River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-06-14
,rne INFERIOR OF ureenlana.


his way to Greenland, for the explora-
ton of both coasts and of the interior of
that island continent. His programme
is given at length in Nature for May 10.
The following extracts contain his hyp-
othesis as to the interior:
"The geological nature of Greenland,
very similar to that of Scadanavia, seems
to indicate similar geographical forma-
ton a,viz. formation formed of mountain-
GUS ridges alternating with deep valleys
and plains; while one may even assume
that the eliminating line Of the land in
Greenland runs, as in England and
Sweden and in both American CONT
nents, along the west coast. The winds,
therefore, which should produce Snow
in the interior, must, if coming from the
Atlantic, have in the first instance
crossed the broad ice-belt generally en-.
clrcling the east coast of Greenland, and
then the mountains on the coast, some
of which we know are very high. and, If
coming from Davis Sound, the mountain
ridge itself. In both cases the wind
would assume the character fthe & ohm
wind, i. e., it must, after passing the
mountain-chains on the coasts, be dry
and comparatively warm.
These causes are not only the reason
of the dry warm 'Fohn' wind in Switzer-
land, and the very remarkable circum-
stance that it is under winds from the
snow-covered mountains that the snow
disappears in Swedish Lapland, but
they play also an important part in the
climatic conditions of the whole globe.
They are, for example, the cause of The
difference in climate and flora of the two
side of the Andes, of the east and west
coasts of TERRA del Fuego, and the east
ern and western parts of Australia.
They are the chief course OF the deserts
which cover the interiors of Asia, Aus
tralia, the northern portion of Africa.
and certain parts of America, while
in Sweden they produce the constant
western winds. and the consequent pro-
longed drought which invariably occurs
in spring time in the central part of the
country. The same laws of the temper
ature and moisture of the air must also
prevail in Greenland. Here too the
ocean winds must be moist, and this
moisture is usually deposited in the
form of snow on the mountains along
the,coast, whereas all those reaching the
interior, whether from east, west, north,
or south, must-if the geographical con-
struct ton of the country is not entirely
QlHereDb from tIldJ vi Obn6TS Oil int
globe-be dry and comparatively warm.
And in consequence of this circumstance,
the s1ow-falls in the interior of Green
land cannot be sufficient for maintaining
perpetual inland ice.
sit cannot, however, be asserted that
the country should here form deserted
treelees tundra; one encounters in Sibe-
ria forests with giant trees under cllma-
tic condition far more severe than those
we may assume are to be fonnd IN the
interior of Greenland. That the coun-
try should prove true to its name has
besides been asserted by the celebrated
botanist Hooker, from his studies of the
flora of Greenland, and even the natives
on the west coast themselves have sus-
picion that such is the case, from the
large herds of reindeer which from time
to time are seen to migrate across the
inland ice to the west coast. 1t IS most
probable that the interior, if free from
ice, is like a North European high pla-
teau, with fora far more copious than
that Of the coast But this l maintain,
that whether the interior of Greenland
is richly covered with forests, as the
land round tundra, or even desert OF
perpetual ice, the solution of the prob
lem of its real nature is so important,
and of such consequence to science, that
that there could hardly, at the present
moment, be conceived an object more
worthy ofan Arctic expedition than to
ascertain the true condition of the inte-
rior of this particular country"