Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-07-01

plimented thereby, and, as American en.
 lightenment is thing of worldwide re- {; pute, I may take it for granted that all
 of you have heard something about MT.
 Camel long ago.
 Here in London we are talking about
 Mir. Camel and his doings, and on the
 surposition, however provincial it may 1 secin, that ''as London talks, so talks the world," am starting this letter. ! What are we talking about? Well, for | tho first time in history Greenland, that
 great mysterious ice-capped continent in i the far north, has been crossed, @ feat 1 accomplished by Dr. Fridtjof Manson, a 1 gians, and two Lapps.
 Several futile attempts have formerly | Leon made to cross this continent, which | is in exactly the same state as our own l islands during the glacial age. The first
 attempt was made by Lieuts. Jensen and 1 Steonstrup, of the Danish navy, who, in | 1878, commenced their inland march in ! latitude 62 degrees, 80 minutes, N., and
 attained a height of 5,uto feet, whence
 the ice was seen gradually to rise east 1 ward. Then came the famous NOrdcn- l skiold expedition (? 1853, when the cele- 1 brated Swedish explorer landed south of
 the Disco island, and with large party | reached ninety m.ica inland and an all | titude Of 5000 feet. whence the land chSo CoolSi Dc Secu iioll:S cuSt"d4u However, Nordenskiold had in his
 train two~Lapps, whom he dispatched 1 forward, on Norwegian snowshoes ''ski, '" 1 and who reached 40 miles further inland | and an altitude of 1000, meeting nothing
 but snow and ice. Finally, an American l engineer, MT. Peary, in 1SS6 succeeded
 in reaching 100 miles inland Il futile fur l thcr north.
 | All these expeditions, however, made | inc Qftpmnf OY prOCSinD from WQQt fn
 east, whereas Dr. Manson decided upon
 making the attempt in the opposite di- rection-from the east to the west coast. To this he was particularly prompted by 1 tho fact of the west coast being inhabited,
 so that provisions need only be carried
 one way, and when the journey was ac-
 complished the expedition would not | east coast.
 The expedition left Iceland June 4, l 16sa. in the whaler Jason, having received | much encouragement on all sides, us,
 for instance. from the Royal Geographi- | cal society and several of our well-known | Arctic explorers. Dr. Nansen's hope was | to land in latitude 65 degrees 3J minutes N., in the neighborhood of Cape Dan i; but Ice prevented this-1n fact, the eX- 1 petition was unable 10 leave the ship till
 July IT.
 It was expected that they would reach land in their two boats on the next day, the land being only few miles off; but l d1ift-ice barred tine way. and currents set
 the boats southward with terribl. swift ness.
 For whole fortnight they battied in
 the ice, several times being at the point
 of destruction; but at last they reached
 land, though 24o miles further south than expected. and u month behind time. Nevertheless, the expedition rowed
 northwards along the coast till latitude 6t degrees 90 minutes N. to Umiavik, | whence the journey across the inland ice | commenced on August 15.
 The expedition met two camps of East
 Greenitnders along the coast, but they
 were unable to under ,tand tho few words Of the west coast dialect known to it's