The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-09
ALONG GREENLANDS COAST.
"Details ~ the Duke % OrIeans's Lucky Trip
to the Arctic.

~
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 remarkable journey. except
ing a brief statement which appeared In
the newspapers. The Official report has at
length been printed in La Geographic OF
the Paris Geographical Society.
II Is written by Capt. de Gerlache. the
leader of the Belgian Antarctic expedition;
who, under the Duke OF Orleans, commanded
this remarkable expedition in Arctic waters.
Some facts in the story he tells are repro
duced here.
The reason why they were able to take
the Belgica so far north is interesting. They
made straight from Norway 10 the north
east coast Of Spitzbergen and h steamed
northwest till they came to h solid pack
ice which barred further progress in this
direction.
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 the west. was covered thickly
with floating ice through which they were
barely able TO navigate.
When they began their western journey
toward Greenland they found depths OF
5000 and 1900 feet, but the soundings
soon revealed lesser depths and the bot.
tom gradually Swallowed to about 700 feet,
then fell again 10 more than 1000 feet.
They were in the neighborhood of the
Greenland coast, along which apparently
extends n wide trough in the sea floor where
the waters are deeper than on the land
ward or the eawar side.
Strange to say they had brought up just
a few miles south OF Cape Bismarck, the
most northern point reached by the Ger
man sledge party thirty-hve years earlier;
and along the coast to the north was a
wide channel covered with floating ice,
not easy to navigate, but stu not an IN
su~rmountable obstacle in the way OF their
stanch vessel. They stopped only TO
ascend Cape Bismarck, 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 floating ice. To the
east of them was the solid pack. which no
vessel could penetrate unless through wide
cracks in the ice. To the west was the land
lCNt VI III JULIET u oOAHA w
from twenty TO thirty miles out into the
sea, but firmly attached 20 the coast.
Here and there rising above the land ice
we're islands, the sentinels scattered along
in front of the mainland: some OF them
mere rocks and others OF important ex-
tent. Miles behind the islands wore views
that could not be mistaken.
They were glimpses of the coast OF Green
land, deep SCARED with fiords, behind which
rose the white snow covered slope OF the
greatest of islands to its eternal cap Of ice
about a mile and a half above the sea. It
will be remembered 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 mist: but now and then the veil would
be lifted and they could get bearings on
the islands and the coast. Along the 12O
miles to the north OF Cape Blsmarck 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 il meets the northeast corner
of Greenland on Independence Bay dis
covered 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 Greefl-
land, but the southeastern prolongation OF
a large island.
Here and there among the island they
found the remains Of Esquimau huts: 1t
is well known that the east Greenland
natives, living much further south, have
not visited the north. at least for some gem
erations. The Esquimau remains which
the Duke of Orleans has discovered in
northeast Greenland are likely TO strengthen
the theory that the east Greenlanders
reached the coast by migration around the
north end of the island.
The vegetation along the shores OF some
| OF the islands was quite luxuriant and the
party we're surprised that they did not
meet any land animals. The muskox is
not a stranger on that coast, and the skull
of one of them was found
IL is noteworthy that though many fords
were observed through which glaciers
reach the sea there was not a single iceberg.
Numerous narwhals were seen.
One day, just as they were about to turn
the prov of the vessel southwark, for they
dared not TO go further north, the mist
that hid Greenland lifted and they saw
a glorious panorama of eighty miles Of the
coast. The picture was a farewell souvenir
from this far northern region to the white
men who we're the first to enter 1t.