Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1883-07-12
GONE TO GREENLAND.

Prof Noreenskjold recently sailed
from Gottenburg cn his tenth Arctic ex-
pedition, concerning which The London
Times says: His main object is 10 pen
citrate into the heart of Greenland, in
order to test the theory that the per-
manet ice is really only II band sur
rounding the interior. which in summer,
at least, is literally land of greenery.
In this trying journey NordenskjoId
will be accompanied by ut least one of
his staff and ten of his crew, and will
be equipped with all the appliances re.
quisite for ice-traveling. In providing
this equipment he has been guided.not
only by the experience of Alpine climb
ers, but by the knowledge he acquired
twelve years ago, when, in company
with Palandcr he succeeded in pene-
trating thirty miles inland from the
head of Auleitslvik Fjord, his starting
point in the present expedition. About
thirty or forty miles from the interior
seems to rise suddenly like a huge wall
of ice, cleft here and there, fortunately
by valleys, by means of which the ex
petition will be able to reach the un-
even plateau of the interior. The first
forty miles are likely to be the most
trying; the coast region is cut up by
gaping crevasses and broad rivers in
the midst of rugged hills of ice, and
these will necessitate long detours.
The rivers, as rule, terminate in mag
niicent waterfalls, which plunge sud
denly into what seems to be the bot
tomless abysses of ice. In his former
journey Nordenskjold attained height
of about two thousand feet, and east
and north the country seemed to rise
gradually, and presented the appear
ance of billowy sea suddenly frozen.
Auletsjvik Fjord, from which the ex-
pedition will start on its journey, opens
just below Disco island, aud penetrates
Il considerable distance into the land.
At this point Greenland is about its
bIoadest, SO that the line of exploration
has been We'll chosen to test the theory
which has prompted the expedition.
This theory is no new one on the part
of Nordenskjold, for as long ago as
his former expedition in 1870 he seems
TO have come to the conclusion that
Heber's ''icy mountains" were confined
to the regions of the Greenland coast,
surrounding a land comparative free
from ice, and even wooded in its south
ern parts. If Nordenskjold succeeds
in confr ming his hypothesis, it will be
one of the triumphs of scientific pre-
diction.
1t will be after the return from tLis
inland journey, probably in the early
part of September, that the expedition
will make an attempt to land on the
southeast coast to search for remains
OF the old Morse colonies founded here
nine hundred years ago. When the
Danes were marrying the coasts of
Saxon England, eighty years before
William the Norman landed ut Peven-
sey, Red Erik, outlawed in Iceland, set
out to seek the land which Cur biorn
had seen far to the westward one hun
dred years earlier. This land he found,
and made it his home, and coionized
il with his kinsmen and friends, who
reared their villages and farm houses
and churches over good stretch of
southwest coast. At their most flour
ishing period these old Morse colonies
probably numbered ten thousand in
habitants. Even in Red Erik's time ad-
venturOus spirits sailed still further
west, and planted outlying settlements
on the shores of Vinland, Helluland
and Markland; the first Europeans
probably who set foot on land on
which centuries later their kinsmen
were to rear one of the greatest nations
on the face of the earth. For the old
Morse Vinand was in all probability
the modern Massachusetts, while Mark
land and Helluland have been identi-
fed with Nova Scotia, Newfoundland,
and perhaps Labrador. 1t seems
strange that spirits so enterprising and
adventurous, the countrymen of the