NORDENSKJOLD'S EXPLORA TION IN GREENLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6823, 29 September 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

NORDENSKJOLD'S EXPLORA TION IN GREENLAND.

A cablegram in the Hekald a few days ago announced that Professor Nordenskjold had discovered an enormous desert of ice in Greenland, the existencu of which was previouslyunkuown. Tbeobjectof his present exploration is to penetrate into the heart of Greenland, in order to teijt Lis theory that the permanent ice is really only a band surrounding the interior, "which Aα summer, at least, is literally a laud of .greeuery. In this trying journoy No.denskjold wiiJ s>e accompanied by at ltast one of his stiff and ten of his crew, and will be equipped with all the appliances requisite for ice-travelli'u". In providing this equipment he has been guided not only by the experience of Alpine climbers, bu* tae knowitdge he acquired twelve years ago, when, io company vrith Palander, he succeeded in peuetrating thirty miles inland from the head of Auleitsivik Fiord, his starting poiut in the expedition. About thirty or forty miles from. the coast the I iDtarior seems to rise suddenly like n ' wall of ice, cleft here and there, fortunately, by valleys, by means of which the expedition i will be able to r aoh the uneven plateau of the interior. The first forty miles are likely to he the most trying;; the coast regioa is cut ap by gaping crevasses and broad rivers in the midst of rugged hills of ice, aud these will necessitate long detours. The rivers, as a rule, teriniuate :•« magnificent waterfalls, which plunge suddenly, into what seem to be botiomless abysses of ice, Iα his former journey Nordinskjold attained a height of about two thousand feet, and east and north the country seemed to rise gradually, aud presented the appearance of a billowy sea suddenly f.ozen. Auleitsivik Fjord, from which the expedition'-will start cm its journey, opens just below Disco Island and penetrates a.considerable distance into the land. At this point G'Cenlanc! is ab mt its broadest, so that the line of exploration has been well chosen to test the ttieo'.-y which has prompted the expedition. Ihin iheory.is no'new one on the. pr.rt of.Norderiskjolii, for as long ago as his former expedition ia IS7O he seeais to have come to tlie conclusion that Heber's , : '.'icy mountains" wvrecocfined to the'region of t!ie Greenland coast, surrounding a land comparatively free from, ice, &n;l and evtn >vboded in its southern parts. If Nordenskjold succeeds in confirming his hypothesis it .will'be one of the triumphs of scientific prediction..'i It will be after the return from this island journey, probably in tbe early part of September, that felie expedition will make an .attempt to land on the south-east coast to search for remains of the old Norsu colonies founded here 900 years ago. While .the' Danes were harrying the coasts of Saxon England,' eighty years before William the Norman . lauiled at. Pevensey.. Red Erik, outlawed in Iceland, set put to s'fiek the land, which Gunbjorn had seen far to the westward 100 years earlier. This land ho found and 'made it his home; and colonized it with his kinsmen and frieude, who reared their villages and farmhouses and churches over a great stretch.of the southwest coast ; at their most' flourishing period these, old Norso colonies probably numbered ten thousand inhabitants. Even in Red Erik's time adventurous spirits sailed still further west and planted outlying settlements on the shoreu of Vinlacd, HelliTland .'and . Markland, the first Europeans probably who set foot oa a land on which ...centuries later' their kiusmeu were to roar one. of the greatest nations on the face of the earth. For the old Norss Vinland was in all probability the modern Massachusetts, while Markland and Hellulacd have been identified, with, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and perhaps Labrador. It seems strange that spirits, .soenterprising and adventurous, the coantry■nien of the Vikings who kept Europe.: in terrpr.from the Orkneys to the Mediterranean, w.hd.'mastered Eugkud arid ultimately gave her..a, : dynasty., an'l an aristocracy, should, .hsye.iet'these momentous discoveries, pass' into..:job.!iyipu, should have, finally turned 5 ;,'tbeir./.bdcks.,up.on a land pi unbounded promise and settled down in contentment oh the-icerbound shores Vf ; Greenland. The tr.ath is.that. the. Norsemen at home never seem to have, realized the vast "importance of ;;the.disc6verie3.of their.ventnresomq kinsmen,, 'and .althougliil'a.j. we have said, the population ..increased..to. 10,000, the communication with Iceland and Norway soon'became fitful, and aftsrtl.iefourteenth century'.-we.hcar little of. them.;;.JThereis',-.howi!ver, a"'brief written in ::1-14S by: :tlie Pope, to,a Bishop of Norway, .tre'ating.of.the pitiful condition of the inhabitant's of ..Greenland, who," thirty years before, hud been attacked by a hostile fleet, which carried off people of both sexes into captivity. With muuh plausibility these invaders are conjectured to have come from the British Islands; ,:,By. the latter half of the fifteenth i Ojeutai.es communication with the mother -country had ceased, air! when John Davis re'-discovef.edi Greenland,, in 1555. r.o other but Esquimau.people .were foan;l anywhere : bii; the coast.;: Traditions, : . hov.-cvi.r, still :exist,arnong..tlio Greenlanders .i.s.to the first white; yisitorsV.'ac-dfrom thise and the Sagas. :it;is.eyident.that latterly frequent collis : ou3 took plaoawitl., the natives, and.'tiie probability js.that the' remn.-int of the colonists AV'as.absorbed by the Esquimaux. Bishops of Gr.eeul.and continued to bo appointed, down to "the;, sixteenth .century, but the?e never niade. any . effort .to rsach their'.dioceae. .Nordehskj'jld . m»intains, /contrary to the rec.eiyed v.:opinioii,■. that' 'the ■■regains of ■:O3teri)ygd,.much the Jarger settienienti arc to be. fo.und':to the east of Cape 'Farewell. AVhether he is fight cr wrong any addition' *tp bur kupwledge of the coudiciori and fate of. these..premature colonizers, of America will be.'n'clc.pmfe