Abstract
THE second Thule Expedition to northern Greenland o*o in 1916 to 1918, under the leadership of Mr. Knud Rasmussen, is the subject of articles in the Geographical Review for August and September (vol. viii., Nos. 2 and 3). With Thule on Melville Bay as a base, the main party of the expedition left on a long sledge journey to explore the northern coast of Greenland between Robson Channel and Peary Land. This coast had been only roughly sketched by Peary on one of his northern journeys. Mr. Rasmussen's party charted it in detail between St. George's Fjord and "De Long Fjord. It was found that Nordenskjold Inlet, at one time supposed to be the end of the so-called Peary Channel, but disproved in 1907 by Mylius Erichsen, is a short fjord ending in a glacier. The distribution of ice-free land was found to be the opposite of what was before believed to be the case, the land round St. George's Fjord being ice-free, and that round Nordenskjold Inlet ice-covered. Mr. Rasmussen failed to find any ruins of Eskimo houses in that district, or any signs that Eskimo had ever migrated round the north coast of Greenland. This was previously supposed to be the route by which Eskimo at one time reached the east coast, where traces of camps and villages are numerous. Musk-oxen may have migrated in small herds round the north, but the general conditions of hunting are so poor that Eskimo are unlikely to have been attracted to the route. The ice-free areas are not larg'e enough to furnish sufficient game for a wandering tribe, and the conditions of the pack-ice along the north-west coast make hunting on the sea impossible. Mr. Rasmussen believes that the east coast natives travelled from the west by Cape Farewell, and that reconnoitring parties of hunters went so far north as Independence Fjord. The botanical work of Dr. Thorild Wulff, who died from starvation, was important, and Mr. Lauge Koch obtained valuable geological results. The new map of the coast, of which a sketch is added to the article, was carefully prepared/ forty observations of latitude and forty determinations of longitude being taken.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Exploration of Northern Greenland. Nature 104, 453 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/104453a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/104453a0