New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-04-29
their influence against tho enforcement Of the
law that IL accomplished little.
qpr y0RTyERy SlBARA.


Another Arctic expedition Is announced, the
results Of which IL successful can scarcely iaii
TO be of considerable scientific and historlcal III
tercst. Its objective point is that great pianK
triangle with serrate edges that on our maps y
Iabnlled Greenland but which the explorer Davis
declared should he called the Land OF Dissolution
and which Professor Nordcnskjold has FAMED the
Northern Sahara The expedition has been
equipped at Chrstiania, Norway, and VIII SET ON
ON Saturday next from Copenhagen, under the
leadership of Mr.. Nansen, the curator OF the
famous museum at Bergen. landing VIII DC
made on the barren and forbidding eastern coast
ard thenceforth. the watchword of the company
will be- Across tho continent, or die At best
Il will be nm arduous and perilous task TO traverse
ON foot 700 miles of eternal snow and ice.
Nor is there much in the history Of Greenlandic
adventure 70 encourage these hardy voyagers. III
is true. that Erik the Red, who discovered the
country 900 years ago, planted colonies there, as
no aid also in New En- gland, and hundred years
later there were no less than 300 Morse settlements
on the Greenland coast. But these have become
chiefly things of the past For hundreds oil years
the very route from Europe TO Greenland seemed
to be forgotten. In l72S, however, Danish ex.
plorers attempted to penetrate to the interior Oh
the unknown land but were not able to get OUT
of sight Of their ships masts, and another al
tempt made in 751, WIS equally futile. Thence
forward no landing was made on those ICY SHORES
for more than a century, until an American Dr'
Hayes, in 1860 made his way inland some siNty
miles in latitude 1918. Dr. Rae, an Enghshman'
followed him but failed to equal his achieve
ment and the subsequent expeditions OF Mr.
Wbymper and DR.. Brown of Professor Norden-
skiold and DR.. Berggrcn, and of Messrs jensen
Korncrup and Groth, were no more fortunate.
In 1873 Professor Nordensl1jod made second at.
temDt and managed to get inland nearly seventy
miles. While other members of his party went hfty
miles further still Finally, last year, an Ameri-
can engineer Mr.. Peary and Dane, Mr.. MAI
gard, penetrated to distance OF hundreu
miles These attempts, made from the west coast
cover practically the whole range OF Greeniandlc
exploration, the attempts of Holloway and others
On the east coast not having amounted TO more
than landing.
Thus the interior of this vast continent IS yet
an unknown land. Indeed, it may not be cohIi-
nent at all, but an archipelago whose straits are
perpetually ice-loclscd Professor Nordensk1old
at the extreme point reached by him In 1852
saw two ravens flying northward, and from this
WIS led TO believe that an open sea existed in
that direction; and he also thought il probable
that the interior of Greenland was for hundreds
Of miles free from snow In the summertime and
clad with primeval forests. General Greedy mas
also been quoted q supporter OIL TINS theory'
The moro general and reasonable belief is that an
unbrolSen and nearly level plain Of snow ard Ice
extends from sea to sea- Not only will the truth
or falsity of these theories be determined by the
success Of Mr.. Nansen's expedition, but 1t may De
that further traces OF the Vikings VIII come 10
light, like the Runic inscriptions found IN 1874
near Upernayik There may be discovered re-
mains of the Bishoprc of Gardar OF which We
hive heard much in the Icelandic Sagas, and the
colonies Of Hcrjoisnoes Brattalid and EriksfIord'
Certainly there will be much to add to the worlds
stock OF knowledge concerning the Arctic re-
qons in the notebooks of the scientists who shall
meke their way through the heart OF this white
continent. which lis discovercr called Greenland
because, Us he said, II l give the land fair
name many will come to it,