The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-30
ALONG eREENLAND's COAST.
Details of the Duke of Orleans Lucky
Trip to the Arctic.


A year ago last summer the Duke
of Orleans, while making an Arctic
cruise in the steamer Belgica, was able,
through favoring circumstances, to
push northward along the east coast of
Greenland 100 miles further than any
earlier explorer had gone. Nothing has
been published until now about this re-
markable journey, excepting a BRIEF
statement which appeared in the news
papers. The official report has at length
been printed in La Geographic of the
Paris Geographical society.
1t is written by Captain de Gerlache,
the leader of the Belgian Antarctic ex-
petition, who, under the Duke of Or
leans, commanded this remarkable ex-
petition in Arctic waters. Some facts
in the story he tells are reproduced
here.
The reason why they were able to
take the Belgica SO far north Is inter-
esting. They made straight from Nor
way to the northeast coast of Spitz-
bergen and then steamed northwest till
they came to the solid pack ice which
barred further progress in this direc-
ton.
Then they turned southwest and
south along the edge of the pack till
they were a little below the seventy
sixth parallel of latitude, where they
reached a part of the sea that, to tho
west, was covered thickly with float
ing ice, through which they were bare.
ly able to navigate.
When they began their western Jour
ney toward Greenland they found
depths of 5000 and 5000 feet. but the
soundings soon revealed lesser depths
and the bottom gradually Swallowed
to about 700 feet, then fell again to
more than 1000 feet. They were In the
neighborhood of the Greenland coast,
along which apparently extends a wide
trough in the sea floor where the
waters are deeper than on the land
ward side or the seward side.
Strange to say, they had brought up
just a few miles south of Cape Bis
marck, the most nothern point reached
by the German sledge party thirty-five
years earlier; and along the coast TO
the south was a wide channel covered
with floating ice, not easy to navigate,
but still not an insurmountable obsta-
Gle in the way of their staunch vessel.
They stopped only to ascend Cape Bis
marck, where they found the German
cairn and made one of their own. in
which they placed the record of their
work; then they went on.
Beyond Cape Bismarck they found
three kinds of Ice conditions. They
travelled in a channel strewn with float
ing ice. To the east of them was the
solid pack. which no vessel could pene-
trate unless through wide cracks in the
ice. To the west was the land ice. or.
in other words, solid ice extending
from twenty to thirty miles out into
the sea, but firmly attached to the
coast
Here and there rising above land ice
were islands, the sentinels scattered
along in front of the mainland, some Of
them mere rocks and others of import
ant extent. Miles behind the islands
were views that could not be mistaken.
They were glimpses of the coast of
Greenland, deep SCARED with fiords,
behind which rose the white snow COW
cred slope of the greatest of islands to
its eternal cap of ice about a mile and
half above the sea. 1t will be remem-
bered that Peary made his first great
journey on this interior Ice cap, over
which he trudged for 600 miles to the
northern edge of Greenland
All this was revealed to the party on
the Belgica only by glimpses now and
then. Heavy fog concealed everything
much of the time.
The vessel picked its way slowly
through the mist; but now and then
the veil would be lifted and they could
get bearings on the Islands and the
coast. Along the 120 miles to the north
of Cape Bismarck there were stretches
of the coast which were not revealed
to them, but they saw enough to give
US a good idea of its general trend to
the point where it meets the northeast
corner of Greenland on Independence
bay discovered by Peary.
They were able to make only one
short excursion to the Greenland coast
over the land ice, and on this Journey
they found, to their surprise, that Cape
Bismarck, to the south, was not a
promontory. of Greenland but the