Abstract
To an unusually crowded meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday night Dr. Frithjof Nansen told in detail the story of his journey across Greenland last summer. We have already given the main incidents of this remarkable journey, and need only refer here to some of the scientific results. These cannot be fully given as yet, as the meteorological and other data collected by Dr. Nansen have not been fully worked out. It should be borne in mind that the main purpose of Dr. Nansen's expedition was to prove that it is quite possible to cross Greenland: in this respect the expedition has been completely successful. Dr. Nansen repudiates as untenable the idea that somewhere in the interior of Greenland an oasis of greenery must exist. The conditions there are quite different from those of Grinnell Land, where the winter's snow is annually melted away over a certain extent of the surface. Greenland, on the contrary, Dr. Nansen maintains, is so thickly covered with the ice-accumulations of ages, that no part of the interior is ever laid bare. He surmises that there is a sort of wind-pole about the high centre of the interior, from which, as a rule, the cold winds radiate in all directions to the warmer coasts. The cold experienced by the expedition reached as low as 90° F. below freezing, and as Dr. Nansen's thermometers were not adapted for a lower temperature he believes that the temperature was at times much under that. He compares the configuration of the inland ice to a shield, curving upwards from the edges to a sort of plateau, reaching in parts at least 10,000 feet above sea-level. As to the configuration of the ground underneath, Dr. Nansen maintains that it must be similar to Norway and Scotland, with the same rugged mountain masses, high ridges, va'leys, and fjords; and that the shape of the ice-covering has nothing to do with the shape of the land underneath. The immense accumulation of snow has levelled up everything; in places the ice must be 6000 feet deep, and even the tops of the mountains must be covered with hundreds of feet of glacier. He believes the wind has much to do with maintaining the ice-level, and does not believe that the quantity of snow varies much from year to year. The enormous pressure exercised by this vast mass of ice causes it to send off icebergs, and, in Dr. Nansen's opinion, running water helps to maintain the uniform level. Even in winter, he maintains, there are running streams underneath, due to the action of this pressure, and which help to prevent the growth of the mass. From a meteorological point of view the scientific exploration of Greenland is in Dr. Nansen's estimation of immense importance. He therefore means to return to the country, probably in the autumn of next year. He will land on the east coast, much further north than his last year's starting-point. He will endeavour to explore the east and north coasts, and will attempt to cross the continent at its broadest part.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Geographical Notes. Nature 40, 210 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/040210b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/040210b0