Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-26
DR.. NANSEES STORY.
HOW HE CROSSED THE ICE-FIELDs OF
GREENLAND.
An Enterprise Others Have Failed In
Its Importance to Science-Ice
One Mile Thick.

At meeting of the Royal Geological
| Society at Burlington House, in London,
on the night of June 24th, over which Sir
f. NJ. Grant Duff presided, Or. Fridtofl
Nansen, the Greenland explorer, gave a
description of his recent journey across the
inland ice of Greenland from east to west.
| DIR. Nansen was received with warm cheers
and proceeded to deliver his lecture with
the assistance of great many sketches in
| color of Greenland scenes. A sledge re-
ferred to in the lecture was in front of the
table and map of the country dealt with
faced the audience.
The report of the lecture printed in the
London Times says that DIR. Nansen began
by remarking that since the discovery of
Greenland, 900 years ago, its interior has
remained mystery. Many attempts have
been made to penetrate it, but none have
! succeeded. The first expedition known OF
| was one toward the middle of last century
led by the first and last Governor in
| Greenland, Major Paars, who, with an es-
cort of more than twenty soldiers, with
their wives and children, twelve horses,
guns, etc, wished to cross the continent on
| horseback and to found a colony on the
| east coast. The next was the Dane,
Dalager, some years afterward. In the
| present century there had been many at
| tempts by adventurous travellers and men
| of science. In 1866 two Englishmen-the
well-known Alpinist, Edward Whymper,
| and Dr. Robert Brown-tried it from the
shores of Disco Bay, but were obliged to
return after penetrating only few miles,
convinced that to cross the wide icy plateau
was an impossibility More fortunate were
the subsequent expeditions of the great
| Arctic explorer, Nordenskiold, in 1870; OF
| the Danes, Captain Jensen, Kornerup, and
Groth, in 1873; Nordenskiold again in
1888, and the American, Peary, with the
Dane Maigaard, in 1886.
As these attempts were made from the
west coast, no one had tried to solve the
problem by the little-known east coast
DR.. Nansen had been long OF opinion that
the only way of crossing Greenland was to
start from the east coast and make for the
west, where the Danish squimau settle
ments would offer their hospitality after
the. exhausting journey, there being no
settlements to make for on the east coast.
Most people thought his plan was that OF
a mailman, but Notwithstanding all warn
ings generous Dane, Augustin Camel, Of
| fered to contribute to the fitting ont of the
| expedition, and more than forty Nor
wegians asked to accompany him. DIR.
| Nansen selected three = Otto Sverdrup
! (shipmaster), Dietrichsen Lieutenant in
| the Norwegian army, and Kristiansen Ia
peasant. He engaged in addition two
| Laps-Samuel BALTIC and Ole Ravna. Ar
irving at Iceland on their way in June,
| 1888, they embarked on board a Norwegian
sealing ship on the 18th on July; the
party left this ship in their two boats at a
distance of ten miles from the land, near
| Cape Dan (65o 30/ north latitude). In
their boats they tried to force way
through the ice to reach the land, but one
of the boats was crushed, and while it was
being mended they were swe. by rapid
current southwark for twelve days along
the coast. After many difficulties and dan
gers at last they reached the land at Anori-
tok 1919 30/ north latitude) on the Goth of
July. They had now to force their way
northward along the coast to reach a more
! northerly latitude. At last, on the 18th
of August, they disembarked, and without
delay commenced their inland journey.
DR.. Nanson's original destination was
the settlement of Kristianshaab in Disco
Bay. For twelve days the party pushed
forward in this direction. At first the snow
was rather hard, but it became looser. and
the pulling of the sledges was very hard
! work. A continuous snow-storm blew in
their faces. Finding it would be impossi-
BILE at this rate to reach Kristianshaab in
time to catch the last ship of the season
for Denmark, they altered their course to a
more westerly direction, making for the
settlement of Godthaab. The drifting
snow continued to hamper their progress,
but the surface was even, like a floor, gen.
tly rising until, at the beginning of Sep
TENDER, they had reached the hight of
5000 feet above sea level. They were now
on an extensive ice plateau resembling a
frozen sea. For more than two weeks they
travelled over this desolate region. The
cold was quite Unexpectedly severe, the
thermometer falling below the scale in the
nights, and on some nights reaching, as he
calculated, 45o and 500 below the freezing
point (Centigrade). On the 10th of Sep
TENDER favorable wind sprang up. The
travellers dashed the sledges together and
hoisted the sails, so that it was unnecessary
to draw them. They held on to the sledges,
standing on their skis " Norwegian snow
shoes, and thus ratified down the western
slope of the continent at splendid rate.
At last, on the oath, they reached the
zone of land bare of ice on the west coast,
and on the 26th descended to ford called
Ameralik. Here they constructed boat
out of the canvas floor of the tent, using
willow boughs and bamboo staff as ribs.
In this small boat two of the party pad
died fifty miles to the nearest Danish set
Element, Godthaab, arriving on the Sd of
October. and Immediately sending two
boats to bring on the four men left behind.
The scientific results of the expedition had
not vet been fully worked out; the OBJ
seryations made related to questions of
geographical, geological and meteorological
nature. There were, however, some few
important points which might be men
toned. The expedition, DIR. Nansen be-
lieved, had proved the whole of the in
terror of Greenland to be covered by an
immense shield-shaped cap of ice and
snow, which in some places must have
thickness of at least 5000 of 5000 feet.
The investigation of this immense ice and
snow field would, no doubt, yield results of
the greatest Importance to the study OF
glacial theories. Another point of great
interest was thevery low temperature found
in the interior fact which did not seem
to agree with the received meteorological
laws. DR.. Nansen thought that this low
temperature might throw good deal OF
light on the much-discussed question-the
cause of the great cold of the glacial
period in Europe and North America,
which at that time were covered with an
ice sheet similar to that now seen in
Greenland. He thought that the best