Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-10-05
THE REAL GREENLAND,
No Fertile Gases In tbs Interior o!
the Island.
The Long Looked for Northwest Passage
is Found Only to Prove its Useless
ness Old Theories In
correct.

LONDON, Oct0ber 4.-The f.:!)wing is the
report OF his labOrs in Greenland which
Baron Nordenskjold telegraphed to ths
London Times from Thurgo: AN inland
ice party started on the 4th of July from
Auleitswik Fiord. Wien they were 40
Kilometres east of the glacier border and
5000 feet above sea level they were pre-
vented by soft snow from proceeding with
sledges. They sent the Laplanders further
on snow shoes lskidorl These advanced
80 kilometres eastward
over Continual Snow Desert
to height Of 1000 feet. The conditions
OF srow-f free interior consequently did
net exist here; but this expedition, during
which men have reached for the first time
the interior of Greenland, has given i'm
portant results as to the nature of the in
,erior of an ice covered continent. Over
the whole island there Is ice. There occur
masses of fine dust, partly Of cosmical ori.
gin with the ice. The rest OF the expedi-
ton, under the command Of Or. Ssthorst,
visited the northwestern coast between
WGigattel and Cape York.
The GreeIy Party.
The Esquimaux told our EsquimauX in
teri reter Hans Christian, formerly Of Cap
tain Halls expedition) that two members
of the A meriCan Polar expedition had died
and the rest had returned to Littleton
Island Sofial On the 10th of August the
expedition sailed from Egedesmunde for
the south, with rich collections, geological,
botanical and geological. Short stays were
made at Wight, Julianshaab and Free
derksdal. We tried to proceed eastward,
thrice through the sounds north OF Cape
Farewell, and once along the coast, but
were hindered by ice. We then went out
side the ice field to TO degrees latitude, re.
manning constantly in sight of land, hav-
ing twice in vain tried 10 find an ice.free
shore more TO the south. The band OF
DRIFT ice wss forced south of Cape Dan.
An lee Locked Shore.
"On September we anchored in a ford
which had been newly visited by Esqui-
mauX, and where We found some remains
from the Norman period. Ii was the first
time since the fifteenth century that Ves-
sci had succeeded in anChOring on the east
coast OF Greenland south of the Polar cir
Gle. We tried in vain to anchor in another
ford more TO the north. and returned. The
expedition arrived at Esikiavik on Septem
Der q. Our observations on the tempera-
ture OF the sea prove that the cold current
which packs the ice along the east coast of
GIeenlaDu Is very lnSlgullCdulS llaL Tue
glaciers OF the east coast are few and of no
great size and that the tiords are free from
ice. Probably tie coast may be reached by
suitable steamers in the autumn OF most
years
The Pail Mall Gazette, commenting on
this news says: Another favorite illu.
sion has
Received ITS Death Blow.
The northwest passage is discovered only
in order to demonstrate its uselessness; the
myth of an open Polar Sea, with circum-
polar continent inhabited by happy men
who live behind the north wind, has van
isbed into thin air, and now Professor
Nordenskjold announces that his success.
full expedition into the interior of Green
land finally dissipates the hope he mas so
long entertained of discovering oases of
ferti land behind the ice belt on the coast.
Greenland is no green land as the ex-
plorer bad hoped to find it, but in very
truth desolate wilderness of eternal ice.
II must have been a melancholy task for
the famous traveller to destroy his own
hyI othesiS and instead OF achieving one
Of he triumphs Of scientific prediction to
register his own mistake"