The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-03-29
NEW COAST LINES.
Discoveries of DR.. NnthOrst in Recent
Exploration of Green
land shores,

discovery in the eighteenth century.
In that period sailors, as a rule, were
the explorers. Comparatively little was
learned about the interior of the great
land masses, but many thousands of
miles of coast lines were charted and
maps began to show the continents
with about the same shape in which
they now appear. Last year, also, some
very interesting additions were made
to our knowledge of Arctic coast lines,
and not much else was discovered. The
American Peary and the Norwegian
Nathorst were foremost in this work.
The Sun has described the changes that
Peary made on the map of the Smith
sound route to the north; the purpose
here is to tell of the interesting discov-
cry made by DR.. Nathorst on the other,
or east, coast of Greenland.
Thirty years ago next spring the
second German north polar expedition
made a most interesting discovery in
the waters where DR.. Nathorst has
now brought further facts of equal i'm.
portance to light. This expedition had
very remarkable history, and espe-
cially one of the two ships connected
with it. The Hansa, commanded by
Capt. Hegeman, after reaching the
east coast of Greenland, was separated
from her consort, the Germania, COM
manded by Capt. Koldewey, and, freez-
ing the pack ice, drifted helplessly to
the south for A days, when she was
o1,1 caply Tho orax., l,,,;I+
house on the foe and kept drifting to
the south all through the darkness OF
the long winter night. They narrowly
escaped death on several occasions
when terrible storms broke away large
parts of the ice field on which they
We're being slowly carried southwark.
Finally the shipwrecked men saw the
sun rise again, and after drift of over
600 miles in 200 days they saw the dark,
bleak coast of South Greenland rise be-
fore them, and on May Z, 1871, they
launched their boats from the foe.
rounded Cape Farewell and finally
reached settlement in West Green.
land.
The men on the Germania knew moth
ing of the fate of their comrades, and
it was during this period of suspense
that they made the most remarkable
discovery that the Arctic yielded for
long period One day they saw the
wide entrance to Franz Josef floyd
and entered it. The attention of any
one who examines the map of the east
coast of Greenland is at once attracted
to this ford because it penetrates the
land so far and has the highest noun
tain in Greenland at it's head. This in
let extends over five degrees of longi-
tude into the interior of the island
The explorer Payer, who was one of
Koldewey's companions, described the
ford as combination of high walls,
deep erosion assures, wild peaks
mighty crevassed glaciers, raging tor
rents and waterfalls One bare rock
was seen that rises 5000 feet out of
the sea, and the party reported Mount
Petermann, at the head of the ford, tC
be about $4,000 feet high. Nathorst's
report in detail has not yet been made,
bat it is said he assigns lower aiti-
tude to the mountain.
All the largest maps of this mighty
inlet represent its south coasts by
broken lines, to indicate that the KoA-
dewey party did rot see more than
small part of them, and their outlines,
therefore, We're not determined. 1t
was on this uneXplored south shore
that DR.. Nathorst made his discovery
last year. Not quite midway in the
ford he saw an inlet that proved to be
sound, and he named it after his little
steamer, Antarctic sound. Threading
his way through this channel, he came
to a hitherto unknown ford almost as
great and magnificent as Franz Josef
ford itself. He spent ten days map
ping this part of the great inlet He
found that the west side of King Oscar
ford, as he named it, sends two
branches into the interior, which ex-
tend almost as far westward as Franz
Josef ford. The southern branch di-
vides into two AND the northern into
three branchlets. The ford extends
south for 60 nautical miles to the sea
at Davy sound, and on the way sends
two branches east that also connect it
with the sea. He travelled for 500
nautical miles in these unknown wa
ters, whose surroundings he describes
as beautiful and splendid" Then he
returned north again through Antarctic
sound to Franz Josef ford and devoted
some time to further exploration there,
discovering other new branches that
Koldewey did not see. Altogether he
travelled 1,044 nautical miles in this
mighty ford system, which is prob
ably one of the largest in the world.
Fiords develop wonderful amount of
coast line. Our own fiords, for exam
pie, along the coast of Maine show a
shore line nearly $500 miles long,
though these indentations extend less
than 225 miles along the sea edge.
Puget sound, also, with it's bays, in
let's and channels between the islands,
has a shore line of 1000 miles, which
would extend half way across the con-
tinent.
DR.. Nathorst's rich discoveries in the
very field occupied by the careful Ger
man explorers illustrate the fact that
exploratory progress is made only by