteorite," though the.Esquimaux pointed out the exact
spot where he had teen it. It must have either re-
turned to the skies again, been washed into the sea,
or existed only in the imagination of the native.
This is not a very magnificent settlement, only con-
sisting of about 12 or 15 huts and houses, with a population
just under 100. The Inspector of the whole of the Danish
possessions in Greenland lives here. He is a great swell, of
course, and is generally a military man. His pay is £6OO
per annum, and he-has to remain out here for eight years. I
do not envy him. Then there is a Governor of the place, who
is not nearly so big a man. Every Danish settlement has a
blacksmith end a cooper, Danes, attached to it, who have, I
believe, to sign regular articles before leaving Denmark to
remain out here for a certain time. The women's dress
is picturesque to look at. They wear coloured boots,
red or yellow, of dressed akin, whin reach to the knee.
Then white trousers, and a coloured jacket fitting tight
round the neck, and coming just below the top of the
trousers. Seal-skin jacket and trousers are worn over these
in cold weather,, with the hair outside. The jacket has a
hood in it for carrying the babies. • They all of them look just
like Chinese about the eyes and face. I don't think they
use much water, except for drinking. The Valorous, it
appears, is not going for coal to the same Ritenbank as we
go to for our dogs; the one we go to is on a small island
just off the mainland of Greenland and opposite to this
place, whilst the one she goes to for the coal is on the north.
east of this Island of Disco.

We have heard very favourable accounts of the mildness
of the past winter from the inspector, They keep a register
of the weather in Greenland which gives the temperature,
&c., and this past winter it has been, for the winter
months, some eight or nine degrees higher than for
a number of years past. Also from all accounts ever
since 1852 the winters have been becoming milder. The
spring this year was, however, late and severe. We all
leave here to-morrow (Thursday, 15th), and the Valorous
will accompany us to ourßitenbank, so we shall have another
day or so for writing. I think we are going to ship an
Esquimaux on board each ship, perhaps two, to look after
the dogs, and make themselves generally useful. After
leaving Ritenbank we shall go north, through the Waigattet
Channel—between Disco and the West Coast of Greenland—
looking in at Upernivik, where we may leave letters, and
then across Melville Bay, up Smith Sound, and so on. We
shall leave eight dep6 ts of provisions between the Carey Islands
and 82 deg. N. lat., to fall back upon, in the event of our
having finally to abandon our ships, but I hope we shall
bring one hack anyhow.
To-day (July 16) we arrived and anchored at Ritenbank at
11 a m., and we leave at 6 a.m. to-marrow morning, just
giving ourselves time to get the dogs and take a few observa-
tions. Our letters go to-night by the Valorous, so I must
conclude now. We had a very quiet trip across here, and
I think we shall find the towing to be economical, but it
has not had a fair trial yet. To reach this place we had to
cross the mouth of the Waigattet, up whicirwe go to-morrow.
It was very pretty to look at; a long, narrow, winding
channel—it is about eight miles broad and eighty
long—running up between rugged mountains, snow
crowned, but the sides of which were dark and steep,
with a few patches of green and snow. The water was
a most beautiful blue, and was dotted all over with quan-
tities of icebergs of all sizes, through which to-morrow we
shall have to wind in and out on our way to the north. This
is a settlement of about the same size as Godhavii, situated
on a small island Just off the land, and between which and the
land is a narrow aeep channel, up which we came and
anchored in a small fjord just to the northward of the settle-
ment, and running a short distance into the main land; the
water very deep close to the shore.
Now, I must finish up, as the letters have soon to go.
Since our arrival in the Arctic regions everything has been
most favourable; and if we can only carry this. beautiful
weather through Melville Bay we shall do. We are sending
no invalids home; in fact, we don't know what sickness
means, and the doctors are able to turn their attention en-
tirely to scientific pursuits. I think by the time we return
that we shall have acquired a great deal of information on
many things up here of which little or nothing is known at
present. As we go along we correct the charts as much as
possible, particularly at any place where we anchor, when
theodolites and saxtants and compasses go ashore at once.
I do not know whether you will hear again or not from me,
but if not, no news is good news, and in this healthy
climate, bar accidents, I don't see what harm can happen to
us; in fart, I should rather like to bring the next news of
our expedition ourselves, and please God that will be news
of sucoess.