Geographical Items on North Greenland: Encyclopedia Arctica 14: Greenland, Svalbard, Etc. Geography and General

Adam Biering Land,

a small ice free section in northeast Greenland, lies about 15 or 20 miles west of the head of Independence Fjord. It is largely locked in by the Inland Ice, except in the nrotheast and east where it borders Etussuk Valley and Heilprin Land ^ , ^ respectively. Its rocky heights, which rise to about 3,500 ft. ^ , ^ are intersected by a number of a ^ l.c. ^ [: ] ^ valleys ^ and deep ravines, some of which are surprisingly fertile. VALMUEDALEN, a broad and level valley, between Adam Biering - and Heilprin Land ^ s ^ , was found to have well-watered bottom land (clay plains and raised level beaches of gravel , ^ ), ^ producing a rich crop of grasses and yellow poppies; the gentle slopes show ed an abundance of arctic willow.

Members of the First Thule Expedition, which stayed in Adam Biering Land from j ^ J ^ une 29, to July 12, 1912, termed the area ideal hunting country; they shot 17 musk oxen in Valmuedalen alone. Hares and lemmings were numerous, and birds, sighted with their young brood, included ptarmigan, turnstones, sanderlings, ringed plovers and the long– tailed skua.

Guidebook 1306 MG 51, 305,410 Chart AAF Aer, Ch. (8) ( 0 ^ 9 ^ ) 1944

Indexer: list Valmuedalen.

Ad. Jensen Fjord,

in northern Greenland, is one of three fjords leading from De Long Fjord. From its entrance ^ at ^ lat. 83° 10′N. Ad. Jensen Fjord trends about 17 miles southeastward to the face of the large Tjalfes Glacier. A wide channel connects the middle portion of the fjord with Th.Thomsen Fjord to the westward.

HO 76, 567

Advance Bay,

indents the coast of Inglefield Land, northern West Greenland, close northward of latitude 79° N. The bay, which penetrates the shore to a depth of about 3 miles, is entered between a point about 2 miles northeastward of Cape Scott and a northward projecting point, about 3-1/2 miles north– northeastward; the inner half of the bay has a width of less than 1 mile.

H.O. 76, 528

Cape Agassiz,

(79° 09′N., 65° 40′W.) in northern West Greenland, marks the west point of a small triangular peninsula which projects northwestward into Peabody Bay, close to the southern end of Humboldt Glacier. The inner portion of the peninsula is completely locked in by the Inland Ice. A group of islets (Mc Garry Islands) lies northward of the cape and close off the face of the southernmost end of Humboldt Glacier. Another chain of islets extends northwestward about 1 mile from the cape.

The cape was named after the French zoologist ^ Swiss-American naturalist ^ Louis Agassiz.

Guidebook 1214 H.O. 76, 528 MG 65, 287

Indexer: list Mc Garry Islands (Peabody Bay)

Cape Shackleton (Agparssuit)

^ (western extremity,73° 49′N., 56° 50′W.) ^ is a small island in the Upernivik District of northwest Greenland, about 2 miles southwestward of the large island Kugdlikorssuit. A conspicuous headland, rising sheer from the sea to an elevation of over 1,400 ft., forms the southern and southwestern side of the island. Thousands of guillemots breed in the cliffs, and fresh eggs may be obtained here in large quantities toward the end of June. The strait between Cape Shackleton and Kugdlikorssuit has been navigated by vessels proceeding northward by the inside route.

HO 76 447 SD VI 8 3 ^ 4 ^

Cape Alexander (Uvdlerssuak; Safarlik)

(78° 10′N., 73° 09′W.), the westernmost point of Greenland, forms the southeastern entrance point of Sm o ^ i ^ th Sound at the northern end of Baffin Bay. The large cape, which projects westward for about 5 miles, rises to over 1,100 ft., its rock presenting a striking m a ^ i ^ xture of light yellow sandstone and dark columnar basalt. Two enormous glaciers separate the cape from the mainland to the eastward. The coast ^ in this vicinity ^ is generally free ^ o ^ f ice in August and September, and stretches of open water occur throughout the winter because of frequent storms; the ice-foot, when it exists, is generally ^ usually ^ impassable, owing to huge iceblocks pressed onto this coast by the waves.

Cape Alexander was named by John Ross in 1818. It was William Baffin, however, who first sailed within sight of the cape on July 4th, 1616. His farthest north record ^ , ^ of about 77° 45′N., in the offing of A ^ S ^ mith Sound, was to remain unbroken for two hundred and thirty-six years.

Guidebook 757, H.O. 76, 483. Arctic Pilot III, 120, MG 65, 398

AAF Aer. Ch (20) 1943 Greely, Handbook pp. 20, 185

Allison Bay

indents the coast of northern West Greenland approximately at lat 74° 30′N. It is entered between Holm s Island, at the southeastern ^S^ end of Melville Bay, and the mainland shore to the northeastward. In the outer part of Allison Bay the mainland shore consists principally of glaciers, but the inner end of this shore is formed is formed by a partly ice-free, table-like mountain, known as Wandel s Land, which rises to a height of over ^S^ 3,000 ft. In the bay and its approaches are many small islands, including the conspicuous Devils Thumb.

H.O. 76, 455

Indexer: List Wandels Land (Melville Bay)

Cape Atnoll (Kangarssuk)

(76° 23′N., 69° 32′W.) ^ , ^ in the Thule District of northeast Greenland, lies about 4 miles south-southwest of the southern entrance point of Wolstenholme Fjord. The cape is at the western end of the wide Pingorssuit plateau which rises to almost 1,000 ft. and is diversified by valleys, streams and lakes.

Guidebook 705 H.O. 76, 466 AAF Aer, Cn (20) 1943

Augpilagtok (Augpa lartok)

(72° ^ 5 ^ 3′N., 55° 38′W.), an outpost in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland, with a population of 66 (1930), is on the northwestern side of Augpilagtok Island, in a position of about 13 miles northeastward of Upernivik Colony. The outpost has a manager's house and store combined, a chapel-school, two warehouses and about 16 Greenlander dwellings. Sealing and halibut fishing are the main source of livelihood of the natives. Supply ships anchor in the small bay directly off the settlement. A closed bay, south of the outpost, offers shelter during the summer months, but the narrow entrance freezes over as early as ^ The ^ end of September and remains frozen until July.

Guidebook 596 H.O. 76 ,442

Baffin Bay,

a body of water covering about 230,000 square miles and attaining maximum depths of nearly 3,000 fathoms, is bounded on its eastern side by the west coast of Greenland, and on its western (American) side by Baffin ^ , ^ -, Devon ^ , ^ -, Ellesmere ^ , ^ -, and other smaller islands. At its southern end, in about lat. 69° N., Baffin Bay connects with Davis Strait, and at its northern end, in about lat. 78° N., with Smith Sound. The latter, together w o ^ i ^ th Kennedy and Robeson Channels, forms a passage to the Arctic Sea. There is also communication with the Arctic Sea through Lancaster and Jones Sounds, which lead from the western side of Baffin Bay.

The pack-ice is normally believed to cover about four-fifths of Baffin Bay, and in occasional winters the sea ice is said to fill the bay solidly from shore to shore. The Baffin Bay pack has its greatest extent in arch, and its least in August and September. NORTH WATER, the most persistent ice-free area, located at the head of Baffin Bay, off Smith Sound, is one of the most widely discussed features of the bay. Although a number of theories have been advanced to explain the existence of open water her ^ e ^ , recent opinion inclines to the view that the ice in Smith Sound is so strong that it resists the current, while the ice formed just to the southward is weaker and is swept away, leaving open water behind it. The break-up of the fast ice in Smith Sound temporarily chokes North Water, but eventually the area clears, and its extent is greatest in late summer.

The circulation of the waters of Baffin Bay is known only in a general way, but it seems established that a general cyclonic circulation prevails, so that the western and most ice -encumbered zone evacuates through Davis Strait, while a compensating d raft indraft follows northward along the Greenland side.

Page 002

Baffin Bay cont.

History. - The first of the great navigators to go on record for having entered the waters of what later was named Baffin Bay was John Davis, in 1587. Searching for a northwest passage he reached lat. 72° N. on the Greenland side, and lat. 73° N. on the American side, forcing his way through the middle icepack of the bay. In 1616, Baffin, in the tiny Disvovery , w o ^ i ^ th Robert Bylot as master, was the first to reach the bay's northern end, at lat. 77° 45′N. Barred by ice from entering Smith Sound, and with strong westerly winds preventing his venturing into Jones and Lancaster Sounds, the navigator returned southward along the Greenland coast. With the search for a northwest passage abandoned for nearly 200 years, no further ^ official ^ attempt to traverse Baffin Bay was madeuntil 1818, when John Ross and W.E. Parry took their vessels, the Isabella and Alexander ^ , ^ to a point in lat. 76° 54′N., northwest of Cary Islands. Turning southwestward to the Canadian side, they reached ^ and entered ^ Lancaster Bay ^ Sound ^ which they explored to a distance of over 50 miles. Parry, in the sailing vessel Hecla ^ , ^ again forced a passage to ^ entered ^ ^ Confusion of east-west & north-south crossings ^ Lancaster Sound in 1819 and 1824, his 1819 expedition leading him as far westward as Melville Sound. In 1829 John Ross took the first steamer (the Victory ) across Baffin Bay. The 150-ton craft reached Lancaster Sound without difficulty but on continuing ^ turning ^ southwestward through Prince Regent Inlet was beset off Boothia Peninsula and subsequently abandone . ^ d . ^ Nares, in 1875-76, and Peary, ^ date ? ^ ^ in --- ^ in the Windward pushed through Baffin Bay on their voyages to latitudes farther northward. Between 1898-1902, Sverdrup's Fram wintered first at Cape Sabine in Smith Sound and later in two neighboring places on the southern coast of Ellesmere Island. Peary's Roosevelt ^ Roosevelt ^ , on her famous voyages to Cape Sheridan, the northern entrance point of the Smith Sound Route, traversed Baffin Bay in 1905-6 and 1908-09. Re v ^ c ^ ent expedition vessels to effect a crossing of Baffin Bay include the Heimen ^ Heimen ^ , in 1934, the Morissey ^ Mor ^ r ^ issey ^ , in 1935, and the Isbjoern ^ Isbjoern ^ , 1937. (Uncounted are the whaling expeditions of all nations to these parts of the Arctic zone. (See also Mellville Bay.)

H.O. 76, 404, 507 Greely, Handbook P. 16, 86 ff. A.P. III, wo ff. Breitfuss, Arktis, p. 149 [: ]

^ Indexer: list north Wales. ^

Benedict Fjord,

a six-mile wide indentation in the north coast of Greenland, is entered between Cape Washington (83° 36′N., 38° W.), and Cape Cannon, the northwestern extremity of Gerturde Rask Land. The fjord extends southward for about 10 miles, receiving the glow of the large A. Harmsworth Glacier at its head. A short arm trends southward from the inner southern side of the fjord. Both shore ^ s ^ are largely f ^ or ^ med by glaciers.

H.O. 76, 568 MG 65, p. 323

Benton Bay ^ , ^

in northwest Greenland, is a small open bight at the northern end of Humbold Glacier, between Cape Forbes (79° 55′N.) and Cape Clay ^ , ^ about 9 miles to the northwestward. The coastal hills rise to nearly 900 ft., with heights farther inland increasing to over 2,000 ft.(Mt. Nordlyset).

Guidebook 1218 H.O. 76, 529 Ch. AAF Aer. Ch (8) 1944

Bessels Fjord,

in northwest Greenland, leads from the eastern side of Kennedy Channel, where it is entered between Cape Bryan (81° 06′N., 64° 15′W.), and Cape Maynard, about 3 miles east-northeastward. The very narrow fjord, which receives the flow of numerous small active glaciers, trends south-south– eastward for about 28 miles. The surrounding mountains are steeply graded and rather high. Lauge Koch, who investigated the fjord in June 1922, found the middle and inner parts covered with very old ice. Several polar bears were observed near the head.

The fjord was named by Hall (1871) after the German naturalist Emil Bessels, chief of the scientitic staff of Hall's Polaris Expedition.

Guidebook 1227 H.O. 76, 544 Greely, Handbook 185

Bowdoin Bugt ^ Bay ^ (in northwest Greenland)

see Inglefield Gulf

Inglef ^ ie ^ ld Bay cont.

the period of July 26-29 at the head of Inglefield [: ] Gulf. At this time the fast ice had broken up, except for some scattered pieces and bergs at the head, a most unusual condition for this time of the year.

SD VI 144 ff. Guidebook738 ff.

Indexer: list Academy Bay; Bowdoin Bay

Cape Brevoort

(82°00′N., 60° 15′W.), in northwest Greenland, about 7 miles north of Cape Summer, is a high limestone cliff above which the land rises to about 2,000 ft. The cape is the eastern extremity of Nyeboe Land, an ice-free area between Newman Bay and St. George Fjord. Lauge Koch, in June 1922, found huge ice-blocks pressing against this part of the coast and the ice-foot proper generally impossible to detect.

The cape was discovered by Hall (1871) who named it after the American J. Carson Brevoort ^ , ^ ", ^ " ^ a strong friend of Arctic Discoveries."

Guidebook 1237 H.O. 76, 554 MG [: ] 5, 415 Nourse, American Explorations in the Ice Zones, 295

Cape Bridg e man

(83° 33′N., 27° 20′W.), the easternmost point of the north coast of Greenland (Peary Land),lies about 17 miles northeastward of the north– western entrance point of Fre ^ de ^ rick E. Hyde Fjord. From here the coast trends southeastward to Cape Eils Rasmussen, which is Peary Land's eastern– most extremity. The coast east and west of Cape Bridgeman ^ the cape ^ flattens down to a low shore covered with pebbles, chiefly granite. Six miles inland, however, a range of hills, called the Daly Mountains, rises steeply out of the plain. Altitudes here are over 4,500 ft. The area, according to the chart, is widely covered with Highland Ice.

Cape Bridg e man, discovered and named by Peary in 1900, was the northern– most point reached by the Danish Expedition of 1906-08.

Guidebook 1276 H.O. 75, 268 AAF Aer. Ch. (9) 1944

Indexer: list Daly Mountains.

Unpaginated

Cape Bridgeman

(83° 33′N., 27° 20′W.), in northern Greenland, lies about 17 miles northwestward

Brönlund Fjord,

a branch of Independence Fjord in northeast Greenland, is entered on the northern side of that fjord between Cape Harald Moltke (82° 09′N., 31° 03′W.) ^ , ^ and Cape Knud Rasmussen, about 2 1/2 miles southward. Brönlund Fjord trends northwestward and then due westward for about 12 miles to a large depression, named Wandel Valley which leads to the long and narrow Midsummer Lake to the westward. The northern shore is lined by a series of steeply sloping sandstone bluffs (about 2,000 ft. high) which extend westward from the wide river delta north of the mouth to Wandel Valley and beyond. The southern shore is lower and broken by the mouths of several rivers, draining the ice cap in the interior of Heilprin Land. Both shores are fertile enough in stretches to su o ^ p ^ port musk oxen and an abundance of hares. The fjord itself was found by Freuchen of the First Thule Expedition (1912) to be filled with a great number of icebergs driven into it from the head of Independence Fjord. A great number of seals were see [: ] seen all over the ice.

^?^ Brönlund Fjord ^was^, discovered and named ^for his traveling companion — Brönlund^ by Mylius-Erichsen,in 1907, ^and^ has since been surveyed by Rasmussen and Freuchen (1912) and by Lauge Koch(1921). Rasmussen reported findu^i^ng a number of Eskimo tent rings, evidence of previous occupation, on both sides of the entrance of ^to^ the fjord. (See also Independence Fjord; Wandel Valley.)

H.O. 75, 262 Guidebook 1296 MG 70 p. 100 ff.

Cape Bryan

(81° 06′N., 64° 15′W.), on the eastern side of Kennedy Channel in northwest Greenland, forms the western entrance point of Bessels Bay ^ Fjord ^ and the northernmost point of Washington Land. The cape rises to about 2,100 ft. The low Hannan Island, close off the northern extremity of Cape Bryan, appears to be the terminal moraine of a large glacier now extinct. A bank off the eastern side of the island se ^ r ^ v er ed as an anchoring place forthe Alert and Discovery .

The cape was named after R.W.D. Bryan, A ^ a ^ stronomer of Hall's Polaris Expedition.

Guidebook 1227 H.O. 76, 544

Indexer: list Hannah Island

Cape Bryant

(82° 21′N., 54° 25′W.), is a projection at the northern extremity of Nyeboe Land in northwest Greenland. The coast here changes its direction to the southward to form the western shore of St. George Fjord. The edge of the polar pack, which generally lies close up to the coast westward of Cape Bryant, here turns in an approximately northeastern direction toward Beaumont Island, situated more than 45 miles to the northeastward. The mountain range south of Cape Bryant rises to over 3,200 ft.

The cape was named after Henry G. Bryant, leader of the Peary Auxiliary Expedition of 1894.

Guidebook 1242 H.O. 76, 559 AAF Aer. Ch (8) 1943 MG 65, 194

Cairn Point

(78° 31′N., 72° 31′W.), a sharply narrowing small headland with a square face of gneiss rock ^ , ^ o ^ i ^ n the Thule District coast of northern West Greenland, forms the southeastern entrance point of the northern end of Smith Sound. The point is the Pelham Point of Inglefield (1852) who reached his farthest north in this vicinity. Hayes renamed the point in 1876, after finding a cairn with records, left there in 1855 by Captain Hartstene, who commanded an expedition for the relief of Kane's party.

Guidebook 1204 H.O . 76, 521 Greely, Handbook 185,197

AAF Aer. Ch(20) 1943

Camp Scott (72° 46′N 54° 47′W.),

the scientific station of the University of Michigan ^ G ^ reenland Expedition, 1930-31, was set up on the souther [: ] shore of Natsiorsiorfik Island close off the head of Uperniviks Isfjord in the Uperniviks District of northern West Greenland. The site was admirably suited for meteorological work; close proximity to the continental glacier enhanced the possibilities of making extensive studies there and a prominent hill promised a location for making balloon ascensions. Aerological observations made afforded much needed information about the general information about the general circulation of the atmosphere in nrthern regions.

Guidebook 606 ff. H.O. 76, 443

Cary (Carey) Islands

( a ^ A ^ pprox. at lat. 76° 35′N.), is a group of 6 islands and numberless islets and rocks in the northeastern part of Baffin Bay, about 50 to 65 miles due westward of Thule settlement in northern West Greenland. The islands vary in size from 2 miles in diameter downwards ^ , ^ and are characterized by terraced boulder beaches, rising stair - case like to a height of about 140 ft. Above thes ^ e ^ beaches tower steep, flat-topped cliffs, some of which rise to 1,000 ft. The ground among the islands is notoriously foul, but the surrounding waters are fairly open, even in winter, and seals, therefore, are probably common in the vicinity. J.M. Wordie, who explored some of the islands in 1937, found a comparatively luxuriant vegetation here; a large number of eider ducks and guillemots had breeding places in the cliffs.

Lat. 76° 54′N., to the northwest of Cary Islands, was the farthest north established by the John Ross Expedition of 1818, but the islands have been known since the days of Baffin, who discovered and named them in 1616.

Guidebook 725 H.O. 76, 470 ff. Greely, Handbook, 87 Bessels, Smith Sound and its Explorations, p. 334

Cass Fjord,

in northwest Greenland, indents the northern shore of Peabody Bay, between Cape Clay (79° 59′N., 64° 55′W.) and Cape Webster, about 9 miles west– northwestward. The fjord trends northeastward and then northward for over 20 miles, terminating at a point named Bjørnehiet (Bear ^ s ^ Lair . ^ ) ^ . The inner end of the fjord is very narrow and runs between shores ^ ^ attaining elevations of from 800 to 1,700 ft. Numerous small rivers debouch along these inner shores.

Lauge Koch, traveling up Cass Fjord in 1922, came upon several house ruins and fox traps. Seals were observed some distance in the fjord.

Guidebook 1218 H.O. 76, 529 AAF Aer. Ch (8) 1944

Cape Chalon (Pitorafik)

(77° 58′N., 72° 17′W.), in the Thule District of northwest Greenland, is a kuge ^ massive, snow-covered ^ sandstone bluff rising to an elevation of from 1,000 to 1,200 ft. Alongside the southern foot of the bluff runs a black trap dyke, about 2 miles long and 30 to 50 ft. thick, forming a natural retaining wall for the mass of soft rock towering above it. The waters in the vicinity are a favorite gathering place for walrus in spring, at which time Eskimos from all over t [: ] e region come here for hunting. Pitorarfik, a small Eskimo settlement, stands back of the cape.

Guidebook 756 H.O. 76, 482

Cape Chalon (Peterawik)

(77° 58′N., 72° 17′W.), in the Thule District of northwest Greenland.

J.C. Christensen Land,

in northeast Greenland, forms the southern shore of Independence Fjord, between Cape Peter Henrik (82° 03′N., 25° 20′W.), the western entrance point of Hagen Fjord, and Astrup Fjord, about 50 miles to the westward. The section extends southward to , ^ M ^ ylius-Erichsen Land,but the boundary line between the two lands is only vaguely defined. From Cape Peter Henrik the coast line is a continuous range of sediment rock, increasing in height to the westward. Several small glaciers, issues of the Inland Ice, crop out among the rock formation close to the mouth of Astrup Fjord,where altitudes are over 2,200 ft. [: ] . The interior of J.C. Christensen Land has elevations of over 5,000 ft. About half of the land is covered with Highland Ice.

J.C. Christensen Land was discovered and named by the Mylius-Erichsen Expedition (1906-08.)

H.O.75, 259 MG 130, 347 AAF Aer. Ch. 9 1944

Cape Clarence Wyckoff,

(82° 55′N., 22° 45′W.), on the east coast of Peary Land in north– east Greenland ^ , ^ projects about 12 miles northwestward of Cape Henry Paris . ^ h. ^ The cape forms a broad point of land, on which Mt. Clarence Wyckoff rises to about 2,800 ft.

H.O. 75, 265

Cape Cleveland

(77° 35′N., 70° 10′W.), forms the southern entrance point of Mc Cormick Bay in the Thule District of northern West Greenland. The ba ^ s ^ tionlike cape, which is composed of yellow sandstone, projects westward from the western extremity of Red Cliff Peninsula, a large, ice-covered promontory ^ , ^ on the northern side of Murchison Sound and Inglefield Gulf.

H.O. 76, 477

Conger Inlet

in northern Greenland, separates the two Lookwood Islands from a mainland projection to the eastward. It is entered between Cape Christiansen (83° 25′N., 39° 40 W.), on Lookwood Island, and Cape Kane, about 5 miles northeastwards whence it curves southeastward and then southward to connect with the inner end of We [: ] precht Inlet.

H.O. 76, 568

Conical Rock (Iganak)

(76° 03′N., 68° 30 ′W.), is the name of an islet on the Greenland side of Baffin Bay, about 2 miles southward of Parker Snow Point and about 1 1/2 miles offshore. The sharply -pointed, ragged islet rises to about 1,000 ft. and forms a conspicuous landmark.

H.O. 76, 464 Guidebook 700.

Conical Rock (Iganak)

is the name of an islet

Cape Constitution

(80° 34′N., 66° 4 ^ 5 ^ ′W.), on the eastern side of Kennedy Channel ^ , ^ in northwest Greenland, is formed by a steep mountain that rises to 1,500 ft. The cliff of the cape is black ^ , ^ a ^ n ^ d the crags are overhanging, hiding the top from sight when viewed close by. Franklin Island ^ , ^ ( 6 miles by 3), the largest of the islands in Kennedy Channel,lies about 3 miles north of Cape Constitution. Between the northwestern end of Franklin Island and the Ellesmere Island shore to the northwestward the fairway of Kennedy Channel is less than 12 miles wide.

Cape Constitution was the farthest north reached by W. Morton of the Kane Expedition in June, 1854.

Guidebook 1225 H.O. 76, 542 Greely, Handbook of P.D. p. 185 AAF Aer. Ch (8) 1944

Indexer: list Franklin Island

Crimson Cliffs (Sanerak),

on the northwest coast of Greenland, between Cape York ((75° 54′N., 66° 28′W.), and Parker Snow point about 35 miles to the northwestward, is a concave shoreline of steep bluffs and precipitous brown cliffs interrupted by numerous small glaciers and surmounted by a succession of ice-domes with their connecting saddles. The cliffs, which rise to from 1,000 to 2,000 ft., are favorite breeding grounds of millions of little auks. The fertilizing effect of these birds combined with the reddish tints of the sedimentary rock, give the cliffs in summer an unexpected warmth of color ^ . ^ However, the name, which originated with Sir John Ross, derives from other causes. In early summer, after the melting of the snow is well under way, large quantities of micricospic ^ microscopic ^ plants, feeding on the snow and air, produce the so-called "red" or "pink" snow which lends a crimson glow to the cliffs in daytime and may even cause pink reflections in the sky. The snow-free margin at the foot of the cliffs is narrow, but has traces of verdure. Ross reported the presence of black foxes and hares,

In July 1940, the Mor ^ r ^ issey , observed abnormal magnetic variations while passing the cliffs.

H.O. 76, 464, Guidebook 698 ff.

Dallas Bay,

a large indentation in the coast of Inglefield Land in north ^ ern West ^ Greenland, is entered between Cape Kent (79° 05′N., 67° 55′W.) and Cape Scott, approximately 13 miles to the east-northeastward. The bay trends southeastward for about 4 miles. Sever l ^ a ^ l islets lie near the head of the bay, into which drains a river. Lauge Koch reported large lakes to the eastward.

Guidebook 1214 H.O. 76, 527 AAF Aer. Ch (20) 1944

Daugaard-Jensen Land

see Washington Land

Devil's Thumb (Kuvdlorssuak),

(74° 35′N., 57° 11′W.), a conspicuous landmark off the eastern shore of Melville Bay in northwest Greenland, rises at the southern end of an island lying about 2 miles off the northern end of Holms Island. The Thumb, which figures more prominently in accounts of voyages up this coast than any other of the distinctive features here, is a high pillar looking like a gigantic thumb extending upward from a hand. In 1943, J. M. Wordie reported that the summit of Devil's Thumb is at an elevation of about 1,800 ft., the upper 600 ft. constituting the thumb proper. ^ a ^ A ^ t the time of Wordie's visit, ^ Kuvdlorssuak settlement, on the southern end of Devil's Thumb island, consisted at the time of Wordie's visit of about 10 houses of turf and stones and one or two summer tents.

Guidebook 662 H.O. 76, 452

Cape Dudley Digges (Kaersok)

(76° 08′N., 68° 35′W.), on the Greenland side of Baffin Bay, forms the northwestern entrance point of ParkerSnow Bay. The cape is a precipitous cliff, about 800 ft. high and clear of snow, with yellowish vegetation at the top. Baffin discovered it in 1616, naming it after Sir Dudley Digges, one of his sponsors. The early whalers and seamen steered by it. Since then it has been passed by many a Polar Expedition bound for Etah and the regions beyond.

H.O. 76, 465

Etah

(78° 19′N., 72° 42′N.), on the northern shore of Foulke Fjord in the Thule District of northwest Greenland, was, until 1937, the northern– most settlement of the Polar ^ , ^ or Smith Sound Eskimos. It is the ulti– mate port of call in Smith Sound which a vessel can safely visit and leave the same season. The settlement^,^ which consists of a few primitive habitations, is only sporadically occupied by the Eskimos. The harbor, with depths of from 15 to ^ 20 ^ fathoms, is open to southward, and is usually free of ice late in July and August . ^ , but much exposed to winds from the Inland Ice. ^ In winter, when the upper reaches of Smith Sound are frozen over, a bridge of ice permits the natives of the region to cross from Etah over into Ellesmere Island in Canada.

Etah, well known as a port of call for many vessels bound for the regions farther north, was a winter base of Peary's "Windward" ^ Windward ^ Expedition in 1899-1900. ^ O ^ ther expeditions with prolonged bases at Etah included ^ Mac ^ Millan's Crocker Land Expedition (1913-17), the Oxford Univ ^ se ^ ^ es ^ rsity Ellesmere Island Expedition (1934-35), and the M^ac^ Gregor Arctic Expedition (1937-38). M^ac^ Millan considered Etah in many respects one of the finest wintering places along this stretch of coast, affording accessi– bility of hunting grounds both on land and at sea and an accessible gateway to the Inland Ice. Temperatures recorded here by his expedition for a period of four years showed an absolute M ^ m ^ aximum of 63° F. and an absolute minimum of-42° F. : t ^ T ^ he average maximum for that same period was 55.3° F., and the average minimum - 32° F., with the cold waters of Smith Sound and a continuous, extensive, prolonged ice-cover lowering the average temperature and retarding the advance of spring until May. Absolute humidity was found to be low throughout the year, and the number with clear days prevailing over cloudy and partly cloudy ones, although

Page 002

Etah contin ed Greenland

wintertime brought a good deal of fog. Some rain occurred in June,July and August, and even in mdwinter, when the foehn was blowing. Mirages were frequent in early spring , while the sun still was low. The freeze-up began in August and the beark-up late in April.

Additional meteorological observations and a series of upper-air observations were obtained by the American Meteorological Expedition (1937-38), led by C. J. Mac Gregor of the U.S.Weather Bureau, Newark Airport. Actual flying was done at Etah first by the Mac Millan Arctic Expedition of 1934, where Commander Richard E. Byrd was in charge or aviation, and then by the Mac Gregor Expedition of 1937-38, with Lt. Commander I. Schlossbacn in charge.

(For Etah's flora and fauna see FOULKE FJORD).,

Guidebook 770 fr. H.O. 76, 518 ff. Greely, Handbook p.180 AAF Aer. Ch. (20) 1944

Cape Forbes,

(79° 55′N., 64° 05′W.), a cape in northwest Greenland, projects at the northeastern end of Peabody Bay, just north of Humboldt Glacier. Putlerssuak Island lies immediately off Cape Forbes. Various old Eskimo remains have been found on the island and in the vicinity of the cape.

H.O. 76, 529 Guidebook 1218

Indexer: list Putlerssuak Island (Peabody Bay)

Foulke Fjord

lies in lat. 78° N., in northern West Greenland, where it leads from the head of Hartstene Bay on the eastern side of Smith Sound. The fjord is entered between Port Foulke and Reindeer Point, about 1-1/2 mile to the northward, a dn ^ nd ^ terminates about 5 miles northeastward in a narrow passage that connects with Alida Lake, a glacial pool , into which dips the large Brother John Glacier. Depths within the fjord are ^ almost ^ everywhere over 15 fathoms except near the head , with the shores rising sheer from the water's edge. Etah, until 1937 the northernmost settlement of the Polar, or Smith Sound Eskimos, and ultimate port-of-call in Smith Sound, stands on the outer northern shore of the fjord. Foulke Fjord is usually free of ice in July and August.

The land north and south of the fjord is unusually rich in vegetation, the most widely distributed plants here including purple saxifrage, Arctic [: ] poppy, alpine chickweed, Kentucky blue grass, Arctic heather and mountain aven ^ areas? ^ . By the middle of July the grass stands strong and green. Thirty-five veb varieties of birds nest in the cliffs. Caribou find pasturage on the northern shore. Walrus, seal and polar bear are plentiful in the waters of Smith Sound outside the fjord.

The mouth of Foulke Fjord was first viewed by Kane on August 7th, 1853 after his ship, the Advance , had passed the southernmost point of Inglefield Land, but the first to enter the fjord was Lt. Hartstene, of the U.S. barque Release , who came here in August,1855, seeking news of Kane's Expedition. Hayes, in command of the schooner Un ii ^ it ^ ed States , entered Port Foulke in Septem– ber,1860, and established winter quarters here. Hayes, and after him Bessels, of the Hall Expedition , (1873) . ^ , ^ made [: ] journeys to the Inland Ice and ascertained among other things, the rapid forward movement of the Brother

Page 002

Foulke Fjord cont.

John Glacier, near the head of the fjord. A hunting party from the Discovery (Nares Expedition) visited Brother John Glacier in July, 1875, "crossing its face to the other side of the valley. The fjord and the surrounding lands have since been investigated by a number of parties, some of which wintered on its shores, such as Peary's Windward Expedition (1899-1900), Mac Millan's Crockerland Expedit– ion (1913-17), the Oxford University Ellesmere Island Expedition (1934-35), and the Mac Gregor Arctic Expedition (1937-38). In 1906, Peary's Roosevelt ^ Roosevelt ^ was tempo– rarily beached for repairs at the head of the fjord. Lauge Koch, in 1922, confirmed the constant forward movement of the Brother John Glacier. (For weather and temperature data see under ETAH).

H.O. 76, 518 Guidebook 766 Greely, Handbook 199 MG 65, p 272 MG 130, p. 30, 340 AAF Aer. Ch (20) 1943

Indexer: list B or ^ ro ^ ther John Glacier

Frederick E. Hyde Fjord,

in northern Greenland, enters the northeast coast of Peary Land close northward of Cape John Flagler (83° 15′N., 25° W.) and about 17 miles southeastward of Cape Bridgeman. The giant fjord, which is almost 100 miles long and from 5 to 10 miles wide, trends west-southwestward and terminates at Nordpasset, a 10-mile valley, leading to O.B. Bøggild Fjord which cuts into Peary Land from the north. Four arms issue from the middle and inner fjord. Three of these - Freya, Thor and Odin Fjords - lead southward to the various glaciers at their head; the larger Frigg Fjord, branching in a position about 65 miles from Cape John Flagler, extends northward to a circular valley where four glaciers debouch.

The coast both northward and southward of the fjord's entrance is made up of clay plains, with only a few stones ^ , ^ but numerous mussel shells, most likely old moraines re-deposited by the water. Inland the mountains rise to considerable altitudes, especially on the south side of the fjord, where a widely glacier-covered surface platea ^ u ^ attains elevations, of ^ nearly 4,000 ft. ^ Here,too, at some distance from the fjord, is also Peary Land's highest point - the widely visible, volcano-shaped Mount Vistas (6,500 ft. , ^ ) ^ whose large glacier tongues extend northward in the direction of Frederick E.Hyde Fjord and Freya Fjord. Glaciers from Hans Taussen Ice Cap to the westward drain into the heads of the innermost branch fjord or in the direction of Nordpasset. The wild alpine country to the north of the fjord is largely ice-free and furrowed by many short valleys and riverbeds. Little is known of ice-conditions inside the fjord. In May he found it ^ 1921, Lauge Koch found the entrance ^ filled with sea ice that was several years old; to the eastward the ice was pressed into high ridges.

The fjord, which was discovered and named by Peary in 1900, was first entered by members of the Mylius-Er c ^ i ^ chsen Expedition who traced parts of its outer course, in 1907. Lauge Koch who visited the mouth of the fjord in 1917 and 1921,viewed the whole of the fjord only in 1938 during an airplane expedition

Page 002

Frederick E. Hyde Fjord cont. ^ Frederick E. Hyde Fjord cont. ^ Greenland

over Peary Land. Koch found that the fjord extended 50 miles farther westward than previously supposed. He ascertained ^ ✓ ^ that Nordpasset, at the head of the Fjord, connected with a branch of De Long Fjord (O.B. Bøggild Fjord,)and that northern Peary Land would be an island except for this connecting strip of land. Finally he traced the four branches issuing from the middle and inner fjord and the large valley at the head of the northward trending Frigg Fjord. This valley, which he named Drivhuset (The Hothouse) seemed to him well-protected against winds of all directions, and in his opinion deserved close investigation by botanists and zoologists. Koch, who in 1921, had seen musk oxen near the mouth of Frederick E. Hyde Fjord, found no trace of them here in 1938, nor did he discover any living thing during his whole flight over Peary Land.

Guidebook 1229 ff. MG 130, pp. 318, 349 H.O. 75, 268

Indexer list: Freya, Frigg, Odin, Thor Fjord; Drivhuset

Freuchen Land,

a high, mountainous and almost completely ice-covered peninsula of northern Greenland, separates Nordenskiøld Fjord from J.P. Koch Fjord to the eastward. From Cape Wegener (82° 45′N., 45° 35′W.) the western extremity of Freuchen Land, the coast extends ^ about 12 miles ^ southeastward to form the northeastern shore of Nordenskiøld Fjord and about 23 miles eastward, to from the southern shore of the outer part of J.P. Koch Fjord. Freuchen Land and Cape Wegener were named by Rasmussen's Second Thule Expedition.

Guidebook 1528 H.O. 76, 563 MG 130, 351

Indexer: list Cape Wegener

G. B. Schley Fjord,

in lat. 82° N. in northeast Greenland, enters the northeast coast of Peary Land between Peary's Cairn, on Wyckoff Land, and Cape Isaak Glueckstadt, about 8 miles northwestward. When Lauge Koch flew over this fjord, he found it shorter than previously supposed, extending about 23 miles west-southwestward. A short branch fjord, called Ormen, leads from about the middle of the northern shore. Altitudes along both sides of G.B. Schley Fjord are l ^ m ^ oderate and decrease in height toward the head. A number of rivers enter the inner end of the fjord, which is surrounded by very flat country.

G. B. Schley Fjord was discovered and named by Peary (1900), who left a record of his visit in the cairn he built near the fjord's south– eastern entrance point. Peary did not believe that he was south of lat. 83° N., but J. P. Koch, in 1907, on finding Peary's Cairn, ^ in 1907, ^ was able to show that the explorer had been farther south.

Guidebook 1278 H.O. 75, 264 MG 130 pp. 127, 349

Indexer: list Peary's Cairn.

Cape Clarence Wyckoff

Gertrude Rask Land,

one of Greenland's most northerly promontories, with a 7-mile frontage on the Polar Sea, projects between Benedict Fjord and an unnamed fjord to the eastward. Cape Cannon (83° 37′N., 37° 10′W.), about 1,500 ft. high, rises at the northwestern end of the peninsular. The rugged interior of Gertrud Rask Land attains maximum elevations of over 2,600 ft. and is partly covered with Highland Ice, with many of the valley glaciers meeting across the f ^ d ^ efiles. Along the northern shore three large glaciers, one of them fairly active, descends direct– ly into the sea. Lauge Koch, in 1921, found no musk oxen in this vicinity; he concluded that migrating animals found it difficult to cross this part of Peary Land and probably wandered along a more southerly route to reach the North Point and the regions along the east coast.

H.O. 76, 569 MG 65, 325 ff. AAF Aer. Ch (8) corrected.

Indexer: list Cape Cannon

Gieseckes ^ Icefjord, ^

in lat. 73° N. in northern West Greenland, is entered between Tugtokortok Island and Cape Shackleton, about 8 miles north-northeastward. The fjord, which trends eastward and then southeastward for abou t 37 miles, is bounded on the southwestern side by a chain of islands, and on the northeastern side by Giesecke Glacier, which also occupies its head. The glacier is broken up by several nunataks and is said to be active mainly in its middle portion. Due to the strong current of the fjord the calved icebergs immediately drift away from the glacier front with the result that, bot ^ h ^ summer and winter,a large icefree basin exists at the head of the fjord. This open basin is frequented by numerous marine animals and much visit es ^ ed ^ by hunters. El ve ^ ev ^ ations on both sides of the fjord are moderate ^ , ^ but large cliffs (granitic gneiss) are common in the interior.

The fjord was named after the German mineralogist K.L. Giesecke. Guidebook 625 H.O. 76, 447

Granville Bay,

in lat. 76° N. in northern West Greenland, is the next inlet northward of Wolstenholme Fjord and is entered between Manussak settlement and Uvdlisaitunguak, a point about 8 miles northwestward. The fjord, which is about 21 miles long and from 2 to 3 miles wide, has a north-northeastward trend . and is flanked by mountains with peaks covered by local glaciers. From the head of the fjord, which forms an oval basin at the edge of the Inland Ice, a good sledge route leads northward to Inglefield Gulf. Manussak settlement is only sporadically occupied.

Guidebook 720 H.O. 76 472

Indexer : list Manussak settlement

Hagen Fjord,

one of the larger indentations in the coast of northeast Greenland, leads from the southern side of Independence Fjord, between Cape Ludovika (82° 02′N., 23° 40′W.), and Cape Peter Henrik, about 15 miles westward. Flanked in the east by Valdemar Glückstadt Land and in the west by J.P. Christensen Land, Hagen Fjord extends southward for about 14 miles and then southwestward for about 23 miles to a glacier at its head. The low hills of clay or rock, surrounding the outer portions of the fjord ^ , ^ give way in the interior to precipitous cliffs, behind which a partly ice-capped plateau-land rises to over 3,000 ft.

Hagen Fjord was discovered and named by ^ ^ the Mylius Erichsen Expedition (1906-08 , ^ ) ^ , and surveyed by Rasmussen and Freuchen of the First Thule Expedition (1912). . Freuchen reported a considerable number of icebergs and large floes of fresh water ice (sikossak) off the mouth of the fjord. No game was observed by his expedition.

Guidebook 1318 H.O. 5, 259 MG 51, 357 CH: AAf Aer. Ch. 9, 1943

Indexer: list Cape Ludovika; V ^ C ^ ape Peter Henrik

Polaris Bay,

on the Greenland side of Hall Basin, is formed by a recession of the west coast of Hall Land, between Cape Tyson (81° 19′N., 60° 55′W.), and a low point about 17 miles to the northward.

Hakluyt Island,

an island in Baffin Bay, less than 4 miles long,east and west, lies within the approaches of Inglefield Gulf, about 35 miles northwestward of Cape Parry, ^ Greenland. ^ A 2-miles strait separates it from the larger Northumberland Island to the eastward. Hakluyt Island, which attains an elevation s ^ of over 1,300 ft. ^ in its highest,northeastern part, slopes from west to east, and also from north to south. A large glacier flows down from the island's higher part, almost dividing it in two, but the table land in the interior has some fertile stretches, where grass and dlowers grow luxuriantly during the summer. Large numbers of guillemots, little auks and other birds breed in the steep eastern and western cliffs. Foxes and hares occur inland. The island was named by Baffin, whose tiny ship found d ^ s ^ helterhere in 1616. In August, 1891, members of Peary's Kite Expedition man ^ e ^ uvred their whaleboat Faith on to its di d ^ ff ^ icult shores. The part ^ y ^ found d ^ f ^ ew signs of habitations, but fox - and hare-traps were observed along the southwestern coast.

Guidebook 733 H.O. 76, 473 Peary, Northward over the Great Ice, 82, 105,121

Hall Basin,

a 37-mile waterway, lying between northwestern Greenland and the east coast of Ellesmere Island, forms part of the Smith Sound Route which leads northward from Baffin Bay to the Polar Sea. Hall Basin links Kennedy Channel with Robeson Channel, and has its southern entrance between Cape Morton (81° 12′N., 63° 40′W), Greenland, and Cape Baird, Ellesmere Island, about 23 miles north-northwestward. Its northern entrance is between Cape Lupton (81° 40′N., 61° 55′W.), Greenland, and Cape Murchison, Ellesmere Island, about 15 miles west-northwestward. Petermann Fjord extends southeastward from the basin's southeastern part, and Lady Franklin Bay leads southwestward from its northwestern part. The basin widens to over 40 miles in its central portion.

Hall Basin is filled at all times with heavy polar pack ice, which even in summer, despite strong southward currents, may remain closely packed over wide areas. Peary, in August 1905, found open water along the east side of the basin. Rasmussen, who sledged along its east coast in May 1917, believed that the ice traveling south through the Smith Sound Route from the Polar Sea worked lose in August and September but that opening were local and temporary. According to Lauge Koch ^ , ^ all of Hall Basin had been ice-free in 1920, for in April 1921, he found the ice of the basin smooth, without hummocks.

Only three V ^ v ^ essels, the Polaris of Hall, the Alert of Nares and the Roosevelt of Peary, have been able to push through Hall Basin to latitude farther north. Nares' Discovery and Greely's Proteus were stopped by ice off the entrance to Lady Franklin Bay and were forced to winter in Discovery Harbor (Fort Conger). The Hall Expedition (1871-72) and the Nares Expedition (1875-76) also supplied the first charts of the basin's coasts. Theirs and Greely's observations were later supplemented by surveys made by Peary, Rasmussen and Koch . Guidebook 1195,1229 H.O. 76, 545 Greely, Handbook 202 Peary, Nearest the Pole 39 Rasmussen, Greenland by the Polar Sea 73 AAF Aer. Ch 8,1943

Hall Land,

a large, peninsula-like projection in northwest Greenland, has its approximate base at lat. 81° N., close to the northern entrance of Petermann Fjord, whence it extends ^ 60 ^ miles north-northwestward, flanked on the west and north by Hall Basin and Robeson Channel, respectively, and on the east by Newman Bay. Its north point is Cape Sumner (81° 55′N., 60° 50′W.). Prominent points on the west coast are Cape Tyson (81° 19′N.), and Cape Lupton, about 25 miles to the northward. Between the two capes the coast reced ^ es ^ slightly to form the 17-miles wide Polaris Bay; the rest of the coastline is relatively even and marked only by minor irregularities.

The broad, so uthernmost portion of Hall Land attains elevations of nearly 4,000 ft. and is almost entirely covered with Highland Ice, except for narrow stretches near the coast. North of this ice-capped land is a low, ice-free plain, which extends clear through the middle of the peninsula and shows signs of being a raised marine plain. Polaris Promontory, the northernmost part of Hall Land, which has Cape Sumner at its extremity, is again mountainous and attains elevations of about 2,500 ft. The coast in the vicinity of the cape is very striking ^ and, according to Rasmussen, ^ stands like a steep wall of cliffs, with a beautiful design in brown and grey, the darker foreground forming a sharp contrast to the awl-pointed, snow– covered peaks farther inland.

Hall Land was first explored by members of the Polaris Expedition (1871-72), who undertook extensive trips along its coasts and into the interior while their vessel, the Polaris , lay beset in Thank God Harbor, north of Polaris Bay. (For details of this expedition see Hall and Bessels.) Rasmussen, in 1917, and Lauge Koch, in 1921, rounded the coast of Hall Land by sledge. Both explorers found the ice-foot narrow in most parts and often impassable because

Page 002

Hall Land cont. Greenland

of pressure ridges and stranded ice-blocks. Rasmussen and k ^ K ^ och found the interior poor in game, contrary to Bessels, of the Polaris Expedition, who reported the presence of musk-oxen,polar bears, foxes, hares, lemmings and numerous of land and seabirds. (See also Hall Basin).

H.O. 76, 547. Guidebook 1232. MG 65, 402ff. MG 130, 343 Rasmussen, Greenland by the Polar Sea, 75 ff. Greenland I., 73 BesselsDie amerika– nische Nordpolexpedition, 247. AAF Aer. Ch (8) 1943

Indexer: list Polaris Promontory; Cape Sumner.

Hare Island (Kajok)

(northern extremity 70° 29′N., 55° 02′W.) ^ , ^ lies off the coast of Umanak District in northern West Greenland, close to the entrance of Vaigat Sound. The island, which covers an area of about 66 square miles, is rather low, but the sea cliffs are steep, often inaccessible. The rock consists of basaltic and tufaceous layers, seamed, in some places, with coal. Harbors are lacking but vessels may find shelter under the coast. The barren island is uninhabited except in summer, when the people from the mainland nearby ^ c ^ ome here to hunt and fetch coal ^ . ^ It has frequently been visited by whalers and expedition vessels, and there are some English graves at Hare Island's northern end.

H.O. 76, 285 Guidebook 510

Hartstene Bay

indents Greenland's west coast in lat. 78° N., [: ] between Cape Kenrick and Sunrise Point, about 6 miles northwestward. The bay which opens on Smith Sound, leads about 3 miles eastward to the entrance of Foulke Fjord, which has no direct outlet so ^ to ^ the sea. A number of minor inlets inside ^ the much indented ^ Hartstene Bay afford anchorage to small craft, but the bay, in general, is exposed to southwesterly winds, and any ice traveling up from the southward is certain to find its way into it. An ice-foot may from along the northern side of the bay. The southeastern side is more sheltered, and some of the hills along this coast are luxuriantly green in summer. Arctic hare and caribou are numerous in the surrounding land.

The bay was named after Lt. Hartstene of the U.S. barque Release , the first to enter Foulke Fjord ^ , ^ in August 1855.

Guidebook 763 H.O. 76, 515 MG 65 268 AAF Aer. Ch (20) 1943

Cape Hatherton (Naujat)

(78° 27′N., 72° 35′W.), in northwest Greenland, is a bold mass of porphyric rock, that projects about 7 miles north-north– eastward of Cape Ohlsen, on the eastern side of Smith Sound. The coast to the northward is studded with islands which are breeding places of eider duck, glaucous gull and tern.

H.O. 76 520.

Hazen Land,

an island in the Polar Sea, with a maximum diameter of about 12 miles, off-lies the northern coast of Greenland (Peary Land) between De Long Fjord and Weyprecht Inlet. Cape Hommock (83° 22′N., 40° 50′W.), a short, but sharply narrowing projection, lies at the extreme northern end of the island. The interior attains elevations of over 2,200 ft., with several glaciers extending across the central portion of Hazen Land.

The island was named by Lockwood of the U.S."Lady Franklin" Expedition, who reached his farthest north, 83° 24′N. (on the nei ^ g ^ hboring Lockwood Island) in May 1882.

Guidebook 1269 H.O. 76, 566. Greely, Handbook 185 AAF Aer. Ch(8) 1943

Indexer: list Cape Hommock

Heilprin Land,

a narrow, mountainous tract of land, extends about 35 miles along the western side of the inner portion of Independence Fjord. The land's northern end is flanked by Brönlund Fjord, and its southern end by Sophie Marie Glacier. The central and greater part of Heilprin Land is occupied by the Chr. Erichsen Ice Cap, which rises to over 5,000 ft. The lower icefree coastal fringe consists of steep slopes of sediment formation which are very fertile and abound with game - musk oxe and hare.

H.O. 75 Guidebook 1302 Chart : AAF Aer. Ch. (9) 1944

Hendrik Island

lies off the northern coast of Greenland, between St George and Sherard Osborne Fjords. From Dragon Point, its low north point, at lat. 82° 18′N, long 53° W., the island extends nearly 40 miles southeastward, its width averaging only about 7 miles. Its greatest elevations occur in its southeastern part, where the chart indicates a small ice cap, about 4,000 ft. high. Elesewhere the land is icefree and slopes down to a level of about 1,000 ft. to increase again in altitude toward the island's northern end, where two sharply contoured peaks, Mt. Dragon and Mt. Windham Hornby, rise to 3,200 and 3,700 ft., respectively. Hares, ptarmigan and a number of wanderin wolves have been observed in the interior.

Hendrik Island was named by Rasmussen after Hendrik the Eskimo, who rendered invaluable se v ^ r ^ vices to four major expeditions, those of Kane, Hayes, Hall and Nares. Rasmussen, who camped at Dragon Point in May 1917, discovered the record cached left there by Beaumont of the Nares Expedition in May,1876.

H.O. 76,560 Guidebook 1248 Rasmussen, Greenland by the Polar Sea 94 ff. Mirsky, To the North 183 AAF Aer. Ch (8) 1943

Herbert Island

is the easternmost of the three islands lying within the approaches of Inglefield Bay, off the west coast of Greenland. Herbert Island, which is about 18 miles long, east and west, is a vertical-sided, flat-topped mass of variegated sandstone, with a small ice-cap; three glaciers descend from the island's northern side, but only one of them reaches sea level. Bastion Point (77° 24′N., 69° 51′W.), the east point of the island, is a bold cliff of dark red sandstone, with a cap, 100 to 150 ft. high, of lighter sandstone. It marks the northern entrance point at the eastern end of Whale Sound. The island was investigated by Peary, in April 1892. His party found several ruined stone igloos, two of which had been fixed up and made habitable.

H.O. 76, 475 Guidebook 733 Peary, Northward over the Great Ice, 236, 237

Herluftrolle s Land,

in northeast Greenland, forms the southeastern coast ^ portion ? ^ of Peary Land, ^ and lien ^ between Independence Fjord and G.B. Schley Fjord to the northward. To the eastward the land faces the Mc Kinley and Wandel Sea ^ s ^ , which are parts of the Arctic Ocean ^ Sea ^ .

The vaguely ^ - ^ defined tract of land, which has a diameter of 50 miles or more, is ice-free , except in the north, where a mountainous plateau rises to about 6,500 ft.; the chart here indicates two small ice-caps. Westward, southward and southeastward of of this plateauland are wide plains which are crossed by innumerable rivers, emptying southward into Independence Fjord or northward into the head of G.B. Schley Fjord. The northeastern portion of ^ Herluftrolle ^ the l ^ L ^ and is occupied by several low mountain ranges which follow the sweep of the coast down to Cape Eiler Rasmussen (82° 35′N., 20° W.), which forms Peary Land's eastern extremity. South of this point the coast recedes to form Wandel Sea.

Cape Clarence Wyckoff, a broad point of land on the northeast coast of ^S^ Herluftrolle s Land, was reached by Peary in 1900. It was his r ^ f ^ a ^ r ^ thest east after rounding the northern end of Greenland ^ . ^ The coast south of this cape was explored by J.P. Koch of the 1906-08 Danmark Expedition, and by Lauge Koch, , of the Danish Bicentenary Jubilee Expedition, 1920-23. The latter found this part of the ^ coast ^ poor in game ^ , ^ but was able to secure 9 musk oxen on the slopes south of Cape Clarence Wyckoff. Species of birds along the shores of ^ facing ^ Independence Fjord included ringplovers, gulls, Brent geese, ptarmigans, snowy owls and snow buntings. Koch named the land, after re-surveying it by sea plane in 1938.

MG 70, 87 MG 65, 376 Guidebook 1278 ff Geogr. Journ. LXii, 117 MG 130, 351 AAF Aer. Ch 9,1943

Indexer: list Cape Eiler Rasmussen; Cape Clarence Wyckoff

Holm Island (Kiatagssuak)

at the southern entrance of Melville Bay, forms the administrative boundary line between two of West Greenland's most northerly districts: Upernivik and Thule. The island ^ , ^ which is about 21 miles long, east and west, and about 4 miles wide, has numerous valleys with rivers and lakes rich in salmon. Maximum altitudes in the interior are over 3,200 ft. Wilcox Head (Ungatdlek) (74° 35′N., 57° 11′W.), the west point of Holm Island, about 2,300 ft. high ^ , ^ . affords an excellent view of ice conditions in the eastern part of Melville Bay.

H.O. 76, 452 Guidebook 661 Greenland I., 513 AAF Aer. Ch (38) 1943

Indexer: list Wilcox Head

Humboldt Glacier,

the broadest known glacier in the world, occupies the head of Peabody Bay in northwest Greenland, where it extends between Cape Agassiz (79° 09′N., 65° 40′W.) and Cape Forbes, about 60 miles to the northward. The glacier, which is partly bounded by and rests upon a gneiss plain, slopes evenly into the sea, and when viewed from the top of an iceberg directly in front of it, appears as a great white plain, extending far into the interior. In most places the edge does not exceed 164 ft. in elevation, and in its southern portio b ^ n ^ it is often easily accessible from a boat. The bergs which now and then calve off Humboldt Glacier look like huge pieces of polar ice, but are never the height of those off the larger glaciers farther south. Currents are strong in the waters around the bergs in spring, and seals, in consequence are numerous offshore. A huge icebank extends off the the ^ glacier's ^ northern portion ^ . ^ of Humboldt Glacier.

The first to discover and name the ^ Humboldt ^ ^ g ^ lacier were members of the Kane Expedition of 1853. Rasmussen who investigated the area in 1917, states that its is not correct to call this a glacier, but views the ice-stream as an even edge of the Inland Ice which here reaches down to the sea. Both Rasmussen and Lauge k^K^och concur that the productivity of the glacier is ver t ^ y ^ low. Koch,in 1921, observed that the ice offshore remained in motion until Christmas.

H.O. 76, 529. Guidebook 1216 Rasmussen, Greenland by the Polar Sea, 59 MG 65, p. 281 ff. AAF Aer. V ^ C ^ n (20) 1943

Hunt Fjord,

in lat. 83 N. in northern Greenland, indents the northwest coast of Peary Land close eastward of Cape Lane and westward of Gertrud Rask Land. The fjord, which is about 5 miles wide and 7 miles long, trends east-south– eastward amidst a setting which is characteristic for this part of Peary Land : innumerable short, glacier-filled valleys flanked by dark, sharply pointed nunataks. The peaks close to the large Thomas Glacier at the head rise to nearly 5,000 ft. The fjord was named by Peary in 1900.

H.O. 76, 568 MG 65, p. 322 MG 130, p. 349

AAF Aer. Ch (8), 1944

Igdlorsuit

(71° 14′N., 53° 31′W.), a productive outpost in the Umanak District of northern West Greenland, with a population of 163 Greenlanders and 2 Europeans (1937), lies on the eastern shore of the large Ubekyendt Island. Its official buildings include a chapel-school, a wooden warehouse, a store and a manager's residence. There is also a small pier at Igdlorsuit. The small, crescent-shaped bight in front of the settlement has a solid ice cover from January until May, and in summer is often filled with small, fast-moving icebergs.

H.O. 76, 415 Guidebook 543

Ikerasak

(70° 30′N., 51° 19′W.), an outpost in the Umanak District of northern West Greenland, with a popu lation of 128 Greenlanders and 3 Danes (1930), lies close to the southeastern extremity of the small elongated Ikerasak Island in Karajak Icefjord. Official buildings include a church, school, manager's house, store and warehouse. Melted calf ice forms the winter water supply; in summer fresh water is secured from a spring near the settlement. The bay off the settlement provides anchorage with good holding ground in its southern and larger part; the northern part is often filled with calf ice from the Great Karajak Glacier at the head of Karajak Icefjord.

H.O. 76, 413 Guidebook 530

Independence Fjord or Bay,

northeast Greenland's largest indentation, is entered between Cape Rigsdagen (82° 05′N., 21° 40′W.), and Cape Kjoebnhavn, ^ Sp ? ^ on Peary Land, about 23 miles to the northward. The giant fjord, which at one time was thought to be a strait, extends due westward for about 90 miles to Cape Harald Moltke, and then southwest– ward and southward for about 25 miles to the large Academy Glacier at its head. The width of the fjord varies from 8 to 20 miles. Three arms branch off Independence Fjord. The large Hagen Fjord leads southwestward from ^ a point ^ about 18 miles west of Cape Rigsdagen. The smaller Astrup and Brönlund Fjords are entered off Cape Harald Moltke, with Astrup Fjord leading 6 miles southward from the southern side of the main fjord, and Brönlund Fjord extending 12 miles westward from the opposite side. ^ shore ^ Brönlund Fjord terminates at the foot of Wandel Valley, which has Midsummer Lake at its western end. A number of low islets occupy the head of the fjord.

Northern shore and Northwestern Independence Fjord

The greater part of this shore, between Cape Kjoebnhavn and Cape Harald Moltke, is formed by s^t^wo subdivisions of eastern ^S^Peary Land: Herluftrolle s Land and Melville Land to the westward. The foreshores ^“^ of Herluftrolle s Land, between Cape Kjobenhavn and Cape Caroline Marie, about 30 miles westward, are clay plains, inter e ^ s ^ ected here and there by rows of low moraine hills and drained by a number of rivers. The shores of Melville Land present ^ , on the contrary, ^ a range of high sandstone cliffs inter e sected by ravines and riverbeds; the bluffs ^ , ^ which have elevations up to 1,500 ft., extend to a broad, fertile river delta near the mouth of Brönlu d fjord, but they reced ^ e ^ somewhat from the coast near the western end of the line. The inner portion of Independence Fjord, between Brönlund Fjord (Cape Harald Moltke) and Academy Glacier at the head, is flanked by Heilprin and Vildt Land, two mountainous tracts of land, separated by the large Sophie Marie Glacier ^ . ^ The rocky coast of Heilprin Land, with its great slopes

Page 002

Independence Fjord cont.

facing Independence Fjord ^ , ^ has elevations of from 1,900 to 3,500 ft. ^ , ^ but the ice– free fr a ^ i ^ nge is narrow in its more southerly part. Navy Cliff, at the eastern edge of Vildt Land, is a rocky plateau, rising precipitously to 3,800 ft. The large Academy Glacier at the head has a number of high nunataks and several shallow lakes. Its much crevassed floating tongue extends several miles into the fjord. Both Academy and Sophie Marie Glacier to the northward, discharge a number of icebergs into the fjord.

Southern and southeastern side of Independence Fjord .

The outer portion of this shore, between Cape Rigsdagen and Hagen Fjord (Cape Ludovika) ^ , ^ is formed by the low, clayey foreshore of Valdemar Glückstadt Land. West of Hagen Fjord(Cape Peter Henrik) commences a continuous range of low sedimentary rock, which increases in height toward Astrup Fjord. Several small glaciers discharge into the fjord near the line's western end. The largely ice-covered land back of this range is called J.C. Christensen Land. The inner portion of the fjord, between Astrup and Academy Glacier at the head, is flanked by Ubberup - and Academy Land ^ s ^ , two mountainous and partly ice-capped sections with elevations of over 3,500 ft. An indentation in this coast forms a bay which leads to the fertile Saxifraga Valley. The river which flows through this valley , forms the boundary line between Ubberup-and Academy Land.

Flora and Fauna . Much of the land area surrounding Independence Fjord is ice-free and well watered by rivers and creeks, the moisture, in many places, promoting a rich crop of flowering grasses and plants. Animal life is surprisingly varied, and includes musk oxen, wolves, foxes, hares, stoats and lemmings and a number of

Page 003

land- and seabirds, some of which brood on this land ^ here ^ in summer. Seals are plentiful off-shore , as soon as open leads occur.

Ice.

In early ^ J ^ H une, 1912, Freuchen ^ , ^ of the First Thule Expedition, found the ice in the entrance of Independence Fjord ground up and closely packed about 1 mile s of ^ f ^ Cape Rigsdagen. At the mouth of the fjord ^ , ^ as well as within it, were many icebergs from the glaciers at its head.Some paleocrystic ice (sea ice several years old) was found in the outer fjord; it increased in quantity near the head of the fjord. Large leads of open water occurred far inside the fjord. The ice ^ foot ^ was found to be broad and low in the outer part of the fjord, narrow in the interior, where the coastal mountains are steep. As elsewhere in Greenland, the boundary line between the ice foot and the sea ice is not conspicuous, the difference between high and low water in Independence Fjord being only about 20 inches.

History . Peary and his companion Astrup discovered the head of Independence Fjord on their descent from the Inland Ice in 1892, and named it Independence Bay, in honor of the date, July 4th. Peary named Academy Glacier and Navy Cliff, the point form where ^ which ^ he viewed the fjord. He sighted the coast of Melville Land to the northeast and to the northwest a large depression, which he believed to be part of a giant channel , connecting Independence Fjord in the east with Nordenskiöld Fjord, far to the northwest, thereby severing Peary Land from the mainland of Greenland. On the basis of dotted lines on Peary's map, the channel, under the name of PEARY CHANNEL, was subsequently incorporated into maps of the region as a connecting link between Independence and Nordenskiöld Fjords; Peary Land thus appeared as an island. Great efforts were made by subsequent expeditions to Independence Fjord to trace the so-called PEARY CHANNEL. The Mylius-Erichsen Expedition, 1906-08, and the Alabama Expedition 1909-12, with Einar Mikkelsen in command, failed to find it. Freuchen of the first Thule Expedition (1912) made a sketch of the region west of Brönlund Fjord , through which the Peary Channel was supposed to run. His map indicated clearly that the great depression viewed by Peary , had no immediate connection with Independence Fjord. However ^ , ^ the insular nature of Peary Land ^ was not ^

Page 004

Independence Fjord continued.

disproved until Lauge Koch, in 1921, discovered Wandel Valley. Koch's survey nevertheless indicated that Peary's observation was largely correct. The depression does exist, although not in form of a channel, and it extends from Brönlund Fjord to J.P. Koch Fjord on Greenland's northwest coast. Koch viewed the valley not only from the summit of a mountain near the head of Brönlund Fjord, but also later from a position on the i ^ I ^ ce c ^ C ^ ap, approximately where Peary had stood prior to his visit to Navy Cliff. In 1938, during his airplane flight over Peary Land ^ , ^ Koch checked on these observations and found them correct. ^ ( ^ See also Brönlund Fjord; Wandel Valley: and Melville- and other lands, listed under individual headings.)

MG 130, vol I., pp 9.,277. Geogr. Journal LXII p. 113 ff. Peary "Northward over the Great Ice", pp. 345, 349 H.O. 75, p. 258 ff. Chart: AAF Aer. Ch (9) 1944

Cape Ingersoll

(78° 39′N., 71° 32′W.), a projection on the coast of Inglefield Land in northwest Greenland, forms the western entrance point of Rensselaer Bay. The cape, which extends north-northwestward, rises to over 1,000 ft.

H.O. 76, 526 Guidebook 1207

Cape Inglefield

(78° 35′N., 72° 07′W.), a projection on the coast of Inglefield Land in northwest Greenland, lies about midway between Cairn Point and Cape Inger– soll. The cape which points sharply northward, rises to less than 300 ft. The surrounding mountains are gneiss-granite, undistinguished. ANORITOK (Place of Little Wind), a former Eskimo settlement, lies somewhat back of the cape. The coast here marks the beginning of the famous ice-foot, known to many expeditions, which extends northwestward along the coast of Inglefield Land. The ice-foot, which has a mean width of from 100 to 200 ft., forms an ideal traveling route, except at the mouths of bays, fjord or rivers, where it is likely to be interrupted for a longer or shorter stretch, especially after the break-up has begun.

H.O. 76, 526 Guidebook 1207 MG 65, 400 ff.

Indexer: list Anoritok

Inglefield Gulf,

largest of the indentations in the Thule District coast of northern West Greenland, is entered between Beaufort Bluf (Kangek) (77° 18′N., 68° 59′W.), and Kanak, the south point of Red Cliff Peninsula, about 13 miles north-north– eastward. The gulf trends eastward for about 45 miles, terminating at the foot of a huge amph o ^ i ^ theater of ice, formed mainly by Heilprin, Tracy, and Melville Glaciers, which flow down from the Ice Cap in frozen rapids and cascades. Fronting the face of the glaciers lies a small archipelago of ice-free islands.

According to Peary ^ , ^ the wider circuit of the f ^ g ^ ulf is an ^ " ^ an almost continuous glittering glacier face ^ " ^ , rimmed in the foreground by a series of precipitous, isolated mountains, often of rather startling contour. At a number of places the ro a cky coastline is interrupted by fjordlike depressions through which short glaciers, flowing from the aurrounding "Great Ice", reach the water level and discharge ^ a ^ limited number of icebergs. Two larger indentations within the gulf are Bowdoin Bay and Academy Bay. The former leads from the northern side of outer Inglefield Gulf and terminates at the foot of Bowdoin Glacier. The latter extends from a point south of the head of the gulf and leads to Academy Glacier. Bow s ^ d ^ oin and Academy Bays as well as the outer southern shore of Inglefield Gulf have some fertile slopes which provide pasturage for caribou. In summer the waters of the bays abound in seals, white whales and narwhal, and provide good hunting for the Eskimos living along the shores of Inglefield Gulf. Open leads inside the gulf are said to exist throughout the winter, but unbroken ice may blocks its approaches as far as end of July. The freeze-up comes in November.

The first to make a thorough examination of Inglefield Gulf was Peary, who had headquarters on Red Cliff Peninsula in 1 ^ 8 ^ 91-92, and 1893-1895. Peary named a number of points along the shores of Inglefield Gulf. Rasmussen

Page 002

Inglefield Gulf cont.

and Lauge Koch investigated the gulf between 1917 and 1923. Koch, who entered it in the small schooner, Louise , on 11 September 1920, experienced a great deal of ice here. In 1935, the Morissey , with Captain Robert A. Bartlett in command, spent the period of July 25-29 at the head of Inglefield Gulf. At this time the fast ice had broken up, except for some scattered pieces and bergs at the head, a most unusual condition for this time of the year.

H.O. 76, 478 Guidebook 739 ff. Peary, Northward over the Great Ice 69, 398 MG Vol. 65, 230, 252. MG Vol 70, 25 AAF Aer. Ch (20) 1943

Indexer: list Academy Bay; Bowdoin Bay .

Inglefield Land,

a broad strip of ice-free land in northern West Greenland, extends along the eastern sides of Smith Sound and Kane Basin, between Etah Settlement (78° 19′N., 72° 42′W.) and Cape Agassiz, about 105 miles to the north– eastward. Eastward Inglefield Land extends from 10 to 32 miles to the edge of the Inland Ice.

In general the shore is made up of steep, almost vertical cliffs, about 500 to 1,000 ft. high. Clinging to the face of the cliff and following the sweep of the coast except at bays and river-mouths, is a platform of ice, sometimes 200 to 300 ft. wide. This famous ice-foot, which is particularly pronounced along the eastern side of Kane basin, provides a secure and level sledge route at almost all seasons. The interior of Inglefield Land forms a plain sloping to 1,000 to 2,000 ft. as it approaches the western edge of the Ice Cap. The surface is everywhere level except in the east where small elevations alternate with valleys. Drainage ^ Irrigation ^ is supplied by the large September Lakes in the northeast, into which flows the Hiawatha Glacier, and elsewhere by a number of rivers q ^ w ^ hich drain directly from the interior ice into the many bays of the coast. The climate of Inglefield Land is milder than elsewhere in these latitudes and the vegetation is rich enough to support game, although caribou, formerly abundant, have become almost extinct. Hares are numerous and bears are hunted in the northern portion of the land. Many salmon are caught in the rivers and lakes, and spring and summer brings seals, whales and occasional– ly walrus to the coast. There are a number of old winter houses on Inglefield Land . Recent archaeological expeditions have shown them to contain many obj ects of European type, some reminiscent of Norse finds farther south. The dwellings, therefore ^ , ^ may date back to the middleages, leaving open the question whether their builders were Eskimos, influenced by European culture, or Europeans, wh o ^ i ^ , in part, had adopted the Eskimo way of life.

Page 002

Inglefield Land cont.

Inglefield Land, named after the famous British Admiral and Polar Explorer, was first explored by members of the Kane Expedition in 1853-55. It has since been investigated by a number of parties, including Rasmussen's Second Thule Expedition (1917), Lauge Koch's Danish Bicentenary Jubilee Expedition (1920-23), the Danish Archaeological and Ethnographical Expedition (1935-37, under E. Holtved, and the 1937-38 British Expedition,led by David Haig-Thomas. The latter expedition corrected Koch's position of the edge of the Ice Cap on Inglefield Land, placing it about 12 miles farther eastward.

H.O. 76, 525 Guidebook 1197 MG 125, Nr. 3, p. 8ff (map) AAF Aer. Ch (20) 1943

Indexer: list September Lakes

Ingnerit Peninsula,

a large mainland projection in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland, covering an area of over 400 sq. miles, extends ^ due ^ southwestward, flanked on the south by Umiarfik Fjord and on the north by Søndre Sound. A st ^ r ^ ip of land, only 8 miles wide, part of which is occupied by a lake-filled valley, connects the peninsula with the mainland. On the west coast, about 6 miles from the northwestern extremity, is a small fjord, Ingnerit, where the coal-bearing beds reach the coast. The coal, not plentiful and of inferior quality, is used by the local population. Inside Ingnerit Fjord, close to its southern entrance point, is a dog quarantine station. This station has been established in accordance with the strict law of Greenland which forbids the importation or transfer of dogs from one district to another, in order to prevent the spread of hydro– phobia and other contagious diseases. The mountains in the interior of Ingnerit Peninsula attain elevations of over 3,000 ft. and are widely covered with snow which does not melt.

Guidebook 572 H. O. 76, 426

Indexer: list Ingnerit Fjord

Inugsulik Bay (Ryders Bay) ^ , ^

on the Greenland side of Baffin Bay, in lat. 74° N., lies between Nugssuak Peninsula and the large Holms Island, more than 23 miles to the northward. Two glaciers discharge into the head of the bay, but as the Greenland Ice Cap levels off in this vicinity, the icebergs which are produced are not very high. Igdluligssuak, the largest of several islands in the northern part of the bay, is used as a wintering place by the Greenlanders who make hunting trips of considerable length from here. Inugsulik Island, 2 miles westward of Igdluligssuak, is slightly smaller, but exceptionally fertile; on its southern side is a house,named "Bjoerneborg", with provisions for travelers southbound from the Thule District; the high plateau in the interior has a cairn, erected by Captain C. Ryder, who mapped the district in 1886-87, claiming it for the Danish Crown.

H.O. 76, 451 Guidebook 643 ff.

Indexer: list Igdluligssuak Island (Inugsulik Bay); Inugsulik Island

J.P. Koch Fjord,

in northern Greenland, is entered between Cape Wegener (82° 45′N., 45° 35′W.), the northwestern extremity of Freuchen Land, and Elison Islamd, about 7 miles to the northwestward. The fjord, which extends eastward and then largely south-eastward, terminates at the foot of Astrup Glacier. Due west of the fjord's head is a narrow strip of ice-free land, which forms the only connecting link between Peary Land and the main body of Greenland to the southward. (For ^ a ^ discussion of Peary Channel, which was shown on the old charts as severing Peary Land from the mainland see INDEPENDECNCE FJORD).

The northern shore of the outer part of J.P. Koch Fjord is formed by Nansen Land and part of its off-lying archipelago, all of which are ice-free ^ , ^ ^ c ^ onsisting of wild alpine country. On the southern side of the fjord and on both sides of the inner part the land is covered with glaciers, except for a small icefree margin along the shores. Rasmussen, who visited the fjord in June 1917, found open water in the outer part of the fjord, and a few seals were secured with difficult ^ y. . ^

J.P. Koch Fjord was discovered and named by Rasmussen's Second Thule Expedition and its outer portion revisited by Lauge Koch in 1921. In 1938, during an airplane flight to Peary Land, Koch checked up on his previous observations, and found the fjord to extend much farther inland than ^ had been ^ previously supposed.

Guidebook 1259 H.O. 76, 562 MG 130, 324

J.P. Koch Land

an ice-free peninsula, covering an area of about 390 square miles, projects in lat. 72° in northern West Greenland. Its outer shores are formed by the inner part of Lakse Fjord and by a series of sounds, sometimes called Northern Sound, which extend northward to the head of Upermivik Icefjord. To the eastward the land is bounded by the Inland Ice. The region has several fertile valleys and a few marginal lakes. Altitudes are moderate ^ , ^ except in the north where Pingut, West Greenland's most northerly basalt mountain, rises to over 2,500 ft. It was in this vicinity that members of the J.P. Koch and Alfred Wegener Expedition (1912-13) descended to the coast after having crossed the Inland Ice.

Guidebook 581 AAF Aer. Ch (38) 1944

Cape Jackson

(80° 00′N., 67° 2 ^ 5 ^ ′W.), in northwest Greenland, projects southwestward at the junction of the eastern shores of Kane Basin (Peabody Bay) and Kennedy Channel. The low limestone hil [: ] s of the coast slope up in the northeast to a small ice cap ^ , ^ but lose in height to the eastward along the northern shore of Peabody Bay. Rasmussen, in April, 1917, found the broad ^ well-developed ^ ice-foot along this stretch of the coast easy to travel on.

Guidebook 1221 H.O. 76, 530

John Brown Coast

is the name applied to that part of the Greenland coast, which extends along the eastern wide of Kennedy Channel, between Cape Constitution (80° 34′N., 66° 45′W), and Cape Bryan, about 46 miles north-northwestward. The ice-free southern part of the coast is marked by many minor ^ ^ irregularities – small bays and a short fjord - into which empty a number of streams. The mountains here are steep, but the foreshore is broad enough to permit the formation of smooth ice-foot, easy to travel on. Signs of ancient habitations have been found along this coast. The northern part of John Brown Coast is largely occupied by John Brown Ice Cap [: ] except for a narrow strip of ice-free land along the shore. The ice-foot along this part of the coast is very narrow and encumbered with huge ice-blocks.

H.O. 76, 543 MG 65, 462

Kaersorsuak,

an island in lat. 72° N., off the coast of Upernivik District in northern West Greenland, covers an area of about 66 sq. miles. Its highest peak, a cone-shaped mountain, over 3,500 ft. high, is one of the noblest landmarks along this coast and visible at a distance of over 60 miles. Sanderson's Hope, the west point of the island, so named by Davis on his voyage in 1587, has steep and partly overhang– ing cliffs, rising abruptly to over 1,000 ft., where guillemots and auks congregate by the myriads. Kaersok, a native dwelling-place on the south coast of the island, is inhabited only in winter, when the population numbers about 40 persons. There is anchorage off Kaersok.

Guidebook 584 H.O. 76, 432

Indexer: list Sanderson's Hope

Kaffeklubben (Coffee Club)

is a small island, at lat. 83° 36′N., off the northern coast of Greenland (Peary Land), about midway between Bliss Bay and Cape James Hill. The island was named by Lauge Koch in 1922.

Guidebook 1275 H.O. 75, 269

Kagsserssuak

(73° 05′N., 55° 42′W.), an outpost in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland, forms the west point of Kagsserssuak Peninsula, an ice-free projection which juts about 12 miles westward into the Baffin Sea. The population,in 1921, was 27 Greenlanders. The official buildings, consisting of a chapel, a manager's house and a store, were then in a dilapidated condition. Thee is no harbor at the settlement, and during storms from the southeast and southwest it is necessary for vessels to anchor north of the peninsula, in shelte of the coast. The freeze-up comes end of September and the break-up some time in July.

Guidebook 615 H.O. 76 443

Indexer list : Kagsserssuak Peninsula

Kamarujuk (Quamarujuk),

a fjord in the Umana i ^ k ^ District of northern West Greenland, leads from the northern side of Ignerit, one of the largest branches of Umanak Fjord in Nordost Bay. The position at the head of Kamarujuk is lat. 71° 09′N.,long. 51° 14′W., and it was here that the German Greenland Expedition of 1930-31 ^ , ^ commanded by Alfred Wegener, had one of its meteorological stations . The post carried on meteorological observations in conju ^ n ^ ction with a station at Umanak Colony and a station, named Scheide e, ^ gg ^ ,at the margin of the Inland Ice, several miles northeast of the head of Kamarujuk Fjord. The inner fjord has an abandoned marble quarry at Marmorilik.

Guidebook 490, 536 ff.

Kane Basin,

a 125-mile waterway, passing between northwest Greenland and northeastern Canada (Ellesmere Island) forms part of the Smith Sound Route, which leads from Baffin Bay to the Polar Sea. The basin is entered north of Smith Sound, between Cairn Point (78° 31′N., 72° 25′W.), on the Greenland side, and Cape Sabine, Ellesmere Island, about 29 miles northwestward. Its approximate northern limit is defined by a line running from Cape Jackson (80° 00′N., 67° 25 ′W.), Greenland, to Cape Lawrence, Ellesmere Island, about 29 miles northwest– ward, north of which extends Kennedy Channel.

Kane Basin widens in its inner parts and attains a breadth of nearly 100 miles between Cape Agassiz, Greenland, and Cape Louis Napoleon, on the Canadian shore. Its western side is much indented, in contrast to its eastern side, which has a more or less regular coast line. The eastern side differs also by being bordered by a large area of relatively fertile, ice-free land, named Inglefield Land, which forms the basin's southeastern shore up to Cape Agassiz. North of this cape the basin is largely bounded by the 60-mile wide Humboldt Glacier. The coast here recedes slightly to form the large Peabody Bay, the north– eastern portion of Kane Basin, which extends from Cape Agassiz to Cape Jackson, over 60 miles northwestward. Soundings taken by p^P^eary at various points across Kane Basin, have established depths ranging from 101 to 139 fathoms, which are less than those in the neighboring waterways. The flood tidal current from the south meets the tidal current from the north in the vicinity of Cape Frazer on the Ellesmere Island side.

Ice. - The wide area of Kane Basin is occupied at all times by large masses of heavy polar pack ice, that drift in from the Arctic Ocean through the narrow channels northward of the basin. During the wintermonths the basin freezes from shore to shore, the winter ice cementing the pack together, except for

Page 002

Kane Basin cont.

short break-ups that occur under the influence of wind and current. Large leads are likely to occur in August, but even then the pack may extend almost unbroken across the basin's southern end.

History. - The first of the modern explorers to take his vessel well into Kane Basin was Elisha K. Kane, in August 1853. His tiny brig, the Advance . pushed northward to lat. 78° 43′N., and then found her final moornings in Rensse– laer Harbor (78° 37′N.),whence the expedition explored the shores of Kane Basin by sledge. Humboldt Glacier was investigated by Mc Garry and Bonsalls and later by a party, led by Kane. Morton traveled north to Cape Constitution well inside Kennedy Channel. Hayes went westward to Elessmere Island and surveyed points in the vicinity of Cape Frazer. Hayes, in 1860, re-visited Humboldt Glacier and the Elesmere Island coast by sledge, without, however, producing much information. The farthest north of the Advance was not surpassed until 1871, when the Polaris , under Hall, steamed through all of Kane Basin on August 28. Meeting with relatively few obstacles the vessel continued northward through Kennedy Channel and Hall Basin and, on August 30, almost reached the open Polar Sea. Nares, in August 1875, managed to push both the Alert and the Discovery through Kane Basin, but his journey, contrary to that of Hall's, was a constant struggle with ice. Greely's Proteus ^ Proteus ^ , in Aug ^ u ^ st 1881, had relatively easy sailing while passing through Kane Basin, but later was stopped by ice off Cape Lieber in Hall Basin. Peary's Windward , in the summer of 1898, managed Kane Basin only as far as Cape d'Urville, but Peary's Roosevelt , in 1905-06 and in 1908-09, twice forced passage not only through Kane Basin but through all of the Smith Sound Route. The Roosevelt , like the Alert , ultimately found moorings off Cape Sheridan on the Polar Sea.

(Insert): R. [: Bartlett ] , Commander of Peary's Roosevelt in 1908, [: took ] the [: Effie ] Morrison like Kane Became ^ [: ] 780 450 ^ in 1937 and again in 1940, Woodie’s in [: ] Exp. 1937 mapped area on the [: beluciu ] [: ] southwestern side

(See also Smith Sound Route). H.O. 76, 524 Guidebook 1190 ff. Greely, Handbook Peary, Nearest the Pole . Bessels, Smith Sound and its explorations. Mirsky, To the North AAF Aer. Ch. 8 1943

Kangek Peninsula (Kangeks Halvø),

in lat. 72° N. [: ] of northern West Greenland, extends westward from the mainland, forming the southern side of the 30-mile ^ long ^ Laxe Fjord. The peninsula terminates at its western end in a large, bold promontory, with steep dark bluffs facing the sea. The promontory is marked by a number of peaks, the highest of which rises to over 2,400 ft.

H.O. 76, 431

Kangerdluk ^ , ^

in Nordost Bay in northern West Greenland, is a branch of Karrat f ^ F ^ jord and is entered between the large mainland projection Akuliarusek and the island Kekertarsuak to the northwest. The fjord extends about 17 miles northeastward to the 3-mile-wide face of Rink Glacier,one of the most productive glaciers in the vicinity, which calves every ten to twenty days accompanied by teemors and ear-splitting noise. After the calving Kangerdluk is completely filled with ice, which only a prolonged easterly wind will clear away. Umiamako Glacier, another active glacier, about 2 miles wide, discharges into Karrat Fjord close northward to the entrance of Kangerdluk. The combined output of Rink and Umiamako Umiako Glaciers constitutes the Karrat ice stream which drifts out through Karrat f^F^jord.

The landscape around Kangerdluk is gneissic rock, largely covered with Inland Ice; maximum elevation on the nortern shore is 7,474 ft. Vegetation inside the fjord is almost extinct except for a few small areas where a flora of Arctic steppe has developed, but seals come up to the foot of the glacier and sea -gulls circle inmidst the turmoil of Rink Glacier's giant calvings.

Depths in midfjord of Kangerdluk are over 600 fathoms; near the face of Rink Glacier soundings up to 385 fathoms have been obtained.

Guidebook 552 S [: ] H.O. 76, 423

Karajak Ice Fjord (see Umanak Fjord)

Karrat (Karrats) Fjord,

close northward of lat. 71° N. in northern West Greenland, f ro ^ or ^ ms the northern part of Nordost Bay, and is entered between the western extremity of Ubekyendt Island and the southern extremity of Svartenhuk peninsula, nearly 23 miles northwestward. The fjord extends northwestward for over 29 miles to the large island Kekertarsuak where it branches, sending arms eastward, northeastward, and northward. Mighty glaciers discharge their icebergs into Karrat Fjord, making navigation of the fjord dangerous at any season. The mainland shore to the northward has maximum elevations of over 7,000 ft. The depths within Karrats Fjord are generally great. The break-up begins in June and the freeze-up in October.

Guidebook 529 H.O. 76, 420

Kekertarsuak

(southern extremity 72° 08′N., 55° 34′W.), an island about 19 miles long, southwest and northeast, and 7 miles at its broadest, lies in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland, close off the northern shore of Ignerit Peninsula. The island is composed of basalt, except for its cliffy northern end ^ , ^ which is gneiss. The outpost South Upernivik is on a small, southward projecting peninsula that forms the southern extremity of Kekertarsuak Island.

H.O. 76 427 Guidebook 573

Indexer: list Kekertarsuak (Ignerit Peninsula)

Kekertarsuak (Qeqertarssuaq) ^ , ^

an island ^ the largest island ^ at the head of Karrat Fjord in Nordost Bay of northern West Greenland, is about 14 miles long, east and west and has a width of about 9 miles at its western end, tapering to a narrow end ^ point ^ at its northeastern extremity. In its interior, the island rises to nearly6,000 ft. Tunua, a channel about 2 miles wide, separates Kekertarsuak from a mainland projection to the northward. Nugatsiak, the principal settlement in Karrat J ^ F ^ jord, is situated at the southern extremity of the island, and Naujat, a native dwelling-place lies on its western shore, about 6 miles northwestward of Nugatsiak . The Universal Greenland Expredition spent most of the summer 1932 at Nugatsiak . The region around the settlement is notorious for its frequent fogs and strong winds.

[: ] H.O. 76, 422

Indexer: List Kekertarsuak as Kekertarsuak (Karrat Fjord).

List also: Nugatsiak (Karrat Fjord); Naujat (Karrat Fjord)

Kennedy Channel,

a 90-mile waterway between northwest Greenland and northeastern Canada (Ellesmere Island), forms part of the Smith Sound Route, which leads from Baffin Bay to the Polar Sea. Its southern entrance lies north of Kane Basin between Cape Jackson (80° 00′N. 67° 25′W.), Greenland, and Cape Lawrence, Ellesmere Island, about 35 miles northwestward. Its northern entrance is between Cape Morton (81° 12′N. 63° 40 ′W.) Greenland, and Cape Baird ^ , ^ . Ellesmere Island, about 25 miles north– northwestward, beyond which extends Hall Basin. Crozier, Franklin and Hans Islands occupy its southern fairway. The channel narrows down to about 17 miles in its interior portions and is lined on both side by a series of lofty cliffs, rising to 1,000 ft. or more. The shorelines are relatively even, the only major indentation being the fjord-like Bessels Bay, on the Greenland side, south of Cape Morton. Floes of old ice continuously drift southward through the channel from spring until December, forming high hummocks where their edges meet. The freeze-up comes late and the break-up early owing to the channel's high tides, some of which are said to rise to 30 ft.

Kennedy Channel was discovered and named by Morton of Kane's Expedition, who reached Cape Constitution (80° 58′N ^ . ^ ) ^ , ^ on the Greenland side, in June 1854, after sledging northward from Rensselaer Harbor, where his expedition was based. Only 5 vessels have been able to navigate ^ force passage through ^ the channel's ices [: ] Hall's Polaris (1871), Nares's Alert and Discovery (1875), Greely's Proteus (1881) and Peary's Roosevelt

(Insert): R. Bartlett's 's Effie Morissey reached her farthest [: ] , 80° 22′N. in Kennedy Channel in 1940,

(1905 and 1908).

Guidebook 1220 H.O. 76, 541 [: ] Mirsky, To the North 182,204

Greely, Handbook 237 AAF Aer. Ch (8) 1943

Kingigtuarsuk (Kingigtorssuaq)

is a small islet or rock close northward of lat. 73° N. off the coast of northern West Greenland, about 16 miles northwestward of Upernivik Colony. A small slate stone with a runic inscription was found here in 1824. The inscription reads in translation: " Erling Sigvatsson and Bjarne Thordsson and Enridi Oddsson on the Saturday before Gangdag (25 April) made this (these) cairns." Scholars have placed the date of the monument ^ at ^ around 1330 and contributed it to early Norsemen, who wintered here.

Guidebook 601 H.O. 76, 442

Indexer: list this as Kingigtuarsuk rock

Kraulshavn (74° 09′N. 56° 05 ′W.),

a trading post in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland, is situated at the head of a bay that indents the northern side of Nugsuak Peninsula, near o ^ i ^ ts western extremity. The settlement, which was establish ed in 1921, is considered a pioneer district in the sense, that it is newly occupied by Eskimos, who have migrated here because of the scarcity of game and fish farther southward. The population in 1930 was 220 Greenlanders;, however, because of their nomadic nature ^ , ^ the number of inhabitants varies greatly. The harbor which is said to be good, is accessible from the open sea from July to November. Sledging becomes possible in December. Seals, polar bears, whales, and foxes are numerous in the vicinity.

The station was named after a manager at Upernivik Colony.

H.O. 76,450 Guidebook 633 ^ ,643 ^

Kutdlikorssuit (Kugdlerkorsuit),

an island in lat. 73° N. off the coast of northern West Greenland, about 15 miles long, southeast and northwest, and up to 8 miles wide, forms the southern shore of Sugar Loaf Bay. On the south Kutdlikorssuit faces the outer part of Gieseckes Isfjord. The land attains only moderate altitudes. The much indented southern coast has a large bay which is sometimes blocked by icebergs. Agpalisiorfik, a native dwelling place, stands close to the western entrance point of this bay.

H.O. 76, 448

Lafayette Bay,

a small bay in lat. 80° N. in northwest Greenland, on the eastern side of Kennedy Channel, is entered between Cape Jefferson and Cape Independence, about 9 miles north-northeastward. The coast here recedes but slightly and is formed by steep mountains, 1,300 ft. high, in front of which lies a low foreshore about 30 to 60 ft. wide. Crozier Island, the southernmost of the small islands in Kennedy Channel, lies close outside the middle of the entrance to Lafayette Bay.

H.O. 76, 542 Guidebook 1224

Indexer: list Crozier Island.

Laxe (Lakse or Salmon) Fjord

in lat. 72° N. in northern West Greenland, is entered between Kange ^ k ^ Halve ^ Peninsula ^ and the southwestern extremity of Akuliarusek i ^ I ^ sland ^ , ^ about 2 miles to the north. The fjord trends eastward for about 29 miles. A fan– shaped system of valleys at the head of the fjord is occupied by lakes and short rivers which have their source near the Inland Ice.Altitudes here come close to the 3,000 ft. mark. The northern side of the inner fjord is comparatively fertile and near the head ^ , ^ at Orpik ^ , ^ a small dwelling-place ^ , ^ is a grove of willows, about 6 ft. tall. So far as is known this is the northernmost ^ willow ^ grove in West [: ] reenland. Ekaluarsuit, a salmon river debouches on ^ ^ the southern side of the fjord, about 3 miles from the head. The river drains a large lake close to the Inland [: ] ce; its shores serve as favorite tenting ground for the people who come here to fish salmon and hunt caribou.

Sail. Dir. VI 54 ^ H.O.76, 431 ^ Guidebook 580 ff.

Life Boat Cove

(78° 24′N., 76° 38′W.), on the Greenland side of Smith Sound, has its entrance close northward of Cape Ohlsen. In October 1872, the Polaris was run ashore here in a wrecked condition and subsequently abandoned. The crew built a house (Polaris House) on land, and spent the winter without suffering undue hardship, due mainly to the friendly assistants of Eskimos who come over from Etah to visit. In 1923 the Bowdoin grounded here with the falling tide. Within the cove the bottom suddenly changes from black to a yellow sand, studded with boulders.

H.O. 76, 520 Bessels, Smith Sound and its Explorations 386

Lincoln Sea

is the name applied to that part of the Arctic Ocean, which lies off the northwestern end of Greenland and the northeastern end of Ellesmere Island, or roughly, between lat. 82° 10′N. ^ and 83° 40 N., ^ and between long. 34° W. and 64° W. Robeson Channel leads south ^ w ^ estward from the Lincoln Sea, and ^ , ^ together with other channels and basins of the Smith Sound Route, connects the sea with Baffin Bay. The Greenland shore of the Lincoln Sea, which includes the shores of Nyeboe and Peary Lands, between Cape Stanton and Cape Morris Jesup, is deeply gutted by numerous fjords which are usually filled with heavy polar pack ice. The shores are cliffy and steep, with the land behind often attaining altitudes of over 3,000 ft. A corona of large and small islands off Peary Land adds to the broken ^ - ^ up character of this coast.

The Ellesmere Island shore of the Lincoln Sea, which is formed by the ^ nort ^ heastern extremity of Grant Land, reaches from Cape Sheridan to Cape Joseph Henry. The charted outline of this coast presents a somewhat less jagged appearance than that of the Greenland shore, although a number of larger projections and numerous small capes jut out into the sea. Some of the peaks farther inland attain elevations of about 5,000 ft. Cape Joseph Henry is marked by a stupendous ice-foot thrown up by the heavy ice floes of the Arctic Ocean that crash and grind continuously against this cape.

Ice. - Lincoln Sea, according to Rasmussen, looks very much the same in summer and winter. Basins of open water and more or less considerable openings in the ice pack may form here and there, but they are always only local and temporary. In summer, however, the ice pack, forced into the Lincoln Sea from the great Arctic Ocean, starts moving ^ drifting ^ in the direction of Robeson Channel - a movement partly caused by openings forming along the shores, partly by channels formed ^ created ^ by the current. We have then this general d ir ^ ri ^ ft of the ice from the north– ward through the relatively narrow channels of the Smith Sound Rout ^ e ^ into

Page 002

Lincoln Sea cont.

Baffin Bay. Navigation inmidst these masses of great drifting ^ moving ^ floes is nearly impossible. A vessel can at best drift with the ice in the direction, in which the current is going.

History. - The Greenland shore of the Lincoln Sea, along which no vessel has eve ^ r ^ navigated, was first explored by the Nares Expedition in 1876, when a party led by Beaumont reached the vicinity of Sherard Osborne Fjord. Further explorations of this coast were carried out by Lockwood, of the Greely Expedition, in 1882, by Peary,in 1900, by Rasmussen's First and Second Thule Expedition, in 1912 and 1917, and finally by Lauge Koch,in 1921. Koch, in 1938, during a flight over northern Greenland in was able to check and correct his own and other work by an air plane survey of the northern and northeastern portions of Greenland. The Ellesmere Island shore was charted by Lt. Pelham Aldrich of the Nares Expedition, and the same stretch was traversed by Peary and members of his expeditions of 1905-06, and 1908-09. Both Nares' ship, the Alert , and Peary's vessel, the Roosevelt, were in winter quarters at Cape Sheridan.

Extensive sur - vey flights, made, since Wo lr ^ rl ^ d War II, by the U.S. and Canadian Airforces have contributed substantially to a detailed charting of both coasts of the Lincoln Sea.

H.O. 76, 558 ff. Guidebook 1242

Littleton Island

(78° 23′N., 73° 02′W.), a small island with a maximum diam ^ e ^ ter of about 1 mile, lies on the eastern side of Smith Sound, close northwestward of Cape Ohlsen, Greenland. ^ " ^ The desolate, barren-looking piece of rock," as Peary termed it, rises precipitously to a flat top, its cliffs alive with myriads of little auks and other birds. Inglefield discovered the island in 1852, since which time it has been made the depository of records of movements of various northbound expeditions. Peary, in the Falcon , effected a landing here in August, 1893. Mac Millan, landing on the island in August 1923,found thecairn erected by Kane in 1853 and remains of a coal cache left by Greely in 1881.

H.O. 76 519 Guidebook 1202

Cape Lupton

(81° 40′N., 61° 55′W.), in northwest Greenland, forms the eastern entrance point at the southern end of Robeson Channel ^ . ^ The cape is a conspicuous landmark. Here the character of the coast changes, the low forshore farther southward being replaced by the steep cliffs of Polaris Promontory, which in the vicinity of the cape rise to about 1,300 ft.

Cape Lupton was discovered by Hall, in September 1871, who named it after Col. Ja ^ m ^ es Lupton of Cincinnati, Ohio, one of his early benefactors. Rasmussen, whoe rounded the cape by sledge in May,1917, found the shoreline from Cape Lupton to the northward almost impossible to follow, due to pressure ridges, towering to a height of from 30 to 50 ft.

Guidebook 1234 H.O. 76, 547 Nourse, American Explorations in the Ice Zones, 286. Rasmussen, Greenland by the Polar Sea, 80

Marshall Bay,

a small indentation in the coast of Inglefield Land in northern West Greenland, is entered between Inuarfigssuak (78° 52′N., 71° 05′W.), the site of an old Eskimo settlement, and Cape Russell, about 4 miles northward. The bay, which narrows sharply in its inner portion, extends about 6 miles southeastward to the mouth of a river, darining the September Lakes to the eastward. A group of small, steep islands in the northeastern portion of the wide, outer part of Marshall Bay, has some house-ruins, which were discovered by Rasmussen in 1917. Erik Holtved, who re-investigated thes ruins in 1937, discovered Norse relics here. Ruins of about 30 houses at Inuar ^ f ^ igssuak, at the entrance of Marshall Bay also yielded Norse relics.

According to Lauge Koch, Marshall Bay is almost always filled with very old ice. Koch found the bay firmly frozen over in September,1922. Holteved reported the sea-ice and the ice-foot north and south of the entrance so thawed toward the end of June, 1937, that sledge travel had to be discontinued. Marshall Bay is a quiet bay, meteorologically. During the entire summer,1937, Holtved experienced only one storm here, while several were observed in the distance.

Guidebook 1198, 1211 ff. H.O. 76, 527

Indexer; list Inuarfigssuak

Mc Cormick Bay,

in lat. 77° N., in northern West Greenland, is entered between Cape Cleveland, the west point of Red Cliff Peninsula, and Iglunaksuak Point, the extremity of an unnamed promontory, about 9 miles to the northwestward. The bay, which opens on Murchison Sound at the northeastern end of Baffin Bay, trends about 20 miles northeastward, narrowing to a d ^ w ^ idth of about 1 miles near its head. The barren northern shore, which has a moderate slope, is inter [: ] ected by numerous ravines and is capped with ice. The more [: ] fertile southern shore is marked by a series of moderately high, reddish-brown cliffs which farther inland, are interspersed with hanging glaciers, tongues of the central ice cap of the Red Cliff Peninsula. Tuktu valley, a wide depression walled in by bluffs and glacier faces, leads eastward from the head of the bay nearly to the head of Bowdoin Bay, which extends northward from Inglefield Gulf. Sun Glacier, which flows into the narrow head from the northeastward, does not produce bergs every year.

Peary's Kite Expedition established camp on the southern shore of the bay, ^ in July 1891. ^ Red Cliff House, Peary's 1891-92 base,stood on a knoll about 2-1/2 miles east of Cape Cleveland. The sloping foreshore here was covered with mosses and flowers showing [: ] numerous traces of caribou, foxes and hares. Seals and walrus abounded off shore.

H.O. 76, 476 Guidebook 746 Peary, Northward over the [: ] reat Ice, 69

Indexer: list Red Cliff House

Mc Cormick Bight (Pandora Harbor),

a small bay at 78° 14′N. in northern West Greenland, is entered between Kordlortorssuak Point and Cape Kenrick, a prominent headland, about 2 miles to the north-northeastward, The bay is only about 2 miles long and narrows sharply near its head. The inner part, where anchorage may be obtained in depths from 5 to 7 fathoms, is called Pandora Harbor, so named by Sir Allen Young, who examined the bight in 1876. Crystal Palace Cliffs, which form the shore in the vicinity of Kordlortorssuak Point, are remarkable, table-topped cliffs, consisting of rock terraces, which rise evenly, one above the other like balconies.

H.O. 76, 515 Guidebook 762

Indexer: list Crystal Palace Cliffs

Cape Melville (Navdlortok)

(76° 01′N., 63° 40′W.), on the west coast of Greenland, is the south point of an L-shaped promontory, which juts southward into Melville Bay in a position about 47 miles east of Cape York. The east-west arm of the promontory, which is about 7 miles long, is linked to the mainland on the north by a low isthmus which is awash at high tide. The north-south arm, which projects less than 5 miles into the sea, has a few huts, some of which are used by bear hunters. Off -shore, about 28 miles south of Cape Melville, extends an ice bank on which the largest icebergs ground.

H.O. 76, 459

Melville Bay

is the name given to that part of Baffin Bay which extends along the west coast of Greenland, between Holm Island (74° 30′N., 57° 11′W.), and Cape York (75° 54′N., 66° 28′W.), nearly 200 miles northwestward. The shore of this large bay curves north-northwestward for about 138 miles to Thalbitzer Point and thence trends westward for about 92 miles to Cape York. Only a few islands, all of them small, front the mainland shore, and only the outermost rocks and islets are icefree, while the entire coast is almost completely covered with enormous glaciers. There is, nevertheless, a distinct difference between the southeastern and northwestern shore of the bay. In the southeastern part, between Holm Island and Thalbitzer Point, the Inland Ice stands out as an unbroken horizontal line. Along this stretch there are few sharp indentations of the coast line, and the occasional mountains that rise above the glaciers, are bare of snow and sharply outlined against the ice. The northwestern part, between Thalbitzer Point and Cape York, is indented by numerous bays, and the country looks as if a thin carpet of ice had been spread over the rugged mountains. For long stretches in the bays near Cape York the ice covers even the outermost rocks, across which it reac ^ h ^ es to the sea.

In general, the level of the Inland Ice is low, with elevations from 1,300 to 1,600 ft. extending far inland. A few steep bluffs close to the coast rise to about 2,000 ft., while some of the smal^l,^ exposed land sections farther inland are said to attain considerably higher elevations. Of the many glaciers that reach the sea along the shores of Melville Bay, the most productive are Steenstrup, Nansen, and King Oscar Glaciers, all of them in the northern part of the southeastern section. More than half of the total glacier front of the bay, however, is assumed to be stationary and unproductive.

The shores of Melville Bay are visited by small parties of Smith Sound

Page 002

Melville Bay cont.

Eskimos who come here to hunt polar bears. Tugtuligssuak, a mainland promontory, about midway bwteen Holm Island and Thalbitzer Point, has numerous ruins of stone houses and ^ was ^ undoubtedly at one time one of the chief settlements in Melville Bay. It was re-discovered as a hunting region in 1905 and has been inhabited since. Only a few of the many islands inside the bay are permanently settled.

Depths - Ice - Navigation. The 500-fathom curve approaches close to the entrance to Melville Bay, and within the bay the charted depths are generally great outside the off-lying islands. No soundings are show ^ n ^ between the islands and the shore. Many of the icebergs ^ , ^ discharged from the glaciers around Melville Bay ^ , ^ ground in its shallower parts; these bergs and the islands break the winds and waves, and so allow for the formation of heavy sheets of ice between them during the winter months, while in summer they act as anchor for this sheet or floe ice. Furthermore ^ , ^ the current setting northward along the west coast of Greenland carries a great deal of a ^ s ^ hore ice into Melville Bay, where it acts as an aggravation to the congestion of ice there, so that it is always late in the season before the bay is even partly clear of ice. It is understood that steam vessels can cross Melville Bay after the middle of August in any year. Their crossing records are likely to vary however. In the summer of 1934, an abnormally late ice year, the Heimen , after waiting at the southern end of Melville Bay from July 3 to August 3 for an opportunity to cross the bay, gave up the attempt. Later that season, three ships reached Thule settlement to the northward without hindrance, for favorable winds began to clear the bay in the second week of August. In 1935 the Morissey found unusually favorable ice conditions for the time of the year. The crossing of Melville Bay was effected on July 23, ^ at ^ which time the fast ice was more or less broken up by the swell. Thule was reached on July 24th. On August 5, 1937, the Isbjørn made the crossing of Melville Bay in about 20 hours, in a northerly wind with heavy rain; no pack ice was seen.

Page 003

Melville Bay cont.

History. - Few sections of the Greenland coast have been travel ^ ed ^ so steadily, not only by the early whalers but by the many expeditions seeking the Northwest Passage and the Pole. Information concerning its ^ the bay's ^ coastal stretches,however, remained incomplete up to a rather recent date. The original charting of the bay was done from a sketch survey by Sir John Ross (1818), who named the bay after Melville, then First Lord of the British Admiralty. Hayes and Bradford, who entered the bay in the Panther , in 1869, contributed some knowledge of its glaciers. Finally, Astrup, a member of Peary's Falcon Expedition, made the first real in ^ v ^ estigation of the coast ^ , ^ in 1894. Astrup sledged westward from Cape York to Thom Island and then northward to the Inland Ice, mapping and sketching as he went along. That same year, T.C. Chamberlin, of the Peary Auxiliary Expedition, crossed Melville Bay by ship, contributing a good description of its broader features. In April, 1903 Mylius-Erichsen, Moltke and Knud Rasmussen journeyed by sledge across Mel c ^ v ^ ille Bay to Cape York. No ^ actual ^ mapping was done, but a number of corrections and new details were filled in, especially in the southern part of the bay. Rasmussen revisited the Melville Bay region in the summer of 1916, intent on ethnological studies, and from June 4 to June 17 assisted Lauge Koch in mapping the bay from Wilcox Head (Holm Island) to Cape York. Rasmussen, by that time, had crossed the bay about 40 times, and the map resulting from his and Koch's efforts was a great advance over anything heretofore published. Koch revisited the bay at various times between October, 1916 and May, 1923, his surb^v^eys ^ subsequently ^ forming the the basis fo charts published by the Geodetic Institute of Denmark, 1923 and 1937 ^ , ^ (See also BAFFIN BAY).

H.O. 76, 453, 508 Mguidebook 662 MG 65, 191 A.P. III, 105

Greely, Handbook 202, Mirsky, To the North 269 AAF Aer. Ch 38, 1943

Cape Morris Jesup

(83° 39′N., 34° 00′W.), called by Peary the Arctic Ultima Thule, is the north point of Greenland and the northernmost known land in the world. The pack ice presses close to the narrow foreshore so that the shore-line is difficult to ascertain except in late summer. A river discharges near the cape through a small delta; a h ^ b ^ out 3 miles southeastward is another delta formed by a river which rises in the Marie Peary [: P ] eaks to the south– ward. The mountains back of the cape quickly gain in heights and attain elevations of about 4,000 ft. but peaks as well as valleys are usually icefree, the chart indicating only a few small glaciers farther inland.

Peary, who discovered and named the cape in May, 1900, had a camp on the sea ice a few miles off-shore whence he struck out twicein the direction of the pole. He reached lat. 83° 50′N., but extremely rough ice intersected by water cracks prevented his advancing farther northward. A few days later, traveling eastward along the coast, Peary saw open water everywhere a few miles offshore. In one of Peary's records, left in ^ a ^ cairn which he erected by him at the cape, mention is made of 10 musk oxen being killed eastward of Cape Morris Jesup.

Lauge Koch, who surveyed the area in May, 1921, surmised that late in summer the greater part of the ice along the coast east of the cape would disappear, leaving a wide area of open water between the shore and the pack ice belt. Koch's party found no musk-oxen at all in this vicinity, but h h ares were numerous and a few wolves were also seen.

H.O. 75, p. 269 Guidebook 1273 MG. ^ 65 ^ ,p. 327

Peary, Nearest to the Pole, p. 329 ff.

Mascart Inlet . ^ , ^

a channel off the northern coast of Greenland, is entered between Cape ^ B ^ enet (83° 03′N., 45° 50′W.) and Cape Payer, about 6 miles northeastward, whence it extends ^ s ^ outheastward between the eastern coast of Sverdrup Island and the western coast of Nansen Land. About 10 miles within the entrance the inlet narrows to about 2 miles and then widens and divides, the main branch indenting the west coast of [: ] ^ N ^ ansen [: ] ^ L ^ and for an undetermined distance, while a narrow passage leads southward into J.P. Koch Fjord ^ . ^ A channel, about 23 miles long ^ , ^ connecting J.P. Koch Fjord with the Arctic Ocean, is thus formed by the outer part of Mascart Inlet and the narrow passage.

Mascart Inlet was named by Lockwood of the United States Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, in 1882.

H.O. 76, 565 MG 130, 349

Melville Land,

is the name given to that part of Peary Land in northeast [: ] reenland, which lies on the northern side of the middle portion of Independence Fjord. The mount– ainous tract of land extends far northward w to the central part of Peary Land, and is distinctly icefree, even in its interior where a flat. plateau attains elevations of over 3,000 ft. Its 50-mile coastal stretch on Independence Fjord is sedimentary rock, forming precipitous, bronze-colored cliffs, broken here and there by ^ fertile ^ ravines and river beds. Towards the west the bluffs rec i ^ e ^ de to give way to a wider belt of flat foreshore, thence to a large river delta, clos close westward of Cape Harald Moltke, the southwestern extremity of Melville Land.

Rasmussen's First Thule Expedition (1912), with Peter Freuchen as second in command, were the first to make extensive observations along the shores of ^ M ^ elville Land. Rasmussen contrasted the coast with the barren land farther southward through which his expedition had just been passing. "It was a real delight to see not clay, nor rocks, nor gravel, but earth; mould, dotted every– where wo^i^ith red-c [: ] ossoming saxifrage." The party found an abundance of game, - musk oxen, hares and ptarmigan. Birdlife was plentiful, and many seals lay out on the ice, basking in the sun. Lauge Koch, who visited the coast in 1921, also comme ^ nt ^ ed on its fertility and life. During his reconnaisance Flight over Peary Land, 1938, Koch was able to check on his previous observation that [: ] elville Land is distinctly ice free.

Guidebook 1293 H.O. 75 Peary“Northward MG 51, 359 Geogr. J.LXII, 107 Chart: AAF Aer. Ch (9) 1944

Melville Monument,

a familiar landmark to Arctic navigators, is a small island in Melville Bay, about 20 miles northward of Cape Seddon, Greenland. The Monument has been described as a small, peaked island, recalling the larger Devil's Thumb farther southward. Its height has been given as around 200 ft.

H.O. 76, 457

Meteorite Island (Savigsivik),

about 4 miles long, in a northerly-southerly direction, lies in Me ^ l ^ ville Bay, off the west coast of Greenland, about 23 miles east-northeastward of Cape York. In 1893 Peary discovered large meteorites here and on the neighboring coast. Three of these huge blocks - the largestcoming from Meteorite Island - were later removed to the Museum of Natural History, in New York.

At Savigsivik (Sowallick Point), the southern extremity of the island, there is a subsidiary trading post and Eskimo settlement which is visited annually by Danish trading ships. (See also Prince Regents Bay, Meteorites.)

H.O. 76, 461 Guidebook 686

Indexer: list Savigsivik

Cape Morris Jesup

(83° 39′N., 34° 18′W.), named by Peary ^ for the American patron of exploration but in his writings frequently referred to as ^ the ^ Arctic ^ Ultima Thule, is the north ^ ern extremity ^ point of Greenland and the northernmost land in the world. A river discharges near the cape through a small delta; about 3 miles southeastward is another delta f ^ or ^ med by a river which rises in the Mary Peary Peaks to the southward ^ , ^ where [: ] levations are close to 4,000 ft. In one of the records left by Peary, who discovered the cape on May 13, 1900 ^ , ^ and revisited it on the 17th and 26th of that month, mention is made of 10 musk oxen being killed eastward of Cape Morris Jesup. In mid-May, 1921, Lauge Koch's party found no musk oxen at all in this vicinity and saw only one track, several months old. There were numerous hares and a few wolves.

^¶^ Peary, who struck out northward from Cape Morris ^ Jesup ^ , found the sea ice treacherous, due to innumerable crevasses and narrow leads , partly hiiden by snow. Ridges of heavy ice were from 25 to 50 ft. high. Beyond was the edge of the disintegrated pack with a dense water sky beyond indicated more open leads. A few days later ^ , ^ traveling eastward along the coast from Cape Morris Jesup ^ , ^ Peary saw open water a few miles offshore all along the coast.

H.O. 75, 269

Cape Morton

(81° 12′N., 63° 40′W.), in northwest Greenland, is the northern extremity of Petermann Peninsula and the southeastern entrance spoint of the northern end of Kennedy Channel. The cape lies about 10 miles north-northeastward of Cape Bryan. The coastal ridge immediately behind Cape Morton rises to over 2,700 ft. Rasmussen, who camped in this vicinity in April, 1917, found and used a cache of provisions left there by the Nares Expedition in 1875. The cape was named after W. Morton, steward of the Kane Expedition, who reached his farthest north, Cape Constitution,lat. 80° 10′N., in June 1854.

Guidebook 1228 H.O. 76, 545

Murchison Sound,

the northern channel of approach to Inglefield Gulf in northern West Greenland, is entered between Hakluyt Island (at lat. 77° 25′N.) at the northeastern end of Baffin Bay, and Cape Robertson, on the Greenland mainland, about 34 miles to the northeastward. The sound, which is over 50 miles long, extends south-south– eastward, narrowing to about 8 miles at its inner end, between Herbert Island and [: R ] ed Cliff Peninsula. Shoals,extending off this peninsula,reduce the latter part of the channel to about half its size.

Murchison Sound, which was named by Inglefield in 1852, was repeatedly investigated by Peary between 1891 and 1895. Steaming up between Northumberland and Herbert Islands ^ , ^ on 23 July 1891, Peary, in command of the Kite , found the eastern end of the sound still blocked by unbroken ice. Along the sound's northern shore new ice was found to be forming toward the end of September. According to Lauge Koch (1920-23), a heavy swell from the south will run along the coast to the northward (Prudhoe Land), when Murchison Sound is free from ice.

H.O. 76, 476 Peary, Northward over the Great Ice 69, 141 MG 65, 360

Nares Land,

a mainland extension in northern Greenland, separates Victoria Fjord from No ^ r ^ d ^ e ^ nskiøld Fjord. The area, which is about 25 miles wide at its broadest, is en [: ] tirely covered with ice, except for a very narrow margin along its coasts. Cape Wohlgemut (82° 35′N., 47° 20′W.), at the northwestern extremity of Nares Land, rises to about 2,300 ft., but elevations inland are considerably higher and come close to the 5,000 ft. mark.

The land was discovered and named by Lockwood, ^ a member ^ of the Greely Expedition (1881-84).

Guidebook 1256 H.O. 76, 563

Newman Bay,

in northern Greenland, separates Polaris Promontory from Nyeboe Land. The bay is entered between Cape Sumner (81° 56′N., 60° 50′W.), and Cape Brevoort, about 8 miles north-northwestward and trends southeastward, and then south– southeastward for a total of about 39 miles. The capes near the entrance are high limestone mountains, affordin ^ g ^ a view not only over the Polar Sea and the north coast of Grant Land, but also far inland to a great table-land rising near the Inland Ice. The inner shores are mostly clay plains, cut through by a number of streams. Reynolds Island and the smaller Howgate Island lie about 13 miles from the narrow head of the bay.

Newman Bay was reached by Hall on a sledge journney on October 16, 1871, and named by him after the Reverend Dr. Newman of Washington, D.C. Peary, in August 1905, took the Roosevelt into Newman Bay, where she staid 5 days, when she was crowded out by ice drifting in from the north. Rasmussen, in May 1917, found the bay filled with several-years-old Polar ice, hilly and rough and bare of snow.

Guidebook 1236 H.O. 76, 554. Peary, Nearest the Pole,45 MG 65, 411. Rasmussen Greenland by the Polar Sea, 85 ff. Nourse, American Explor. in the Ice Zones 275,295 AAF Aer, Ch. 8, 1943

Niaqornat,

(70° 48′N., 53° 30′W.), an outpost in the Umanak District of northern West Greenland, lies on the northern shore of Nugsuak Peninsula, about 35 miles west of Umanak Colony. The population in 1930 was 86 Greenlanders. The official buildings, which are grouped together on a cape, consist of a simple wooden church, a school, manager's house, stoe and warehouse. Anchorage is afforded in a depth of about 19 fathoms in a cove nearby. The harbor easily fills with ice. The winter ice remains from January to June.

Guidebook 515 H.O. 76, 408

Nordenskiøld Fjord,

in northern Greenland, is entered on the north-east side of Nares Land, between Cape Middendorff (82° 38′N., 46° 20′W.), and Cape Wegener, about 10 miles northeastward. The fjord extends about 12 miles southeastward to the floating termination of Jungersen Glacier at its head. Both shores are covered with glaciers, the land beyond rising to heights of from 1,800 to over 3,000 ft.

The mouth of the fjord was discovered by Lockwood in 1882. Lauge Koch, who explored and named Jungersen Glacier in 1917, found icebergs packed densely from shore to shore, a few miles within the fjord's entrance.

Guidebook 1238 H.O. 76, 563. AAF Aer. Ch. 8, 1943

Indexer: list Jungersen Glacier.

Nordost Bay

is the name frequently applied to the large 40-mile wide recession o ^ i ^ n the west coast of Greenland, between Nugsuak Peninsula and Svartenhuk Peninsula, to the northward. The large Ubekyendt Island, about 23 miles within the entrance, divides the bay into two parts, with Umanak Fjord occupying the southern section and Karrat Fjord the northern one. At their inner ends both of these fjords spread out into a complicated system of branch fjords and sounds, terminating at the foot of productive glaciers which discharge innumerable icebergs and growlers into the bay. Charted depths in the bay, as indicated by several chains of soundings, usually are more than 100 fathoms and in some places more than 500 fathoms. The tidal current runs in along the northern side of Nugsuak Peninsula and goes out along the southern side of Svartenhuk Peninsula.

Umanak Colony, the most important settlement in the region, is about 57 miles within the entrance of the bay, on a small island off the southern shore of Umanak Fjord. Anchorage is available here and in several other positions in Nordost Bay.

The winter ice usually forms toward the end of November and remains undisturbed until April, but most of the bay's wide expanses remain firm enough for sledge travel until the end of June. (See also Umanak District).

H.O. 76, 405 Guidebook 518

North Star Bay

see Wolstenholme Fjord

North Water,

a persistent, ice free area at the northern end of Baffin Bay. (See Baffin Bay)

Northumberland Island,

at lat. 77° 22′N., in Baffin Bay, lies within the approaches to Inglefield Gulf, off the west coast of Greenland. The island is about 19 miles long, east and west, and 8 miles wide at its broadest. Peary describes it as " a mass of high summits of h ^ g ^ neissose and basaltic rocks almost completely covered with ice-cap, from which exude numerous sea-level glaciers." Maximum altitudes are over 2,000 ft. Kiatak, an Eskimo settlement on the southwestern shore, had a summer population of about 15 Eskimos in 1943.

In August, 1891 members of Peary's Kite Expedition effected a landing here in the whaleboat Faith .

H.O. 76, 473 Guidebook 733 Greenland I. 42 Peary, Northward over the "Great Ice", p. 473

Nugs s uak (70° 41′N. 54° 35′W.),

an outpost in the Umanak District of northern West Greenland, lies at the western extremity of Nugs s uak Peninsula. The settlement, which in 1930 had a population of 78 Greenlanders, consists of a church and school, a warehouse, with a store, a manager's house, a blubber storage building and about 15 Greenlander dwellings. On a promontory, close northward of the settlement is Bjoernefaelden (Bear Trap) ^ , ^ famous in Greenland legend. It is a European building which scholars agree was probably built by the early Norse settlers. The walls are made of 3-foot-square stones, and the building is about 15 by 15 by 6 ft.

Nugs s uak's small, fairly sheltered harbor with depths of from 6-1/2 to 12 fathoms, lies between dipping ledges and is open to the westward. Several beacons in the vicinity offer aid in navigation. The winter ice forms in December and remains until May, but from March onward there are numerous open channels.

H.O. 76, 335 Guidebook 512

Indexer: list Bjoernefaelden. List Nugsuak as Nugsuak Settlement(Davis Strait)

Nugsuak Peninsula,

a bold mainland projection in northwest Greenland, over 100 miles long (southeast and south ^ north ^ west) and about 33 miles mile wide at its broadest, is bounded on the south by the Vaigat and on the north by Nordost Bay. The smaller southeastern part of th [: ] the peninsula belongs to Ritenbenk District, the larger northern and northwestern portion to Umanak District.

On the northern side the land rises sharply from the shore to a height of over 1,000 ft., and thence to elevations of from 6 ^ , ^ 000 to 7,000 ft. The southern side, which is somewhat lower, has a b or ^ ro ^ ad foreland faco^i^ng Vaigat Sound, behind which rises a steep basalt cliff. Itivdlek, a broad valley, cuts northwestward through the western end of the peninsula. West of this valley the mountains recede, giving way to an outer coast of low jagged cliffs. A characteristic feature of the middle of the eastern part of the peninsula are two elongated lakes, which lie about 1,000 ft. above sea level and together measure almost 50 miles in length. The la ^ r ^ ger and more westerly of the two lakes drains into the 40-mile river Kugssuak, which discharges through a wide delta south of Niakornarssuk, a hook-shaped projection on the west coast of Nugsuak Peninsula. Nugsua, a small outpost at the western extremity of the peninsula, stands at the head of a small harbor with depths of from 6-1/2 to 12 fathoms. Three other outposts are situated on the shores of the peninsula. Sarkak, facing Vaigat Sound on the south, southeast , and Niakornat and Kaersut, facing Umanak Fjord on the north. Brown coal is found in several places along the northern and southern shores. The climate along the shores of Vaigat Sound is considered favorable.

Guidebook 511 H.O. 76, 407

Indexer: list Nugsuak Peninsula (Davis Strait)

Wolstenholme Fjord cont.

Greenland

and the 1937-38 British Expedition under David Haig-Thomas.

SD VI 122 Guidebook 707 MG v. 125, Nr. 3,p 8 ff.

Nugssuak (Big Headland),

a coastal area in northern Greenland, named by Lauge Koch, extends between Cape Russel (78° 55′N., 71° 05′W.), and Cape Kent, about 18 miles east-northeastward [: ] Cape Frederick VII and Cape Wood are intermediate points along this stretch of the coast, which is marked only by slight indentations. According to Koch the ice-foot along the shore had not been exposed to melting in the summer of 1922 and proved unusually good in September.

Guidebook 1213 H.O. 76, 527

Indexer: list Cape Frederick VII; Cape Wood. list Nugssuak (Big Headland) as Nugssuak (coastal area).

Nugssuak (Upper Nugssuak Peninsula),

the longest mainland projection in the northern part of the Upernivik District of northwest Greenland, ^ in lat. 74° N., ^ extends nearly 29 miles southwestward from the ice cap at its base; the width of the projection approximates less than 3 miles.

The peni ^ n ^ sula, which separates Sugar Loaf Bugt from Inugsulik Bay to the northward, is extremely rugged with many sharp peaks rising to heights of from 1,000 ft. to 3,000 ft. Several deep valleys cut across the peninsula . ^ , ^ one, near its base, leading from Ryders Isfjord, on the southeastern side, to Kangerdluar– suk, on the northern side. The middle of th ^ is ^ valley, because of its nearness to the Cornell Glacier, and the excellent harbor on the northern side, was se– lected as the base camp of the Univ s ersity of Michigan Expedition (See Camp Peary). Near the middle of the peninsula o ^ i ^ s a second valley, filled with a series of lakes which drain into a bay on the northern side. Kraulshavn is a small settlement situated at the head of a bay that indents the northern side of Nugs ^ s ^ uak Peninsula near its western extremity. Its harbor is accessible from July to November.

H.O. 76, 449 Guidebook 633

Indexer: list Nugssuak under Nugssuak Peninsula (Baffin Bay). List also Kraulshavn .

Nutarmiut,

in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland ^ , in lat. 72° N., ^ is a high granite island ^ , ^ westward of Northern Sound and southward of Uperniviks Isfjord. The island ^ , ^ which rises to more than 3,000 ft. ^ , ^ is about 23 miles long, southwest to northeast ^ , ^ and has a general ^ ^ width of about 8 miles. The southwestern shore is indented by a large bay which, in its southeastern part, provides an excellent harbor, although the entrance is narrow.

H.O. 76, 432

Nyeboe Land,

an ice-free area on the north coast of Greenland, with a maximum width of over 60 miles, extends roughly between lat. 81° 15′N., and 82° 20′N., and between long. 53° W. and 60° W. The land, which faces Lincoln Sea and the northern end of Robeson Channel to the westward, is bounded on the west by Newman Bay (Cape Brevoort), and on the east by St. George Fjord (Cape Bryant), while the southern end touches the edge of the Inland Ice. Rasmussen describes the north coast as "a steep wall of cliff, with attractive patterns in brown and black along its flanks." Hand Bay and Frankfield Bay indent this part of the coast. The hills farther inland have a few prominent peaks, among them Mt. Egerton, which rises to over 4,000 ft. A high tableland occupies the interior of Nyeboe Land.

Hall's Expedition of 1871-72, skirted the western edges of Nyeboe Land

Hall's Expedition first skirted the western edges of Nyeboe Land in 1871-72, but the whole of its north coast was first explored by members of the Nares Expedition, in 1875-76. Since that time the coast has been traversed by Lockwood, Peary, Rasmussen and Lauge Koch. In all accounts of sledge journeys in this vicinity, the traveling conditions ^ ^ are described as most difficult, and more or less continuous road-making is required for the passage of the sledges.

Guidebook 1238 H.O. 76, 554

Indexer: list Hand Bay; Frankfield Bay.

O.B. Bøggild Fjord,

in northern Greenland, is the most easterly of the three fjords leading from De Long Fjord. From its entrance at lat. 83° 10′N., close eastward of Ad. Jensen Fjord, the fjord trends about 24 miles southeastward to a head so far inside Peary Land, that only a narrow 10-mile strip of land is left between this fjord and the head of Frederick E. Hyde Fjord to the eastward. This land, the famous Nordpasset (North Pass), discovered in 1938, by Lauge Koch during his flight over Peary Land, forms the only connecting link between the northern and southern portion of Peary Land.

The fjord was first sighted by Rasmussen and Lauge Koch after ^ a ^ n ascent of Thule Mountain in De Long Fjord, in June 1917. Rasmussen named it after Professor ^ O. ^ B.Bøggild, a member of the Scientific Committee of the Second Thule Expedition.

H.O. 76, 567 MG, 65, 103

Cape Ohlsen (Kaersorssuak)

(78° ^ 23 ^ ′N., 72° 55′W.), in northwest Greenland, projects into Smith Sound at a point about ^ 4 1/2 ^ miles north of Sunrise Point, the northwestern entrance of Hartstene Bay. The cliffs close to the cape are precipitous.

H.O. 76. 519

Olrik Fjord,

an indentation in the west coast of Greenland, at lat. 77° 17′N., leads from the southeastern part of the large embayment that is formed at the junction of Whale and Murchison Sounds with Inglefield Gulf. The fjord is entered between the large Savage Glacier and Beaufort Bluff (Kangek), about 5 miles to the northward and thence extends about 39 miles eastward, twice narrowing to a width of about 1 mile. The head of Olrik Fjord is but a short distance from the head of Academy Bay, the same ice stream sending down a branch into each.

The inner- and outermost sections of the fjord extend between high, vertical cliffs and steep bluffs, but the shores along the inner section flatten out into a succession of rounded hills and ridges, rather rich in vegetation and game. [: ] [: ] [: ] A number of short streams water both shores. On the northern side A broad river, on the northern side of the fjord, drains a large lake to the northward which is ice-free only along its shores. The lake has another outlet northward into Inglefield Gulf. Of the six glaciers that enter Olrik Fjord, Savage Glacier, close the southern entrance, is the largest.

H.O. 76, 478 Guidebook 738 AAF Aer. Ch (20),1943.

Pandora Harbor

in northwest Greenland (see Mc Cormick Bight)

Parker Snow Bay,

in the Thule District of northern West Greenland is entered between ParkerSnow Point (76° 05′N., 68° 22′W.), and the precipitous Cape Dudley Digges, over 6 miles northwestward. The bay extends about 5 miles eastward, narrowing as it nears the two glaciers at its head. The cliffy hills near the entrance of the bay rise abruptly to over 1,500 ft., then slope more gently for another 1,000 ft., until they reach the lower level of the Inland Ice. Millions of little auks nest along the grassy slopes; hares and foxes also occur. Uigo settlement on the northern side of the bay usually stands deserted in summer.

The Morissey anchored in the bay on July 24, 1935, in a depth of 15 fathoms.

Guidebook 701 H.O. 76, 465

Indexer: list Parker Snow Point

Cape Parry (Kangarssuk)

(77° 01′N., 71° 10′W.), on the Greenland side of the northern part of Baffin Bay, forms the west point of Steensby Land and the southeastern entrance point of Whale Sound. The cape, the most striking landmark along this part of the coast, is a plateau mountain of diabase sill, rising steeply to about 1,200 ft.

Cape Parry was named by Sir John Ross for W.E. Parry, second in command during Ross' expedition of 1818.

Guidebook 728 H.O. 76, 473 MG 65, 251

Peabody Bay,

the eastern portion of Kane Basin, indents the west coast of Greenland between Cape Agassiz (79° 09′N., 65° 40′W.), and Cape Jackson (80° 00′N., 67° 25′W.) It is bounded on the east by the 60-mile wide Humboldt Glacier, and on the north by the projecting coast of Washington Land.

Peabody Bay was discovered and named by members of the Kane Expedition, 1853-55. One party of this expedition, led by Mc Garry and Bonsall, sledged nothward along its coast in September-October 1853 and discovered the immense accumulation of icebergs in the northern part of Peabody Bay. Morton of the Kane Expedition, crossed the bay by sledge in June, 1854. He found the ice in the southern part of the bay free from hummocks but heavily covered with snow. The thickness of the ice was over 7 ft., the temperature of the water 29.2° F., while the air was 28° F. The middle of the region was filled with high icebergs, some over a mile long, which stood close together. North of this section there was much broken ice, with wide leads. Farther north,and west of Cape Jackson, the ice was smooth and free from bergs.

Rasmussen, who sledged across Peabody Bay in April 1917, and Lauge Koch, who traversed it on several occasions during 1921-23, found the traveling easy. Judging from the height of grounded bergs, ^ the depth of ^ the water in the bay, about 35 miles off shore, was estimated to be not more than 20 fathoms.

Guidebook 1215 H.O. 76, 529 MG 65, 281 ff. AAF Aer. Ch (20) 1943

Peary Channel

SEE Indpendence Fjord.

Peary Land

is the extensive and as yet only vaguely defined area which forms the northernmost part of Greenland. On the north and east Peary Land faces the Lincoln Sea and the Mc Kinley Sea, respectively. Its western boundary may be said to be marked either by J.P. Koch Fjord or the more southeasterly Victoria Fjord. On its southwestern side is the Inland Ice; while the southern end is bounded by the Independence Fjord system. The whole area extends roughly between lat. 82° N. and 83° 40′N., and between long. 20° W. and 48° W.

Various sections within Peary Land are called "lands" such as Nansen Land, Melville Land, Vildt Land, Herluftrolles Land and others. Some of these districts are ice-free, others have ice caps of considerable extent. Plains, and level, ravine-scarred plateau surfaces alternate with jagged mountain ranges where peaks, rising to 4,000 and 5,000 ft. are common. Large fjord systems, occasional lakes, rivers draining small local glaciers ^ , ^ are part of the general picture of this most northerly land of the world. The highest altitudes occur in the center of Peary Land where the widely visible, volcano-shaped Mt. Vistas rises to about 6,200 ft.; the mountain, with its steep, ice- and snow covered gradients, f ^ or ^ ro ms a huge drainage system, tending southward in the direction of Independence Fjord and north ^ - ^ ward toward Frederick E.Hyde Fjord. The latter two fjords run in on the northeastern and southeastern side of Peary Land, respectively, and form huge indentations, cutting through the whole width of Peary Land except for narrow connecting strips of land at their western end.

Judged by the ice-free ares, a major part of Peary Land consists of early Palaeozoic rock (sandstones and limestones), the high mountains forming part of the Caledonian foldings that extend from Europe and Svalbard westward to Ellesmere Island. There are ^ in ^ numerous areas fa ri ^ ir ^ ly large, fertile tracts of land, providing pasturage for musk-oxen and smaller herbivorous animals such as hares and lemmings. Wolves, bears and foxes also occur. Seals are plentiful

Page 002

Peary Land cont.

in the waters off-shore, and many land- and seabirds (gulls, ptarmigan, geese, snow buntings, sanderlings, ringed plovers, snowy owls and even ravens) have been observed along all coasts.

History. - Peary Land, the scene of various Arctic expeditions, was first sighted by Lockwood of the Greely Expedition, who reached Lockwood Island (83° 24′N., 39° 55′W.), in May 1882. Peary, in 1900, extended the exploration of the north coast and first contributed to the charting of the region. He discovered and named Cape Morris Jesup, Greenland's north point, and explored the regions to the south and east of the cape. Peary, however, had first sighted Peary Land from the south in 1892 and ^ again in ^ 1895, after crossing the Inland Ice from west to east. His first journey brought him to Navy Cliffs, at the head of Independence Fjord on July 4, 1892. Here, from a height of nearly 3,000 ft. he viewed the sur– rounding lands [: ] and,to the northeastward,the cliffs of Melville Land ^ , ^ m ^ f ^ ronting the middle section of the fjord. To the northwestward he saw a depression which he believed connected Independence Fjord with Nordenskiøld Fjord cutting into Peary Land from the northwest. As a result of his observations, Peary Land was charted as an island, separated from Greenland by the so-called PEARY CHANNEL (see Independence Fjord).

Further exploration was carried out by Mylius-Erichsen of the Danish Expedition (1906-08) and by Rasmussen's First and Second Thule Expeditions (1912 and 1917). Both Mylius-Erichsen and Rasmussen doubted the existence of the P ^ ea ^ ae ry Channel, Rasmussen declaring it a definite myth. The puzzle, however, was not quite solved until 1921, when Lauge Koch discovered Wandel Valley. The valley, which is traversed by a river and has a delta-like appearance, connects Brønlund Fjord a bra ^ n ^ ch of Independence Fjord, with Midsummer Lake to the westward, but the depression beyond, leading from Midsummer Lake to the head of J.P. Koch Fjord, was found to be solid land, forming the connecting link between Peary Land and the mainland to the southward.

Page 003

Peary Land cont.

Lauge Koch's Seaplane Expedition of 1938 resulted in additional corrections. Viewing northern Peary Land from a height of 8,000 ft., Koch found this area, too, to be almost an island. Frederick E. Hyde Fjord, at its southern end, extended so far westward that only a narrow, ten-mile strip of land remained between the head of this fjord and C.B.Bøggild Fjord coming in from the northwest. (See also the various "lands" under their individual heading: Melville, Nansen, Vildt Land, etc.)

Guidebook 1265 ff. H.O. 75, 262 ff. H.O. 76. 565. A. Pilot III, 380 ff. MG 65, 430. MG 130 pp. 320, 322 Encyclopedia Brit. Vol. 10, p. 859 (1929). [: ] AF Aer. Ch. (8) (9), 1943.

Peary Lodge

(74° 19′N., 56° 13′W.), at the inner end of Nugssuak Peninsula in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland, was the northernmost base station occupied by the University of Michigan Greenland-Expedition during 1932-33. The station was located about 2-1/2 miles westward of the ice edge, in the middle of the valley which leads from Ryders Isfjord on the southeastward to Inugsulik Bay on the northwest. Two auxiliary stations were maintained by the expedition, one at Kraulshavn at the western end of the peninsula, and one at Camp Watkins on the Inland Ice (74° 40′N., 47° 30′W.).

The expedition continued meteorological studies started by the earlier s expeditions of the University and acted as official representative of Pan American Airways in the survey of the west coast of Greenland. The highest temperature recorded at Peary Lodge was 62° F., in July, and the lowest -36° F. ^ , ^ in March. The average annual temperature was 14° F. During the entire year there were not more than 15 storms with gust winds velocities of over 50 miles p.h. Surface winds were predominantly from south to southeast. Strong winds from the Inland Ice, which were experienced at Peary Lodge, left Kraulshavn practically untouched; this is in accord with other observations of the University of Michigan Expeditions, that strong winds from the Inland Ice are dominant only a short distance seaward; at the outer islands the prevailing winds were coastwise.

Guidebook 636 ff. H.O. 76, 451

Indexer: list Camp Watkins: Kraulshavn

Permin Land,

at the head of Sherard Osborn Fjord in northern Greenland, is a small ice capped mainland projection, composed of high mountains the summits of which are covered by a glacier. Its maximum diameter is about 11 miles.

Cape V. Nordmann (81° 52′N., 50° 50′W.), the northeastern extremity of Permin Land, rises to about 2,600 ft. The land here forms a tongue-like projection and extends to within about 1 mile of the southern extremity of Henrik Island; the passage between the small tongue and the island connects Sherard Osborn Fjord with an inner fjord, which is the continuation to the southeastward of Harz Sound.

Cape Buttress, about 8 miles southeastward of Cape V. Nordmann, f ^ or ^ ro ms the eastern extremity of Permin Land and rises to about 3,100 ft.

The large Ryder Glacier,south of Permin Land,curves w ^ e ^ astward around Cape B a ^ u ^ ttress and thence sends a large glacier tongue far northward into Snerard Osborn Fjord.

Permin Land and the capes were named by Rasmussen's Second Thule Expedition.

Guidebook 1250 H.O. 76, 561 AAF A [: ] r. Ch (8), 1943 MG 130, 345

Indexer: list Cape V. Nordmann. Cape Buttress. Ryders Glacier.

Petermann Fjord,

on the Greenland side of Hall Basin, indents the coast between Cape Lucie Marie (81° 10′N., 62° 50′W.), and Cape Tyson, about 15 miles northeastward. The fjord trends south-southeastward for a distance of nearly 60 miles, flanked on both sides by steep cliffs rising to ice-covered lime-stone plateaux, 2600 ft. high or more; the ice from the plateaux occasionally sends small glacier tongues over the cliffs.

The fjord itself is largely occupied by Petermann Glacier which continues southeastward into the Inland Ice as a curved and fairly well-defined depression, totalling about 110 miles in length. The face of this glacier lies about 12 miles within the entrance of Petermann Fjord and is described as low and of smooth surface. The glacier's inner portion, beyond the head of the fjord, slopes up gradually to the Inland Ice and is heavily crevassed. Few, if any bergs are discharged into the fjord.

Petermann Fjord was first discovered by Hall on August 27,1871. and first investigated by Bessels, a member of the Hall Expedition, in March, 1872. Bessels, at that time, believed the fjord to be a strait, continuing indefinitely inland. Fulford and Coppinger, of the Nares Expedition, examined the fjord in June, 1876, and contrary to Bessels, immediatel ^ y ^ realized that what they saw before them was floating glacier ice and that the fjord was actually"the outlet of a large glacier stream flowing probably from the eastward, to which the glaciers flowing through the north-east and southwest cliffs are insignificant tributaries." Peary, who had a camp on the upper portion of the glacier in May, 1892, traced it Petermann G ^ g ^ lacier as a depression, extending towards the interior of the Inland Ice for no less than 110 miles from the glacier Front. His observations were later confirmed by Lauge Koch, who passed the inner portions of the glacier in 191 ^ 7 ^ , and again in 1921.

Guidebook 1229 H.O.76, 545 MG 65, 289 AAF Aer. Ch. (8), 1943

^ Indexer: list Petermann Glacier ^

Petermann Glacier

see Petermann Fjord

Petermann Peninsula,

a mainland projection in northwest Greenland, has a 20-mile frontage on Kennedy Channel and Hall Basin, with Cape Morton, ^ (81° 12′N., 63° 40′W.) ^ its north point, marking the ju ^ n ^ ction point of these two waterways of the Smith Sound Route. From Cape Morton the peninsula extends about 40 miles southeastward, the main body of the land separating Bessels Fjord from Petermann Fjord. The southernmost point of the peninsula faces Petermann Glacier and is named Cape Thorsen.

The mountainous interior, which rises to over 4,000 ft., is almost entirely covered by Highland Ice . The cliffy, ice-free margin near the coast is somewhat lower, but largely broken up by ice-streams and river-mouths. A bight east of Cape Morton leads to a head, where a terrace-like beach stretches up, like an amphi– theater, toward the ice-covered inner portions of Petermann Peninsula. (See also Cape Morton).

Guidebook 1228 H.O. 76, 545.

Indexer: list Cape Thorsen.

Polaris Bay,

on the east side of Hall Basin, is formed by a recession of the Greenland coast (Hall Land), between Cape Tyson(81° 19′N., 60° 55′W.), and a low point, next to the mouth of a l ^ b ^ road river, about 17 miles to the northward. The bay, plain. which extends eastward for only 2 or 3 miles, borders a low plain, with rounded hills and deeply eroded rocks, which cuts northeastward through all of Hall Land, to the head of Newman Bay. The more southerly shores of Polaris bay are inter e sected by a number of streams.

The bay was named after Hall's expedition vessel, the Polaris , which was anchored in Thank God Harbor, close northward of Polaris Bay, from September 1871 to August 1872. Hall's party w ^ f ^ ound the land surrounding the bay rather rich in large and small game despite its barren aspect.

Guidebook 1233 H.C. 546

Port Foulke

see Hartstene Bay,Greenland

Pandora Harbor,

Pandora Harbor, in northwest Greenland (See Mc Cormick Bight)

Prince Regents Bay,

in northwest Greenland, is the name applied to a series of bays on the northern shore of Melville Bay, between Cape Melville (76°01′N., 63° 40′W.), and c ^ C ^ ape York, about 47 miles west-southwestward. Prince Regents Bay is divided into t two distinct parts by a large promontory, which projects southward for about 14 miles from the mainland into the middle of the bay; the southeastern extremity of this promontory is named Akuliarusek. The irregular shores of the series of bays that make up Prince Regents Bay are characterized by many small, ice-free land areas, which generally appear as steep bluffs rising from the sea. At the heads of the various indentations there are numerous mountains, partly or wholly ice-covered but nevertheless distinguishible; otherwise the smooth Inland Ice covers long stretches of the shores.

Meteorites. ^ Meteorites ^ . - The existence of M ^ m ^ eteorites in the vicinity of Cape York first became known when Sir John Ross in 1818 found rude knives and hapoon points with cutting edges of iron in the possession of the Polar Eskimos. The iron, he was told, had been obtained from an "Iron Mountain" on the northern shore of Melville Bay, where the iron was in several large masses. Ross obtained fragments of the metal, and an analysis of these led to the belief that the iron was of meteoric origin. The question, however, was not definitely settled until 1894, when Peary, guided by an Eskimo, was given a chance to examine the deposits of the so [: ] alled "Iron Mountain." He found it on a promontory, now know as Ironstone Mountain, but it was not a mountain or a vein of iron but two masses of homogenuous metal, the peculiar and unmistakable characteristic of which proved them to be true meteoric iron; a third and large ^ r ^ mass was found on Meteorite Island, nearby. Peary ^ , ^ in 1895 ^ , ^ took the two smaller meteorites to New York, where they were presented to the American Museum of Natural History. The largest of the three, wei h ^ g ^ hing between 36 and 37 tons, were loaded on the Hope , in August 1897, and also taken to the

Page 002

Prince Regents Bay cont.

American Museum of Natural History.

H.O. 76, 459 ff.

Indexer: list I ronstone Mountain ; list Meteorites ( [: ] rince Regents Bay.)

Prøven

(72° 22′N., 55° 34′W.), a large outpost in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland, lies off the southern end of Kangek Peninsula, on the middle island of the Prøven or Kangersuatsiak island group. The population, in 1930, consisted of 239 Greenlanders and 4 Danes. The houses, over ^ more than ^ 50 ^ , ^ all in all, are grouped along the shores of a small cove that indents the northwestern side of the island, while a few other buildings stand on the eastern shore of the neighboring Sand Island. The official buildings, most of which date back to 1830-50, consist of a manager's house, two warehouses, a factory building,a chapel and a school. At the inner harbor, inside the settlement cove, there is a well-kept concrete wharf and a small boat landing as well as means for handling stores; depths here are from 1 to 5 fathoms. The outer harbor lies in a bay formed by the whole of the island group. It is entered from the westward, and depths in the fairway of the entrance channel are more than 24 fathoms. The freeze-up here comes late in November and the break-up in June.

The people of Prøven, who make sealing and the trapping of white whales their chief source of income, are known among the most capable and daring in the district.

Guidebook 577 H.O. 76, 431

Prudhoe Land,

a land area in the Thule District of northern West Greenland, as defined by Inglefield in 1852, was the entire peninsula extending from Inglefield Gulf to the northeastern extremity of the present Inglefield Land. To-day,Prudhoe Land is the name given to a considerably smaller area, covering only the ice– capped southern part of that peninsula, between lat. 77° 50′N. and 78° 25′N. and between long. 73° W. and 70° W. The Inland [: ] ce here attains elevations of nearly 5,000 ft. with many of its glaciers reaching sea level. In General its edges almost everywhere descending down to the sea or leaving only a narrow fringe of ice-free land. Ice -cap conditions on Prudhoe Land were first investigated by Lauge Koch, between 1917 and 1921, and later by J.M. Wright of the 1937-38 British Expedition under David Haig-Thomas. Wright made several traverses of Prudhoe Land in the spring and summer of 1938.

Guidebook 1200 MG 25, Nr. 3. p. 5,10

Qaersut

(70° 44′N., 52° 38 ′W.), an outpost in the Umanak District of northern West Greenland and administrative center for the Qaersuarssuk coalmine, stands on the north side of Nugsuak Peninsula, about 29 miles west-northwestward of Umanak Colony. In 1930, the combined population of Qaersuk and Qaersuarssuk numbered 117 Greenlanders. Official buildings include a combined church and school, a warehouse with a store, a manager's house and warious other warehouses. The coalmine, which is about 1 mile to the northwest, has an average production of about 1,500 tons a year. A river delta nearby serves as a harbor to the mine.

H.O. 76, 408

Indexer: list Qaersuarssuk Coalmine

Red Cliff Peninsula.

a largely ice-covered promontory in northern West Greenland, on the northern side of Murchison Sound, separates Bowdoin Bay from McCormick Bay. From its base, which is about 7 miles wide between the heads of the two bays, the peninsula extends about 20 miles southward, broadening to a width of about 23 miles at its southern end. The west point is Cape Cleveland (77° 35′N., 70° 10′W.), a striking yellow bastion, which forms the southern entrance point of Mc Cormick Bay. The low foreshore, w ^ e ^ i ^ x ^ tending from here to Kanak, about 14 miles southeastward, consists of crumbling, disintegrated sandstone and drift formations, with a succession of fan-shaped r i ^ o ^ cky deltas, formed by glacier streams. Wide shoals, on which numerous icebergs ground, have been formed off this coast by deposits brought down by glacial streams. The rocky interior attains elevations of about 3,000 ft. and is almost entirely co b ^ v ^ ered by Highland Ice.

Peary had his 1891-92 base camp on the northwestern side of Red Cliff Peninsula .(See also McCormock Bay.)

Guidebook 746 H.O. 76, 477

Refuge Harbor,

on the Greenland side of Smith Sound, is a cove open to the westward that extends in a northeastern direction along the southern side of Cairn Point (78° 31′N., 72° 35′W.). M o ^ a ^ cMillan selected the harbor f i ^ o ^ r his winter-quarters in 1923-24, taking up birth on September 11th. By September 22, the harbor was frozen over solidly, but in her position at the head of the cove, the B owdoin was safe from ice-pressure. She left the harbor on July 31st, 1924, after sections of the harbor ice had been saw ^ a ^ d out.

H.O. 76, 520 Guidebook 1204

Indexer: list Refuge Harbor (Smith Sound).

Rensselaer Bay,

an indentation o ^ i ^ n the Greenland side of Kane Basin, is entered between Cape Ingersoll (78° 38′N., 71° 35′W.), and Cape Leiper, about 12 miles east-northeastward. The bay extends about 6 miles east-southeastward to a narrow head, encumbered by two islets.. Two r ^ d ^ ivers, draining from the Inland Ice, flow into the head of the bay, their mouths flanking an old Eskimo settlement, Aunatoq, and various house rouins in the vicinity. The tall sand– stone mountains, that rise on both sides of the outer part of the bay, give way near the head, [: ] to a series of rounded hills of gneiss-granite with traces of verdure showing wherever the snow has been blown away. [: ] ares are abundant on the plateauland farther inland, while seals and bearded seals are plentiful in the waters offshore.

In September, 1853, Kanee's vessel, the Advance , found berth between the small islands near the head of the bay. In this position ^ she ^ was secure from outside ice pressure, but,as the ice did not move out of the bay during the next year, the vessel remained beset and was unable to leave port. Finally, in May 1855, Kane decided to abandon the ship and journey southward to Upernivik by sledge and boat.

H.O. 76, 526 Guidebook 1207

Cape Robertson (Tuloriok)

(77° 48′N., 71° 20′W.), in northwest Greenland, forms the northeastern entrance point of the western end of Murchison Sound. The cape forms the southwestern extremity of a large, ice-covered mainland promontory rising to over 3,200 ft.

H.O.,76, 476 Chart AAF Aer. Ch (20) 1944

Robertson Bay

indents the west coast of Greenland between Cape Robertson (77° 50′N., 71° 22′W.), and Kangek, about 13 miles southeastward. The bay, which maintains an average width of 5 miles, deserves its native name" Imnaksaoh", signifying "the precipitous place", because the scenery along its shores is bold, with high cliffs rising sheer from the sea. The face of Verhoeff Glacier, which is moving rapidly, occupies the eastern side of the head of the bay, and terminates in a wall of ice nearly 100 ft. high. Granite peaks, with sheer cliff faces 1,000 ft. high, rise to elevations of more than 4,000 ft. at the edges of the glacier. Meehan Glacier, which occupies the western side of the head of Robertson Bay, also dis ^ c ^ harges into the bay. At several places on the shores of Robertson Bay there are native dwellings, which are stopping places for the Eskimos on their return from the spring walrus– hunt grounds off Cape Chalon. One of these settlements, Sioropaluk (Igdluluar– ssuit), on the northwestern side of the bay, was Lauge Koch's headquarters during the years 1920-23. The dwelling-place, which has a trading-post and a store, has a population of about 50 Eskimos (1943). A Greenland Administra– tion supply vessel calls once a year, and a 20-foot motor boat is based at the se e ^ t ^ tlement.

Guidebook 750 H.O. 76, 476

Indexer: list Sioropaluk (Robertson Bay)

Robeson Channel,

a 57-mile waterway, passing between Hall Land, in northwest Greenland, and Grant Land, on the Ellesmere Island side, forms the northernmost and narrowest part of the Smith Sound Route, leading from Baffin Bay to the Polar Sea. Robeson c ^ C ^ hannel is entered north of Hall Basin between Cape Lupton (81 o ^ ° ^ 40′N., 61° 55′W.), Greenland ^ , ^ and Cape Murchison ^ , ^ . ^ Escamilla DsCaud. ^ Its approximate northern end, off the entrance to Lincoln Sea, is defined by a line running from Cape Stanton (82° 13′N., 57°00′W.), Greenland, to Cape Sheridan, Ellesmere Island. The trend of the channel is northeasterly; the width is from 13 to 17 miles, except at the wider northern and southern ends. Newman Bay, north of Polaris Promontory, is the only major indentation in the eastern coast of the channel, while the western coast is relatively even.

The shores on ei g hter side of the channel are cl u ^ i ^ ffy and ^ are ^ fronted, at a few feet distant, by an almost continuous ragged-topped wall of accumulated ice, from 15 to 35 ft. high. Altitudes on the land on either side are generally low, except on Polaris Promontory, at the northern end of Hall Land, where Mt. Chester rises to over 2,500 ft. Soundings within the channel, taken by Peary in 1906 and 1908, range from 289 to 411 fathoms in the narrow southern part, and from 240 to 261 fathoms at the wide northern end.

Ice. - In summer and autumn the ice in Robeson Channel is sub ^ j ^ ected to great pressure from the strong current that sets southward through the channel and also from the momentum of additional masses of ice from the Arctic Ocean that pour into the northern end of the channel. .. The pressure is greatest in the narrowest part of the channel, where the Polaris Promontory acts as a wedge thrust out into the mass of drifting ice floes. On August 30, 1881, Greely found Robeson Channel almost clear of ice, but soon afterwards a northwest galle filled it with heavy floe ice from the Lincoln Sea. The channel continued

Page 002

Robeson Channel cont.

densely packed with ice through September and the first half of October, but on October 26 was again open in all directions except for small and unimportant drifting ice and a few floes that were grounded along the shore. Lauge Koch, in April 1921, found Robeson Channel covered with smooth ice that had evidently been formed during the preceding winter; the heavy polar ice was not encountered until near the northern end of the channel, where it lay in large h ^ s ^ heets with heavy pressure ridges.

Explorations. - Robeson Channel was discovered by Hall, in 1871, who named it after Geo. M. Robeson, Secretary of the U.S. Navy. Hall's vessel, the Polaris , reached her farthest north, 82° 11′N., north of Polaris Promontory on August 30, and four days later found moorings in Thank God Harbor, south of Cape Lupton. From here, the members of the expedition explored Hall Land (the eastern side of the channel) as far northward as Newman Bay. Points o n ^ f ^ the west coast of the channel were charted from board the Polaris and from several of the Greenland capes. Four [: ] ars later, Nares, in the Alert pushed through all of Robeson Channel. as far as Cape Sheridan (82° 28′N.), the nignest latitude ever attained by any ^ vessel up to that time. His ship, which made harbor on Sept. 1, 1875, ^ remained moored here to some grounded pack while winter- quarters were established on shore. Sledge parties, journeying southward to Fort Conger, where the Alert's consort, the Discovery ,was anchored, subsequently produced the first more detailed mpas of the west coast of Robeson Channel. A party under Beaumont ^ , ^ sent out from Fort Conger, explored the north coast of Greenland ^ to ^ as far as lat. 82° 20 N., 51°00′W. Later the channel's west coast was traversed by members of the Greely Expedition (1881-84), and then by Peary, at various times, between 1899 and 1902. Peary, in command of the Roosevelt returned to this coast in 1905 and 1908, twice forcing the Smith Sound Route as far as Cape Sheridan. Finally, Rasmussen and Lauge Koch, between 1917 and 1921, added to these earlier surveys by producing the first accurate charts of the Greenland side of Robeson Channel.

Guidebook 1195,1235 H.O. 76, 545 ff. Bessels, Smith Sound and its explorations

Roosevelt Range

is the name given to the mountains which rise back of the northernmost coast of Greenland, approximately between long. 30° W. and 37° W. The H.H.Benedict Mountains and the Mary Peary Peaks are part of the range. Meximum altitudes are from 4,000 to 5, 000 ft. Glaciers are few and comparatively small.

H.O. 75, 269 Guidebook 1276 AAF Aer. Ch (9) US C&G S 1944

Cape Russel

(78° 55′N., ^ 69 ^ ° 05′W.), on the coast of Inglefield Land in northwest Greenland, forms the northern entrance point of Marshall Bay. The cape, which project west-northwestward, is about 1,000 ft. high and has a lake on its top, in which many large s la ^ al ^ mon have been caught. In 1937, E. Holtved found the remains of an Eskimo settlement on this cape.

H.O. 76,527 Guidebook 1213 AAF Aer. Ch (20) 1943

St. George Fjord

enters the north coast of Greenland between Cape Bryant (82° 21′N., 54° 25′W.) ^ , ^ the north point of Nyeboe Land, and Dragon Point, on Hendrik Island, about 19 miles to the southeastward. From here the fjord trends southward for about 60 miles, flanked in the west by Nyeboe Land, and in the east by Hendrik Island and Warming Land. The large Steensby Glacier drains into its head. The fjord is bordered mostly by steep cliffs, and the land on either side of it is mountainous, an ice-cap close to the inner eastern end of the fjord rising to a height of about 4,200 ft. The narrow Hartz Sound, wedged in between the southwestern shore of Hendrik Land and the northeastern shore of Warming Land, connects St. George Fjord with the head of Sherard Osborn Fjord to the eastward.

The Fjord was discovered and named by Beaumont of the Nares Expedition (1875-76).

H.O. 76 559 Guidebook 1245

Indexer: list Hartz Sound

Satut

(70° 49′N., 51° 39′W.), an outpost in the Umanak District of northern West Greenland, lies on the small Satut Island at the head of the northern part of Umanak Fjord. The population in 1930 was 201 Greenlanders. The settlement has a church, a school, a manager's residence and a warehouse with store attached. About 30 Greenlander ^ h ^ ouses are scat– tered among the fertile hills and valleys of the island. The harbor is small ^ and ^ without protection from the northwind.

H.O. 76, 420 Guidebook 533

Saunders Island,

(western extremity 76° 34′N., 69° 51′W.), the largest of the islands close outside the entrance to Wolstenholme Fjord in northern West Greenland, is about 7 miles long, east and west, and about 2 to 3 miles wide. The island, which attains an elevation of about 1, 300 ft. forms a conspicuous seamark due to its red and yellow-bonded cliffs, breeding grounds for innumerable seabirds.

Prior to 1920, Saunders Island was one of the most populated places in the region, partly because a great number of walrus pass here in the spring, partly because the whalers, waiting for the waters in the northwestern part of Baffin Bay to open, always made it a port of call. In recent years the island seems to be inhabited only for temporary periods, and its settlements may never have been permanent ones. Peary visited the island on several occasions in 1894.

H.O. 76, 467

Cape Scott

(79° 08′N., 66° 30′W.), on the coast of Inglefield Land in northwest Greenland, between Dallas and Advance Bay, rises to about 500 ft. An islet lies close northward of the cape.

H.O. 7 ^ 6 ^ , 527 AAF Aer. Ch (20) 1943)

Cape Seddon

(75° 20′N., 58° 40′W.), on the eastern side of Melville Bay in northwest Greenland, projects at a point about 60 miles north-northwestward of Holms Island. The cape is the extremity of a promontory named Tugtuligssuak (the Great Caribou Land), which extends about 7 miles south– westward from a low isthmus fronting the Inland Ice. The highest of the several summits on the promontory rises to about 2,100 ft. The country around Cape Seddon is dotted with ruins of stone houses, indicating that this was undoubtedly at one time one of the chief settlements in Melville Bay. It was rediscovered as a hunting region in 1905, and has been inhabited since. Caribou were then (1905) found in large numbers on Tugtuligssuak as well as on some of the smaller islands off the coast, but since the reoccupation they have been completely wiped out.

H.O. 76, 457 Guidebook 672

Indexer: list Tugtuligssuak (Melville Bay).

Sherard Osborn Fjord,

in northern Greenland, is entered between Dragon Point (82° 18′N., 53°00′. W.), on Hendrik Island, and Cape May, the northeastern extremity of Wulff Land, about 22 miles to the northeastward. The fjord trends southeastward for about 35 miles between the eastern shore of Hendrik Island and the western shore of Wulff Land, gradually narrowing to a width of about 12 miles, abreast the southern end of Hendrik Island. A narrow passage here leads southward to Hartz Sound, a branch of St. George Fjord. The head of Sherard Osborn Fjord, between Permin Land, a small mainland projection to the westward, and Wulff Land, is occupied by the large Ryder Glacier, which sendsa glacier tongue, many miles in length, northward through the fjord's eastern side. Reef Island, one of several small islands within the wider outer part of the fjord, was the deposi– tory of a farthest east record of Lt. Beaumont, member of the Nares Expedition, who first surveyed and mapped this part of the coast in 1876.

Guidebook 1249 H.O. 76, 560

Smith Sound,

the most southerly of the channels of the Smith Sound Route, passing between northwest Greenland and northeastern Canda (Ellesmere Island) ^ , ^ leads northward from Baffin Bay to Kane Basin. Smith Sound, which is about 29 miles long and 29 miles wide, has its southern entrance between Cape Alexander (78° 10′N., 73° 09′W.), Greenland, and Cape Isabella, Ellesmere Land, to the northwestward. The northern entrance is between Cairn Point (78° 30° N., 72° 25′W.), Greenland, and Cape Sabine, Ellesmere Island, due westward. The eastern (Greenland) shore although consisting mostly of waterworn headlands, is backed by fertile land with tall grass; the country abounds with game, and there are a great number of sea- and landbirds. The western (Ellesmere Island) shore is higher and mostly ice-covered, with little animal life.

^¶^ From the few soundings that have been taken in Smith Sound ^ , the ^ depths appear to be generally great, probably between 400 and 600 fathoms in the southern part and between 100 and 200 fathoms in the northern part. The southern part often remains open, summer and winter, but the middle and northern parts freeze fast during the winter months, ice forming a solid bridge opposite Etah settlement, on the Gr Greenland side, over which the Eskimos cross over to Ellesmere Island to hunt caribou. The break-up of the ice does not occur until sometime during June and July. Following the break-up of the ice conditions in Smith Sound are variable, depending upon wind a ^ s ^ and currents and upon the state of the ice in Kane Basin from which the sound receives its supply of pack-ice. Navigation is difficult at all times, even in August, when conditions are relatively favorable.

Explorations. - The discovery of A ^ S ^ mith Sound dates back to the year 1616, 17th century when the search for a northwest passage that would lead to the treasures of India induced a number of Englishmen to eq i ^ u ^ ip Baffin's expedition to

Page 002

Smith Sound cont.

to the Arctic zones. Baffin's farthest north was lat. 77° 45′N.,at the north– eastern end of Baffin Bay, whence he sighted a sound to the northward, extending beyond the 78th parallel. He named the sound ^ it ^ after Sir Thomas Smith, one of his sp ^ o ^ nsors, but the solid ice-field ahead of him checked all further progress. John Ross, in 1818, sighted the opening of Smith Sound from a position slightly below that of Baffin, but at that time thought it to be a bay. He named the two entrance points after his vessels, the Isabella and Ale d ^ x ^ ander . Inglefield, in search of the Franklin Expedition, entered Smith Sound in August, 1852, but did not proceed beyond lat. 78° 28′N., due to stormy weather and the advanced season. [: ] Kane, in 1853 and Hall in 1871 pushed beyond the sound, but contributed to the knowledge of h ^ i ^ ts shores. Hayes, in 1860-62, wintered on the eastern side of Smith Sound and thence explored the west coast by sledge. The Greely Expedition (1881-84 , ^ ) ^ spent their last miserable winter at Cape Sabine, while Sverdrup wintered in Rice Strait, west of Cape Sabine in 1899-1900., later transferring his winter- w ^ q ^ uarters to Jones Sound, off Baffin Bay. Peary, Rasmussen, and Lauge Koch, Mac Millan, Mc Gregor, ^ Noėl Humphereys, ^ Captain "Bob" Bartlett ^ and J.M. worcho ^ - to name only a few of the twentieth century explorers, who have navigated Smith Sound or wintered along its shores have since added considerably to the knowledge of this part of the world. (See also Smith Sound Route.)

Guidebook 760 H.O. 76, 514 ff. Bessels, Smith Sound and its explorations. Mirsky, To the North. Greely, Handbook. ^ [: ] 176 ( [: ] ) ^

Smith Sound Route

a 345-mile waterway, passing between the northwest coast of Greenland and the east coast of Ellesmere Island, connects Baffin Bay with the Arct o ^ i ^ c Ocean (Lincoln Sea. The channel leads in succession through Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy Channel, Hall Basin and Robeson Channel, and is entered at its southern end between Cape Alexander (78° 10′N., 73° 09′W.), Greenland, and Cape Isabella on the Ellesmere Island side. Its northern limit is defined by a line running between Cape Stanton (82° 13′N., 57° 00′W.), Greenland, and Cape Sheridan Ellesmere Island. The waterway, which has a north-northeastward trend, varies in breadth from 12 to 29 miles except in Kane Basin, where it opens out to a width of approximately 100 miles.

At least nine-tenth of the surface of the Ellesmere Island shore is permanently covered by ice, while the Greenland side is comparatively ice-free. T The c ^ au ^ ua se of this marked difference is probably due to a divergence of currents along these coasts. On the Greenland side a northward flowing xurrent, com – paratively free of ice, allows the open sea to raise the general temperature, while on the Ellesmere Island side the Arctic current with its continuous stream of ice, blocks the bays and does not allow the open water to ameliorate the cold of the ice-covered land. The prevailing winds also carry more moisture to the west side, causing fogs when the opposite shore basks in sunshine. Navigatio however, is hazardous at all times, even in August which is considered the best period. Ice floes of all shapes and sizes are driven from the Arctic Ocean southward through the channels of the Smith Sound Route. During summer and autumn the movement from the Arctic Ocean is constant, with the exception of brief and infrequent periods, when the combination of a fresh and southeasterly wind and ebb tide pushes a fan of open water or loosely drifting ice cakes out from the northern entrance of the route.

Page 002

Smith Sound Route cont.

Explorations. - Smith Sound, the most southerly of the channels of the Smith Sound Route, was discovered and named by Baffin on July 5th, 1616, after his tiny craft, the Di scovery , had passe n d the 77th parallel in the northern part of Baffin Bay. In 1818, Sir John Ross, in com ^ m ^ and of the Isabella ^ Isabella ^ and Alexander ^ Alexander ^ , also sighted Smith Sound from the northern end of Baffin Bay, at that time believing it to be a bay. Ingl ^ ef ^ ield, the first to enter Smith Sound ^ , ^ in 1852, reached lat. 78° 28′N., on August 27th. Kane (1853), and Hall (1871) pushed northwar to Kane Basin and Robeson Channel,respectively. Finally ^ , ^ Nares, in command of the Alert , forced a passage through all of ^ the ^ Smith Sound Route,in July and August, 1875. His ship remained moored to some grounded pack off Cape Sheridan (82° 28′N). during the winter of 1875-76, and was later brought safely back home to Portsmouth, England. Peary, in command of the Roosevelt , was the only other explorer to repeat Nares' famous enterprise. His vessel winter ^ ed ^ off Cape Sheridan in 1905-06, and again in 1908-1909, and twice achieved a safe return voyage to its home port, New York. (For details of these explorations as well as of exploration of these shores by sledge-parties as of extensive exploration undertaken by sledge parties along these shores see under Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy Channel, Hall Basin and Robeson Channel.) H.O. 76, 510 ff Guidebook 759 Bessels, Smith Sound and its explorations. Peary, Nearest to the Pole.

Sontag Bay

is a 6-mile wide indentation in the west coast of Greenland, between a point about 6 miles north-northwestward of Cape Chalon (77° 58′N., 72° 17′W.), and Radcliff Point to the northwestward. Three glaciers flow into the head of the bay; Childs Glacier, the northernmost of these, is much used as a trav ^ e ^ ling route up onto the interior ice.

The bay was named after the astronomer August Sontag, a member of Kane's Expedition (1853-55) and of Hayes' "United States" Expedition (1860-61).

H.O. 76, 482 Greenland I. 43 Mirsky,To the North, 185

South Upernivik ^ , ^

(72° 08′N., 55deg; 34′W.), an outpost in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland, lies on a small peninsula at the southern extremity of Kekertarsuak (South Upernivik) Island. The total population in 1930 was 158 Greenlanders. The official buildings consist of a chapel, a school, a manager's house, a store and a warehouse. The chapel, which stands on a hill, is painted red with white trim ^ , ^ and is conspicuous far out at sea. The harbor, close northeastward of the settlement, is suitable only for small craft. Ice begins to form toward the end of No– vember; by the beginni ^ n ^ g of June the harbor is free of ice.

Guidebook 574 H.O. 428

Steensby Land

(western extremity 77° 01′N., 71° 10′W.), is a peninsula-like projection on the west coast of Greenland, bounded on the southeast by Granville Bay and on the north and northwest by Whale Sound. To the southwestward Steens– ^ b ^ y Land faces Baffin Bay. The area, which has a maximum t diameter of about 32 miles ^ , ^ is almost entirely covered with highland ice, which sends large glaciers over its steep northern cliffs. The southwestern end of the land, with its frontage on Baffin Bay, is partly ice-free and marked by a strip of low foreshore, from 1-3 miles wide, extending southeastward from the island's western extremity,Cape Parry. There are two breaks i ^ n ^ this low ground, giving access to two inlets ^ : ^ Drown Bay and Booth Sound ^ . ^ a few miles farther northwest ward. The former seems to be the inlet which was entered by Peary in a whaleboat in 1894 and which afforded shelter in a bight at the head of its northern arm. The latter was entered by Rasmussen, in 1917 . ^ ; h ^ e reported that a sandy bar, barely awash ^ , ^ extended across its entrance.

The land was named after the Danish ethnologist H.P. Steensby, noted for his studies of the Polar Eskimos of the Cape York District.

Guidebook 721 H.O. 76, 473 Greenland I., 113,131

Indexer: list Drown Bay; Booth Sound (Steensby Land).

Stor Island (Sagdliarusek)

in Nordost Bay of northern West Greenland, lies about 3-1/2 miles east of Umanak Island. The 12 by 5 mile island falls steeply to the sea on all but its narrow eastern side ^ , ^ which is lower and slopes more gently. Inugsugtalik, the highest point on the island, rises to 4,665 ft. The snow on top of the mountain does not melt, but there are no considerable glaciers, doubtless because of the slight precipitation.

Sail. Dir. VI 15 Guidebook 529

Sugar Loaf Bay,

in the Upernivik District of northern west Greenland, just north and south of lat. 74° N., is formed between the large island Kugdlerkorsuit and the long, narrow mainland peninsula Nugssuak. From its 15 mile-wide opening on Baffin Bay the bay extends eastward for about 23 miles, widening to 29 miles close to the mainland coast. Ice fjords lead from the southeastern and northeastern ends of the bay. The middle part of the wide head is occupied by an irregular, ice-free land mass with elevations of more than 3,500 ft. Southward of the landmass the smaller Ussing Glacier debouches into Uss ^ i ^ ngs Isfjord, while north of the land mass, Cornell Glacier terminates in Ryders Isfjord. Cornell Glacier is rated third in importance of the glaciers in Upernivik District and is slightly active along the entire sea front; bergs ^ , ^ detaching from the glacier ^ , ^ are large, and during the winter season the sea ice may be rent for miles around by the wave resulting from a single calving.

The name of the bay derives from a strange, very regular, heart-shaped cliff, less than 1,000 ft. high, which rises on Sugar Loaf Island (Umanak) in the middle of the bay's entrance. A few small islands in the middle of the bay are inhabited.

H.O. 76, 448 Guidebook 628

Svartenhuk Peninsula (Sigguk) ^ , ^

a mainland projection in lat. 71° N. in northern West Greenland, separates Uvkusigsat Fjord, a branch of Karrat Fjord, from the narrow Umiarfik Fjord to the westward. The peninsula, which extends southward for over 60 miles, is narrow at its base but widens to about 36 miles at its southwestern extremity. Some isolated peaks in the south– east rise to over 5,000 ft., but the coast is usually no more than 2,000 ft. high, and the interior of the peninsula is rolling prairie land. Sigguk, the Zwarte Hoek of the Dutch, from which the peninsula takes its name, is a remarkable steep and inaccessible cliff at the extreme west coast. Near here are three small bays, all of which terminate in great valleys with considerable rivers. The bays afford anchorage to smaller craft.

H.O. 76, 422 Guidebook 569

Tasiussak

(73° 22′N., 56° 05′W.), an outpost in the Upernivik District in northern West Greenland, lies on the west side of Tasiussak Island in Tasiussak Bay. In 1930 the population numbered 177 Greenlanders and 1 European. The official buildings, which include a church with a schoolroom attached, a manager's house, a store and a warehouse, are grouped around the harbor, while the Greenlander houses occupy a small promontory about 1/2 mile westward of the trading post. The community secures its livelihood by hunting seal; a few white whales are caught in the autumn.

The harbor off the settlement is safe but narrow. Larger ships find anchorage in a small adjacent bay, but the position is exposed to winds from the southwest. (See also Tasiussak Bay.)

H.O. 76, 444 Guidebook 621

Indexer: list Tasiussak (Upernivik District)

Tasiussak Bay,

in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland, is the rather ill-defined area lying between Upernivik Icefjord and Giesecke's Icefjord, or between lat. 73° 05′N. and 73° 37′N. The wh i ^ o ^ le bay is filled with islands, islets and rocks, of which Tasiussak Island forms the center, and the large Tugtokortok Island the most northerly point. The head of the bay is formed mainly by two large and rather high mainland projections between which the Inland Ice descends to the sea. An unnamed, highly active glacier discharges into the more southerly side of the bay.

Most of the inhabited islands lie in the middle and northern part of the bay. The flora here is relatively rich, and turf for building houses can be cut. Tasiussak outpost, which has a harbor suitable for all but the largest ships, is the main settlement in the bay. Navigation is possible from July to September.

Guidebook 618 H.O. 76, 444

Indexer: List Tasiussak Bay (Upernivik District); list Tugtokortok Island

Thalbitzers Point (Thalbitzers Naes)

(76° 02′N., 61° 03′W.), in Melville Bay off the west coast of Greenland, projects lies about 26 miles northwestward of Cape Walker and about 2 miles from the face of Peary Glacier. The projection is the dividing point between the southern and northern sections of Melville Bay. From this point the shore trends generally westward more than 92 miles to Cape York and is indented by numerous large bays, which are separated from eachother by irregular, ice-covered projections.

H.O. 76, 458

Thank God Harbor,

on the eastern side of Hall Basin, indents the Greenland coast just south of Cape Lupton (81° 40′N., 61° 55′W.) and close northward of Polaris Bay. The small bay borders a low country with occasional rounded hills rising to from 900 to 1,400 ft.

Thank God Harbor was the winter quarters of Hall's expedition in 1871-72. The Polaris was anchored in the open roadstead, inside the line of the main current, but some shelter was afforded by a small cape to the northwestward of the ship's position. Hall died here. ^ here, ^ on board his ship,on November 8,1871, and his grave at the head of the harbor was later marked by a tablet erected by Sir George Nares ^ , ^ of the British Arctic Expedition of 1875-76. The Polaris ^ Polaris ^ remained beset until August 1872, when open water south of Cape Lupton permitted her to bear up for home.Her southward drift,however, was stopped off Lifeboat Cove, in Smith Sound, where she was run ashore and ultimately, had to be abandoned.

H.O. 547 Guidebook 1234 Bessels, Smith Sound and its Explorations 386

Thom Island (Kapiarfigssalik)

(73° 43′N., 60°40′W.),with a diam ^ e ^ ter of less than two miles, lies in Melville Bay, off the west coast of Greenland, about 16 miles west-southwestward of Cape Walker. Astrup, who surveyed the island in 1894, as a member of Peary's Falcon ^ Falcon ^ Expedition, described it as having in its middle part a cone-shaped rock formation, about 300 to 400 ft. high. An iceberg bank extends off all its sides, except the northwestern one.

Thom Island, according to Knud Rasmussen, forms a boundary line for all the early habitations in Melville Bay. While i ^ o ^ ther house ruins are to be found southward of this point, none have been found between here and Bushnan Island to the northwestward.

Guidebook 676 H.O. 76, 457

Th. Thomsen Fjord

( N ^ n ^ orthwestern entrance 83° 12′N., 42° 10′W.), is the westernmost of the three fjords leading from De Long Fjord in northern Greenland. Flanked on the west by Nansen Land and on the east by a large unnamed island and thence by a small mainland projection, the fjord trends southeastward, then south– southeastward for a distance of about 25 mi o ^ l ^ es. A wide channel, leading midways from the eastern side of Th.Thomsen Fjord, rounds the southern end of the unnamed island and opens out into Ad. Jensen Fjord. The shores of Th.Thomsen Fjord are ice-free except for a few small glaciers near the head.

The fjord was discovered by Rasmussen's Second Thule Expedition and named after the Inspector of the National Museum at Copenhagen.

Guidebook 1267 H.O. 76, 567 Rasmussen, Greenland by the Polar Sea.

Thule,

the northernmost district in the Northern Inspectorate of West Greenland, known also as the Cape York District, lies between latitudes 74° 10′N. and 80° 09′N., and is bounded on the south by Holm Island and on the north by the southern end of Washington Land. It thus includes all of the coast lying between the southern end of Melville Bay and the northern end of Kane Basin. The most recent of the administrative districts of Greenland, Thule was taken over by the Greenland Administration and organized as a district in 1937. The residents are the Polar Eskimos, so named by Knud Rasmussen, who have survived by reliance on Arctic culture. Fishing and hunting from the edge of the ice form their main source of income. However, because of the nomadic nature of the i ^ n ^ atives, many of the settlements are occupied only sporadically, their inhabitants moving into tents in summer. In 1944 the population amounted to about 310. The colony and ^ ^ main administrative center of the district is Thule, and the principal harbors are at Thule, Cape York and Etah. Trade-in-production for 1944-45 (after deductions for local consumption) was as follows: blue and white fox skins 1,077; sealskins 1,081; narwhal tusks 100 kg; eiderdown 191 kg.

The southern part of the coast, which comprises the 200-mile stretch between Holm Island and Cape York, at the northern end of Melville Bay, is completely covered by ice, except for an occasional protruding nunatak or mountain peak. The Inland Ice here is comparatively low, with elevations of from 1,300 to 1,600 ft. There are few indentations along this coast.

The middle part of the district, extending from Cape York to the entrance of Smith Sound, about 145 miles to the northward, is much more ice free than the southern part; the margin of the Inland Ice is broader, and only through the larger valleys do glaciers come all the way down to the coast. The rock is gneiss which, in most parts, is covered by layers of sandstone and lime-

Page 002

Thule District cont.

stone, forming plateaux with steep, multi-colored cliffs, facin f ^ g ^ the sea. Some isolated peaks attain elevations up to 4,000 ft. Two major indentations are Wolstenholme Fjord and Ingl i ^ e ^ field Gulf.

The northernmost part of the district is formed by Inglefield Land which is ice-free, and by the 60-mile wide Humboldt Glacier. The edge of this glacier slopes evenly into the sea, and in general does not exceed 164 ft. in elevation. The cliffy but relatively low coast of Ingle– field Land is famous for its ice-foot.

The vegetation is richest in the middle part of the district, where there is a thick growth of grass and flowering plants in many places. Land animals in the district include caribou, blue and white foxes, Arctic hares, polar bears and once, in a generation, a stray wolf. Main marine animals are [: ] walrus, narwhal, white whale and various types of e ^ s ^ eals. U ^ I ^ nnumerable land and seabirds have breeding places in the district cliffs.

Systematic meteorological observation are being carried out at Thule Colony (q.v.) in Wolstenhome Fjord, and ^ sporadic ^ meteorological data ^ , ^ furnished by various expeditions ^ , ^ are also available from the Inglefield Gulf region. The midnight sun shines for about 4 months, and for nearly as long a period the sun is below the horizon. Mean temperatures above freezing occur only in June, July and August. Storms are mostly from the southeast and south and come at all seasons, but calm weather is frequent and preci– pitation is slight. Fogs occur during the summer months; ice fog, which is frequent, produces the so-called "white rainbow", a sight of exceptional beauty. Mirages may be observed in the spring and fall. Ice conditions are similar for the entire district. In calm w a ^ e ^ ther young ice begins to form by the end of August or early in September and remains fairly sound until June or July. However, open water is never far distant from the outermost

Page 003

Thule District cont.

coast, for the tides sweeping through Smith Sound prevent the formation of ice even in the coldest winters. The closely packed winter ice still floats along the coast at the end of July, and only August and sometimes early September bring a properly open sea.

History of explorations. - William Baffin, the English navigator, discovered the region in 1616, but actual contact with its Eskimo population was first established by Sir John Ross, in 1818. The Kane Expedition, in 1853-55, ^ first ^ wintered on th e ^ i ^ s coast, gaining much assistance from the friendly natives, [: ] and in the 1890ies Peary introduced the first tools, implements and firearms. Topographical surveys, resulting in the first detailed maps of the region were made by K.Rasmussen and Lauge Koch between 1916 and 1923, and a primarily ethnographical survey, reaching from Thule, Greenland, to Alaska and Wrangel Island, was completed by Rasmussen in 1924. The district has since been visited by many expeditions and since its integration with the Northern I ^ n ^ spectorate of West Greenland, is supplied by a ship of the Greenland Administration, which calls once a year. Weekly communication by plane between the U.S. and Thule is maintained by the U.S. Army Air Force ^ s ^ , which ha s ^ ve ^ an air-base at the colony since Wo lr ^ rl ^ d-War II.

Guidebook 646 ff. H.O. 76, 21 Frris, History of the Scientific Exploration of the Arctic since the days of flying p. 29 (Mss. E.A. files.)

Thule,

(76° 32′N., 68° 50′W.), a trading post and mission station in northwest ^ Greenland ^ and since 1937 the colony and administrative center of Thule District, in northern West Greenland lies at the head of North Star Bay which indents the southern side of Wolstenholme Fjord. Founded in 1910 by a Danish Committee headed by Knud Rasmussen with the object of safeguarding the Polar Eskimo against exploitation by private traders and to serve as a base for exploration and trade, it became the colony of Thule District on August 1, 1937, when the whole of that district was taken over by the Greenland Admi– nistration to form a part of the Northern Inspectorate of West Greenland. The population in 1943 was 120 Greenlanders . and 5 Europeans. Public buildings include a trading post, manager's house, parsonage, school and a doctor's residence and hospital (13 beds) combined. The numerous winter dwellings of the natives are of wood with outside walls of turf, but are abandoned in summer when the population moves into tents, hunting and fishing from the edge of the ice being their chief source of income. The settlement own ^ s ^ several 20- foot motor boats and several hundred sledge dogs. Sledge teams travel to and from various other settlements in the district about twice a month from December to May. A supply ship of the Greenland Administration calls once a year.

Harbor Facilities. - The harbor, which connects with the Government storehouse by means of a small tramway with steel rails, provides anchorage for ships up to 2,000 tons. It is well protected, but ^ a ^ better anchorage position, in depths of from 7 to 10 fathoms, is indicated under a steep clif on the harbor's southeastern side. Navigation of the bay is usually possible in August.

Radio and Weather Station. - Thule radio station burned down in 1944, but new equipment and a new, American-manufact ^ u ^ e red transmitter have since been installed. Since 1946, a joint Danish-American weather and radio station is

Page 002

Thule colony cont.

being operated at Thule, and there is a U.S. Army Air Forces base nearby, whence weather- h ^ g ^ athering and survey flights are being made. The Thule weather station operates jointly with an American-Canadian Weather Station at Eureka Sound on Ellesmere Island.(See: History of the the Scientific Exploration in the Arctic since the days of flying;. History of U.S. Weather Bueau.)

Guidebook 712 ff. H.O. 76, 470

Cape Tyson

(81° 19′N., 61° 55′W.), a small projection on the eastern side of Hall Basin in northwest Greenland, forms the northeastern entrance point of Petermann Fjord . The cape rises to about 1,500 ft., the land beyond sloping up t wards to a plateau, about 2,500 ft. high. Offley Island, about 3 miles w ^ s ^ outh of Cape Tyson, is small and steep, its northwestern shore forming a precipitous cliff. Bessels, a member of Hall's Expedition, found coral fossils on this island. The cape was named by Hall in 1871.

Guidebook 1252. H.O. 76, 546 Bessels, Die amerikanische Nordpolexpedition.

Indexer: list Offley Island.

Ubekyendt Island (Igdlorssuit)

lies in Nordost Bay, off the west coast of Greenland ^ , ^ between Umanak Fjord and Karrat Fjord. Erqua (71° 02′N., 53° 40′W.), the western extremity of the island, forms the northern entrance point of Umanak Fjord and the southern entrance point of Karrat Fjord. Ubekyendt Island, which is about 21 miles long, north and south, and about 14 miles broad at its widest, is rugged and attains elevations of more than 3,700 ft. on both its northern and southern end. Steep cliffs form the eastern shores of the island, while the western side is somewhat less precipitous. On the lower flat portions of the island there is a luxurio y ^ u ^ s growth of grasses and flowers and a considerable amount of low bush that is used for fuel. The steeper slopes, which consist of shale, are bare and difficult to climb. Igdlorssuit settlement, one of the main outposts in ? ^ the ^ Umanak District, stands on the eastern shore of the island. (See also Nordost Bay; Igdlorssuit .)

Guidebook 541 H.O. 76, 414

Indexer: list Erqua

Umanak,

a district in the Northern Inspectorate of West Greenland, between latitudes 70° and 72° N., includes all o ^ t ^ he country around Nordost Bay and the fjords leading from this bay. The total area is about 4,579 sq. miles. The population in 1936 ^ 1944 ^ was 1, 4 47 ^ 59 ^ Greenlanders; the 1930 census reported ^ ^ 18 Europeans. The colony and c ^ h ^ ief trading -station is Umanak. Trade-in production for 1936-37 ^ 1944-45 ^ (after de– ductions for local shipments) was as follows: blubber 1,118 barrels; ^ 65,136 kg; ^ liver 1277 ^ 102,787 ^ barrels; ^ kg; ^ blue and white foxes 66 ^ 57 ^ ; sealskins 1,487 ^ 2,446 ^ ; whaleskins 61 ^ 2 ^ ; narwhal teeth 16 kilos ; salted fish 4,700 kilos; ^ 30,800 kg; ^ tusks 44; ^ dried fish 580 kg; ^ eiderdown 34 kilos. ^ feathers 45 kg. ^

The southern part of the district is formed by the major northern part of Nugsuak Peninsula and the islands and promontories in the southeastern part of Nordost Bay, with maximum elevations here amounting to from 5,000 to 7,000 ft. The rock on the peninsula o ^ i ^ s largely ^ b ^ asalt and basalt and tuff, but the peaks on the islands (Stor o Island and others) are typical gneiss formations, mixed occasionally with eruptive rock. There are also some coal-bearing formations.

The northern part of the district includes part ^ s ^ of Svartenhuk Peninsula in the west and the deeply indented mainland coast in the east. The latter attains elevations close to 7,000 ft. but the country on Svartenhuk Peninsula is mainly rolling prairie land, with some isolated peaks rising to about 3,000 ft. or more.

Umanak District perhaps has more glaciers than any other region north of the equator. From the Inland Ice no less than 10 huge icestreams come down to the fjords, and there are countless local glaciers on Nugsuak and Svarten– huk Peninsulas and on the islands and the promontories along the central part of the mainland coast.

Page 003

Umanak cont. Greenland

The bedrock conditions do not ! ^ p ^ ermit a rich vegetation, but in the basalt and the sandstone areas the vegetation is relatively lux ^ u ^ riant. In the entire district there are 181 known varieties of higher plants ^ , ^ of which 26 have their northern limit here.

Animal life is richer than in the southern districts. Foxes, ptarmigan and hare are plentiful, and caribou are hunted on Nugssuak Peninsula. Polar bears come every winter; Greenland and bladder-nose seal appear in summer, while ring-seal is hunted all the year round. Loons, seagulls, black guillemots and fulmars and some wading birds breed in the district; falcons, ravens and various small birds are common. The king eider can be seen all summer, but does not breed in the district.

Continuous climatological obe r se ^ r ^ vations over a period of years are lacking in the district., ^ but ^ I ^ i ^ n 1929 and 1930-31 the German Greenland Expedition of Alfred Wegener established in the Nordost Bay area three meteorological stations called collectively the West Station. They were at Umanak Colony, on Kamarujuk Fjord and at Scheideck Station on the marg o ^ i ^ n of the Inland Ice. Temperatures in F. were as follows:

Scroll Table to show more columns

	Umanak	Kamarujuk	Scheideck
Yearly mean: (1930-31)	26,2	27,8	11,3
Winter mean (Dec.-Feb.1930-31)	14,0	13,6	-3,1
Summer mean (June-Aug.1930-31)	47,2	52	33,4
Maxim temp.	62,0	67,6	44,4
Minimum temp.	-18,0	-18,8	-39,6

Page 001

Umanak cont.

Precipitation is low. On the parallel of 71° N., which runs through the middle of the district, the sun is absent from November 21 until January 23.

As a rule Nordost Bay is covered with good permanent ice around Christmas and re– mains safe for traveling over most of the wide expanses till the end of June. The great masses of calf ice accumulated during the winter often block the entrance to all fjords and make navigation of the inner waters impossible until some time in August. The West Ice is usually visible from the outer district coasts during the whole winter and sometimes approaches them and freezes together with the winter ice.

Guidebook 488 ff. H.O. 76, 20

Umanak

(70° 41′N., 52° 09′W.), the colony and main trading station of Umanak District in northern West Greenland, is at the southern extremity of Umanak Island, which lies off the northern coast of Nugsuak Peninsula. In 1938, the population was about 300 Greenlanders and 15 Danes. Public buildings include administrative buildings, hospital and doctor's residence, church, school and parsonage. The district hospital, which is supervised by a resident Danish doctor and a Danish nurse and midwife, has X-ray equipment and can accom ^ m ^ odate 9 patients. The hospital also has a training school. A sanitarium, accommodating 20 tubercular children, is under the supervision of a specially trained Danish nurse. There is a radio station (call OYJ) at Umanak.

Two anchorages are available, one in Umanak Harbor, off the settlement, and the other, in Spragle Bay, on the western side of the island. Umanak Harbor (Skibshavn) with depths ranging from 3 to 6 ^ f ^ a ^ t ^ homs, is overshadowed by a magnificent notched peak from which the island derives its name.

The br ^ e ^ ak-up of the winter-ice usually comes around the middle of June, and the freeze-up in the latter part of December. Easterly winds frequently bring small bergs and growlers into the inner harbor, but a special signal system informs incoming vessels as to whether or not the harbor is blocked by ice. (For weather and temperatures see Umanak District).

H.O. 76, 411 Guidebook 528

Indexer: list Umanak (Umanak Fjord)

Umanak Fjord or Bay,

in the Umanak District of northern West Greenland, is identical with the southern arm of Nordost Bay.

^¶^ The outer portion of Umanak Fjord is entered between Kanisut (70° 50′N., 54° 08′W.), the northern extremity of Nugsuak Peninsula, and Erqua, the western end of Ubekyendt Island, and thence extends about 42 miles eastward, with a maximum width of 24 miles. It is bounded on the south by the steeply rising basal ^ t ^ shores of Nugsuak Peninsula and on the northern wide by Ubekyendt and Upernivik Islands, rising to 3,770 ft. and 6,898 ft., respectively.

^¶^ The inner Umanak Fjord, with a length approximating 43 miles, fans out in an easterly, southeasterly and northeasterly direction, its various arms winding their way past precipitous islands and numerous high mainland projections to the eastward lying glacier front. A southeastern arm of the inner fjord continues as Karajak (Qarajaq) Ice Fjord, extending southeastward along the inner northern shore of Nugsuak Peninsula and terminating at the foot of the Great Karajak Glacier. The latter, which has a velocity of 60 ft. a day, discharges large quantities of ice. A short ^ , ^ north-northwestward trending arm of Karajak, terminates at the foot of the Little Karajak Glacier.

Umanak Fjord has charted depths ranging from 100 to 500 fathoms, but navigation is di d [: ] cult even at the height of the sailing season. The winter ice rarely breaks up until the middle or end of June . ^ , ^ and throughout the summer the fjord remains filled with drif i ting bergs and calf-ice. Signals are displayed from the top of Hare Island (Vaigat Sound), indicating whether or not vessels can penetrate the fjord.

Anchorage is indicated at Umanak Colony a ^ o ^ n Umanak Island, and in various positions on Nugsuak Peninsula . (See also Nordost Bay.) Guidebook 519 H.O. 76, 406

Indexer: list Karajak (Quarajaq) Fjord; Great Karajak Glacier; Little Karajak Glacier

Umiarfik ^ , ^

(southern entrance 71° 54′N., 55° ^ 25′ ^ W.) ^ , ^ is a narrow fjord in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland, wedged in between Svartenhuk and Ignerit Peninsulas. Umiarfik trends first in an easterly, then in a northeasterly direction for about 34 miles. The outer shores are basalt, yielding to gneiss in the interior of the fjord. A number of deep fertile valleys with lakes converge near the head. The region is rich in caribou.

Guidebook 571 H.O. 76, 426

Upernivik,

a district in the Northern Inspectorate of West Greenland, is the coast between latitudes 71° 35 ′N. and 74° 30′N., or more specifically, between Svartenhuk Peninsula in the south and Holm Island, in Melville Bay, in the north. The area of ice-free land between Baffin Bay in the west and the Inland Ice in the east totals about 3,745 Sq. miles. In 1936 ^ 1944 ^ the population was 1,311 Greenlanders; the 1930 census also reported 12 Europeans. The colony and main trading station is Upernivik. Trade-in-production for the year 1936-37 ^ 1944-45 ^ (after deductions for local shipments) was as follows: blubber 1,253 barrels; ^ 77,686 kg; ^ liver 514 barrels; ^ 61,093 kg; ^ bear skins 9 ^ 1 ^ ; blue and white foxes 37 ^ 34 ^ ; sealskins 8,255; ^ 4,477; ^ walrus skins 1; ^ 53; ^ narwhal tusks 125 kilos; ^ 97 kg; ^ eiderdown 258 kilos. ^ 167 kg; ^ ^ feathers 413 kg. ^

The southern part of the district coast up to Upernivik Colony (72° 46′N.), consists mainly of large peninsulas and islands, separated by narrow fjords and sounds. The ice-free land margin is broad, reaching a width of about 75 miles. Characteristic for the more southerly part of this stretch are relatively high, flat-topped basalt plateaux. However, at Prøven (72° 22′N.) the rock formations change from basalt to archean. The islands in many instances rise sheer from the water's edge, attaining heights of 3,000 ft. or more, their richly colored rock forming a striking contrast to the glaciers eastward or the Inland Ice beyond.

The northern half of the district coast from Upernivik Colony to Holm Island is split up into a profusion of mostly small ^ and low ^ islands. The latter are icefree, but the mainland coast is completely icecovered except for a few short promontories, that rise above the 2,000 ft. mark. In general, elevations here are moderate. Fourteen glaciers discharge into Umanak Ice Fjord (approx. 73° N.), and nearly 1/5 of the ice front along this part of the coast reaches the sea.

A few minerals have been found in the district, and of importance is the graphite-

Page 002

Upernivik cont. Greenland

bearing gneiss. CarPholite (a hydrous aluminum manganese silicate) previously known only in France, also occurs, and of greatest interest is the find of beau– tiful red garnets. The one outcrop of coal at Ingnerit is of poor quality. The flora of the district, except for the immediate region around the colony and Prøven outpost is little known. In the interior of the southern fjords and on Svartenhuk Peninsula a close, luxuriant plant cover still spreads over wide areas, but north of Upernivik [: ] ^ Ice Fjord ^ the vegetation is poor, a great number of southern species apparently having been unable to cross the fjord.

Caribou are still numerous in the southern part of the district, and the ringed seal is abundant everywhere in fjords and coastal waters. Some walrus are taken, and white whale and narwhals come every spring and fall. Polar bears are seen when– ever the ice appears. Foxes and polar hares are plentiful, and in recent years the polar wolf has come down from Melville Bay. Eider ducks, guillemots, auks and other birds breed in the cliffs, and falcons and ravens are common.

Meteorological observations, taken at Upernivik Colony, are of local signi– ficance only. The mean temperature at Upernivik throughout the year is 1 , ^ 6 ^ , 3° F. July averages temperatures of ^ ^ 41,9° F.; February -10,1° F. From June to September the average temperature is above freezing, but sub-zero temperatures may occur any day in the year. The annual precipitation at Upernivik is 8,8 in. The prevailing wind comes from the east, but calm days are numerous. In the interior of some of the fjords in the district's southern part the climate is comparable to that of Disko Bay.

The West Ice from Baffin Bay usually reaches the coast around December and freezes together with the winter ice of the coast. In summer it remains from 10 to 15 miles off the southern ^ part of the ^ district coast, but on occasion closes in on Upernivik, especially with winds from the west and southwest. The winter ice forms in October; the break-up comes in June . ^ ; ^ H ^ h ^ owever a skin of new ice can ^ may ^ form at any time f ^ d ^ uring the summer

Guidebook 563 ff. H.O. 76, 21

Upernivik

(72° 46′N., 56° 09′W.), the colony of Upernivik District and the northernmost principal settlement of West Greenland, is situated on a small island of the same name about 6 miles northwest of Kaersorsuak Island. The settlement, with a population in 1930 ^ 1938 ^ of 232 ^ 240 ^ Greenlanders and 7 ^ 2 ^ Danes, is s v ^ c ^ attered over a rocky area between Bryghus Bay, a small cove at the island's southwestern end, and Skibs– havn (Danish Harbor), about 1/2 mile northward. Official buildings consist of a church, a store, hospital, the doctor's residence, the manager's house, a building which serves as a residence for the clergyman and the manager's assistant, and a dance hall. The hospital accommodates 14 patients and is under the supervision of a Danish doctor and a Danish nurse. There is a radio– station ( call OYN ) at Upernivik. The houses, which are gaily painted, are grouped together without any sharp demarcation between those of Danes and Green– landers. The people, whose chief means of livelihood is sealing, are among the poorest of the district.

Harbor. - Skibshavn, the recommended anchorage at Upernivik, has charted dpeths of from 3 to 12-1/2 fathoms. There is a small wharf at the southern side of Skibshavn, and several 20-foot lighters are available for fransferring cargo from ship to shore ^ . ^ On the eastern side of the harbor is a repair slip where ships may be hauled ashore. A limited quantity of supplies is available at this port.

Ice. - The West Ice from Baffin Bay usually reaches Upernivik about the middle of December and leaves around the first of June. The winter ice forms between November and January and breaks up in May or June. From June to December the coast is open to navigation, except that icebergs are frequent, and the West Ice may close in on occasion, with prevailing westerly winds.

Upernivik, founded in 1771,has long been known to explorers of the Far North as the final port of call before sailing ^ on ^ through Melville Bay and Smith Sound

Page 002

Upernivik cont.

to the regions beyond Cape York.

Guidebook 586 H.O. 76, 440

Upernivik Ice Fjord,

a channel from 3 to 6 miles wide ^ in the Upernivik District of northern West Greenland, ^ lies about 15 miles north ^ - ^ eastward of Upernivik Colony, where it separates a mass of larger and smaller islands offlying the mainland coast. The fjord's approximate entrance is between the Avssakutak groups of islets, about 9 miles southeast of Kingigtortagdlit (73° 02′N., 56° 54′W.), and Tugssak Island, about 6 miles to the northeastwward. The trend of the fjord is southeasterly, the approximate length 34 miles. At its head the fjord forms a wide basin ^ , ^ with Upernivik Glacier discharging into its eastern end, and with two small glaciers emptying into its northern side. From this basin a second channel leads seaward (parallel to Upernivik I s ^ ce ^ fjord) between the islands that lie on the northern side of Upernivik Isfjord and Kagsersuak, a mainland projection to the northward.

Upernivik Glacier is by far the largest and most productive of the many glaciers in this district, and the numerous icebergs, discharged by it, tend to keep the channels between the various islands completely closed until July. Once the channels are open, navigation during calm weather is assisted rather than impeded by some of the bergs grounding on the rocks or else afloat ^ , ^ as their height affords certain evidence of deep water.

Seals and se b ^ a ^ birds are numerous in the locality; in the autumn schools of white whales come into the water of Upernivik ^ Ice F ^ jord from the waters farther north.

Guidebook 602 H.O. 76, 441

Indexer: list Upernivik Glacier

Upernivik Island ^ , ^

in Nordost Bay of northern West Greenland, forms the eastern side of Igdlorsuit Sound and lies between Umanak Fjord and Karrat Fjord.

The island, which is about 17 miles long, north and south ^ , ^ and about 17 miles at its broadest, rises to heights of nearly 7,000 ft. and is characterized by many glaciers, all of which are said to be inactive. There are coal-bearing deposits in the southwestern part of Upernivik Island, and two mines supply the inhabitants of Greenland's northern districts with much of their necessary fuel.

Anchorage is indicated at Upernivik Point (Upernivik Naes)(71° 09′N. ^ , ^ 52° 56 ′W.) at the southwestern end of the island, but temporary anchorage can be found and a landing effected below all the glaciers on the west coast.

Guidebook 550 H.O. ^ 76 ^ 415

Indexer: list Upernivik Island (Umanak Fjord).

Uvkusigssat (71° 05 ′N. 51° 54′W.),

an outpost in the Umanak District of northern West Greenland, is on the southern shore of outer Ignerit, a branchfjord of Umanak Fjord in Nordost Bay. The population in 1930 was 175 Greenlanders. The houses, which include a chapel-school, ^ a ^ manager's house, a store and various dwellings, stand close to the beach of a small bay into which empties a stream. On the beach, a few hundred yards north of the houses and accessible only at low tide, is a soapstone deposit. The community secures the largest number of foxes caught anywhere in the Umanak District.

Anchorage is afforded in the small bay which is large enough to accomodate f ^ g ^ ood-size vessels ^ , ^ but which northerly winds cause to fill with calf ice. The winter ice remains from December until June with open channels forming early in the spring.

H.O. 76, 417

Uvkusigssat Fjord

(southwestern entrance 71° 45′N. 53° 40′W.), in northern West Greenland, leads from the head of Karrat Fjord, whence it trends north-northwestward for about 42 miles. The western shore is formed by Svartenhuk Peninsula, the eastern shore by a rugged mainland projection. The narrow fjord, which is lined by steep cliffs, terminates at the foot of a small glacier, which discharges into the eastern side of the head, filling the fjord's inner portion with clay deposits. From thewestern side of the ^ head, ^ where some peaks rise to nearly 4,000 ft., large valleys with lakes extend in a northwesterly direction to the head of Laxe Fjord. These valleys are comparatively fertile and support a considerable number of a ^ e ^ aribou. Uvkusigssat itself is little frequented and exposed to all winds.

H.O. 424

Valdemar Glückstadt Land,

a peninsula in northeast Greenland, forms the western shore of the outer part of Danmark Fjord and the eastern shore of Hagen Fjord. Its 20-mile wide northern shore faces Independence Fjord, which meets the two other fjords at right angles. From Cape Rigsdagen (82° 05 N., 21° 40′W.),at the confluence of Danmark and Independence Fjord, the land extends about 70 miles southwestward to a broad base near Zig-Zag Valley.

Valdemar Glückstadt Land is mostly ice-free, except for three small glaciers, named Jydske Aas, which occupy its central part. Northward of the glaciers the land is low and barren, flattening down to sea-level near its northern end. The southern portion of the land slopes up to a high plateau, bordering the Inland Ice in the southwest. In the southeast Zig-Zag Valley, so named because of its twisting course, slopes down to Danmark Fjord. It contains a chain of glacial lakes within steep-walled valleys; the valleys are connected by a broad river which drains into Danmark Fjord through a wide delta. According to Rasmussen and Freuchen, who investigated and named the valley in 1912, the land here is fertile in stretches and supports caribou and hare. Several species of landbirds breed in the more sheltered spots.

Valdemar Glückstadt Land was discovered and named by the Mylius- Erichsen Exedition (1906-08)but has had few visitors since. Einar Mikkelson explored parts of its coast in 1910, and in 1912, Rasmussen's First Thule Expedition made ^ their ^ descent from the Inland Ice through Zig-Zag Valley . ^ , ^ later traveling northward along its ^ the land's ^ eastern shore to Peary Land. All three expeditions agree on the dearth of game in the northern part of the peninsula.

Guidebook 1320 H.O. 75, 257 MG 51, 350 ff. Ch AAF Aer. Ch 9, 1943

Indexer: list Zig-Zag Valley

Victoria Fjord,

a major indentation in the north coast of Greenland, is entered between the northeastern end of Wulff Land and Cape Wohlgemuth (82° 34′N., 47° 15′W.), at the northwestern extremity of Nares Land, about 23 miles northeastward. The fjord trends southeastward for about 80 miles, maintaining a width of from 15 to 23 miles except at the narrow head,abreast Danbo Land. C.H. Ostenfeld Glacier, which drains into the head, penetrates far northward through the fjord, its floating termination stretching from coast to coast at a point about 23 miles within the entrance. The glacier encircles several ice-capped, island-like areas in the inner part of Victoria Fjord. Stephenson Island, at the mouth of the fjord, about 3,400 ft. high, is ice-free. Heights on either side of the fjord are moderate but the shores of Nares Land are ice-covered while those of Wulff Land are largely ice-free and rather rich in vegetation.

Victoria Fjord was discovered and named by Lt. Beaumont of the Nares Expedition (1875-76). Lockwood, of the Greely Expedition (1881-8 4 ^ 3 ^ ) named Cape Wohlgemuth. The interior of the fjord was first explored by members of Rasmussen's Second Thule Expedition(1917), who named C.H. Ostenfeld Glacier.

Guidebook 1255 H.O. 76, 562 MG 130, vol 1. 345-346

Indexer: list Cape Wohlgemuth; C.H. Ostenfeld Glacier; Danbo Land.

Vildt Land (Game Land)

a mountainous and mostly icefree tract of land in northern Greenland, has a 9-mile frontage on Independence Fjord, north of A a cademy Glacier ^ , ^ at the fjord's head. To the northward the land is flanked by the large Sophie Marie Glacier. The most conspicuous point along the shore is Navy Cliff (81° 38′N., 33° 36′W.) a rocky plateau rising almost vertically to a height of 3,800 ft. ^ and affording an excellent view of the entire region. ^ Elsewhere the land attains elevations of from 2,000 to 3,000 ft., with many of its rocky heights deeply intersected by fertile ravines and sheltered, well-watered valleys.

Peary and Astrup crossed Vildt Land in 1892, Peary erecting a small cairn and planting the Stars a nd Stripes on Navy Cliff on July 4th. Both Rasmussen's First Thule Expedition 1912) and Lauge Koch's Danish Bicentenary Jubilee Expedition (1920-23) established observation camps here. Peary and the Rasmussen party shot a large number of musk oxen in Vildt Land. Hares were found to be plentiful, and lemmings, stats, wolves, foxes and several species of landbirds with their young brood were also observed. Koch, on the contrary, found hunting poor in Vildt Land.

Guidebook 1308 H.O. 75, 261 MG 51, 369 MG 70, 110

Indexer: list Navy Cliff.

Cape Walker

(75° 48′N., 59° 50′W.), on the eastern shore of Melville Bay in northwest Greenland, is a prominently projecting point about 39 miles northward of Cape Seddon. Cape Walker forms the extremity of Nugssuak Promontory which extends about 6 miles southwestward from the edge of the land ice flanked on the north and south by two considerable bays. The bay on the southeastern side is fronted by three islands. The bay to the northward is entirely occupied by an ice-bank which extends about 14 miles northwestward along the face of two glaciers, Kong Oscars Brae and Pearys Brae. Kong Oscars Brae has been reported to be moving rapidly,and is said to be one of the most productive glaciers in Melville Bay.

H.O. 76, 458 MG 65, 201

Indexer : list Nugssuak (Melville Bay); Kong Oscars Brae.

Wandel Valley,

at lat. 82° 12′N., in northeast Greenland is a 23- miles depression leading westward from the head of Brønlund Fjord, a branch of Independence Fjord ^ , ^ to the long and narrow Midsummer Lake. The valley is traversed by a river and has delta-like character throughout; its vegetation is luxuriant.

The discovery of Wandel Valley by Lauge Koch in 1921, invalidated Peary's theory that Independence Fjord and th r ^ e ^ fjords of the northwest coast of Greenland were connected by a giant channel, severing ice-free Peary Land from ice-bound Greenland proper. A depression, roughly following the outlines of the so-called PEARY CHANNEL does exists, and it leads from Brønlund Fjord through Wandel Valley to Midsummer Lake. The depression,however, ends here. Between Midsummer Lake and the head of J.P. Koch Fjord is a strip of land, about 14 miles wide, which definitely links Peary Land to the Greenland mainland to the southward. (See also Peary Channel under Independence Fjord.)

H.O. 75, 262

Warming Land,

a mainland projection in northern Greenland, lies wedged in between the inner portion of St. Georg ^ e ^ Fjord and the large Ryder Glacier to the eastward. Hendrik Island, which separates the outer part of St. George Fjord from the outer Sherard Osborn Fjord, lies close northward of the northwastern end of the peninsula. From its low, narrow northern end, at lat. 81° 58′N., Warming Land extends south-southeastward for over 50 miles, rising to about 4,300 ft. in its central ice-covered part, and thence sloping to from 2,000 to 3,000 ft. at its wide, ice-free base. The high - ^ , ^ ice-free plateaux at the southeastern end of the peninsula are called Midgaardsormen and N.P. Johansen Land.

Warming Land was discovered and named by Rasmussen's Second Thule Expedition (1917), wh o ^ ich ^ also named the southern plateaux.

Guidebook 1246 H.O. 76 560 MG 65, 432 MG 130, 345

Indexer: list Midgaardsormen; N.P. Johansen Land

Washington Land (with Daugaard-Jensen Land)

a strip of ^ largely ^ ice-free land on the Greenland side of Kennedy Channel, forms the coast between Cape Jackson (80°00′N., 67° 25′W.), and Cape Bryan, about 80 miles to the northeastward. The area, which is about 35 miles broad, east and west, is adjoined in the east by a smaller ice-free area, named Daugaard-Jensen Land, extending all the way to the Inland I n ce. Together, Washington Land and Daugaard-Jensen Land have a maximum diameter of over 90 miles and form the large peninsula that projects along the northern side of Peabody Bay and Humboldt Glacier.

Washington Land ^ , between Cape Jackson and Cape Bryan, ^ has a comparatively even shoreline, the only really deep indentation being Bessels Fjord. For long stretches of this coast the shore is formed by almost precipitous cliffs, 1,000 ft. or more high. The land back of the coast is somewhat higher, the southern portion being mostly free of ice and consisting of wide valleys and isolated mountains, whereas the northern portion is a level plateau, partly covered with ice-caps. Farther inland, and extending across Washington Land and parts of Daugaard-Jensen Land there are vast,level, ice-free plateaux, rising to from 3,000 to 4,000 ft. Daugaard-Jensen Land eventually levels down to a narrow plain near its northeastern end, while the southeastern end is higher and marked by several small ice-caps and a series of partly ice-dammed lakes, called Romer Lakes.

Many seabirds of several sp i ^ e ^ cies have been sighted along the coast of Washington Land. Seals have been observed in occasionally open patches of water, and polar bears are numerous. Musk-oxen and hares occur inland.

Morton of the Kane Expedition, in 1854, sledged northward along the coast of Washington Land as far as Cape Constitution, at lat. 80° 34′N., but the coast at large x was first ^ accurately ^ surveyed by Rasmussen in 1917. The large,hitherto unknown area ^ , ^ called Daugaard -Jensen Land ^ , ^ was discovered by Lauge Koch,in 1921 ^ . ^

Guidebook 1217 H.O.76,541 MG 65, 292, Rasmussen, Greenland by the Polar Sea,65

Indexer : list Daugaard-Jensen Land

CAIRNS ON WEST GREENLAND

Two cairns were found on Washington Irving Island (79°35′N. Lat., 73° W. Long. on August 12, 1875, by the expedition led by Sir George Nares. The cairns were found on the summit of the island, about 900 feet high. Captain Nares states in his "Voyage to the Polar Sea", London, 1878, vol. 1, p. 88: " ... we found two ancient cairns far too old to have been erected by Dr. Hayes, the only traveler known to have visited the neighborhood. They were built of conglomerate and rested on a similar base ... Lichens which had spread from stone to stone also proved that they were of great age. They contained no record whatever. ..."

In 1876, when Nares again visited Washington Irving Island, he found that "the western point of the island was covered with the foundations of a complete town. In some places mere rings of stones had served to keep down the edges of summer tents of skins, in other, rectangular enclosures three yards broad, with excavated floor and with traces of porch opening seawards, gave unmistakable evidence of more permanent habitation. ... A little further inland (on Norman Lockyer Island) we came upon a bird shelter, such as the natives of Danish Greenland still use to encourage geese and duck to settle on their shores. ..."

Nares goes on to comment that the cairns were plainly the work of a painstaking builder. "But who was the builder? Not Eskimo. Structure and site forbade that suggestion. ..."

Excerpt from pp. 147-157, J. Kr. Tornøe, Meddelelser Nr. 56, Lysstreif over Noregsveldets Historie, Norges Svalbard- o g ^ f ^ Ishavs- Undersøkelser, Oslo, 1944.

West Station (see Umanak District)

Weyprecht Inlet,

in northern Greenland, is entered between Cape Hommock (83° 23′N., 40° 50′W.) on Hazen Land and the northwestern extremity of Lockwood Island. about 7 miles northeastward. The inlet trends about 12 miles southeastward to its junction with two channels coming in from the northeast and southwest respectively and with Harder Fjord, which continues due eastward to a head deep inside the mainland coast.

The inlet was named after Lt. Carl Weyprecht of the Austrian-Hungarian Navy, who, together with Lt. Julius Payer, explored Franz Josefs Land 1871-74 and established a record of the highest north at 82° 05N., 60° E

SD VII 109 A.W. Greeley. Handbook of Polar Discoveries,p.185

Indexer : list Harder Fjord.

Hunt Fjord,

in north Greenland, indents the northwest coast of Peary Land close eastward of Cape Kane (83° 29′N., 39° 10′W.) and westward of Gertrud Rask Land. The fjord, which is about 5 miles wide and 7 miles long,trends east-southeasterly amidst a setting characteristic for this part of Peary Land: past dark, sharply pointed nunataks towering above short glacier-filled valleys. The peaks Close inland from the large Thomas Glacier at the head of the fjord, rise to

Whale Sound,

a strait in lat. 77° N., off the coast of northern West Greenland, is the southernmost one of the two channels which lead from Baffin Bay into Inglefield Gulf. The strait, which is about 29 miles long and approximately 9 miles wide, is entered between the northwestern extremity of Steensby Land and Northumberland Island to the northward, whence it extends east-northeastward. The southern shore (Steensby Land) is bold and high, its gneissice cliffs rising to over 2,000 ft. The vegetation here is scanty, and glaciated drifts of snow remain the year round under the crest of the cliffs. North– humberland and Herbert Islands, which bound the sound on the north, have cliffs of sandstone and light-colored rock, between which a number of glaciers descend to the sea. Several Eskimos dwelling-places have been found along the southern shores of these islands. Itivdlek, a settlement on the southern side of Whale Sound, has several stone houses ^ , ^ but in 1891 only six people were living here.

The sound was discovered in 1616 by Baffin, who named it Whale Sound on account of the many whales that were seen, but correct charts of its shores were lacking until Peary surveyed the region between 1891 and 189 5 ^ 4 ^ .

Guidebook 734 H.O. 76 474 Bessels, Exploration of Smith Sound, 334

Wolstenholme Fjord (Sound),

the most important of the fjords in the Thule District of northern West Greenland, has its 9-mile wide entrance between a point about 4 miles north of Cape Atholl (76° 23′N., 69° 32′W.) and Cape Abernethy to the north-northeastward. The fjord extends about 21 miles east-northeastward to a head into which drain Moltke, Knud Rasmussen, and Chamberlin Glaciers. North Star Bay, an indentation on the southern side of the fjord, provides an excellent harbor . ^ , ^ and is also the site of Thule settlement, the colony of the district. Wolstenholme Island and the larger Saunders Island, lies immediately off the entrance of Wolstenholme Fjord. The fjord is usually navigable in July and August.

The southern shore of the fjord is a line of steep cliffs, forming the northwestern side of an elevated plateau which extends eastward and southward to the edge of the Inland [: ] ce and the northern end of Petowik Glacier, respective– ly. Two large valleys extend from the inner half of this shore to the edge of the ice Cap, the plateauland between forming a veritable oasis against the sur– rounding landscape. The vegetation is comparati ev ^ ve ^ ly rich, offering an unusual variety of Arctic plant a ^ s ^ ; the numerous small lakes are known as favorite breeding grounds of the King Eider and the Greater Snow Goose.

The northern shore of the fjord, which is bold and high although not precipitous, is marked by several glaciers. The ice-free strip is narrow and the land much less fertile than that on the southern side.

Wolstenholme Fjord was discovred in 1616 by Baffin and Bylot, who named it after one of their sponsors, Sir John Wolstenholme. Sir John Ross rediscovered the fjord in 1818 but did not enter into it. J.F.R. Aylen, the M ^ m ^ aster's assistant on board the North Star (Captain Saunders, M ^ m ^ aster), made the first survey of the fjord in 1849. His chart, although not published, was reproduced in the British Admiralty chart. ^ However, ^ U ^ u ^ t to the time of Peary, who investigated the fjord

Page 002

Wolstenholme Fjord cont.

between 1891-94, little was known about the surrounding land. Lauge Koch, in 1916, first charted the head of the fjord. Various other expeditions, among them the 1937-38 British Expedition under David Haig-Thomas, have since completed the survey of the entire region.

Guidebook 707 H.O. 76, 466 MG Vol. 125, Nr. 3, pp 8, ff. MG 65, 226

AAF Aer. Ch 8, 1943

Indexer: list North Star Bay; Wolstenholme Island;

Wright Bay,

a ten-mile wide recession in the west coast of Greenland, on the northern side of Peabody Bay, lies midway between Cape Webster (80°00′N., 65° 40 W.) and Cape Jackson, to the westward. Wright Bay extends nearly 6 miles northward, narrowing towards its head. Nunatami, a camping place of the Eskimos, lies close to the eastern entrance point. Back of Nunatami and Cape Webster the Talilenguak Cliffs attain an elevation of over 1,500 ft. Rasmussen remarks on the phantastic shapes of these limestone formations, made striking also by their coloring, grey at the bottom and finely attuned shades of red at their summit. In May there is open water near Cape Webster. Seals and bears have been observed in the vicinity of Wright Bay.

Guidebook 1219 H.O. 75, 529 AAF Aer. Ch 8, 1943

Inde xer: list Cape Webster; Nunatami; Talilenguak Cliffs

Wulff Land,

a peninsula-like projection in northern Greenland, about 100 miles long, south-east and north-west, and about 25 miles wide, separates Sherard Osborn Fjord from Victoria Fjord. Cape May (82° 29′N., 50° 50′W.), off the Lincoln Sea, is its northwestern extremity. Cape Troedsson, its southern extremity,faces Ryder Glacier o ^ i ^ n the west and C.H. Ostenfeld Glacier in the east. The greater portion of the peninsula is ice-free, e ^ x ^ cept for smaller local ice-caps in the northwest ern and central parts xx of the land. All of Wulff Land is mountainous, the chart indicating ^ maximum ^ heights of about 5,000 ft. In the fertile tracts around the valleys at the northern end of Wulff Land Rasmussen's party shot 16 musk oxen in May 1917, and 13 on their return to this vicinity in the middle of July. Hares and wolves were found to be numerous.

Wulff Land was named by the Second Thule Expedition.

Guidebook 561 Guidebook 1252 MG 130, 347

Cape York

(75 ° 54′N., 66° 28′W.), at the northwestern end of Melville Bay in northwest Greenland, is a bold, bluff headland, consisting of dark cliffs with snow on top. At an elevation of 1,460 ft. is a MONUMENT (dedicated to Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary), about 59 ft. high, which consists of a granite column on a hexagonal base surmounted by a metal pyramid. A small settlement in the cliffs close eastward of the promontory is permanently occupied. About four or five families wintered here in 1920, but the many house ruins in the vicinity indicate that the settlement was formerly more populous.

^¶^ Mylius-Erichsen, Moltke and Rasmussen reached Cape York on April 17th, 1903, after journeying by sledge across Melville Bay. This was the first time that white men had followed the coastline of Melville Bay in its entirety.

Guidebook 689 H.O. 76, 462 MG 65, 195

Geographical Items on North Greenland: Encyclopedia Arctica 14: Greenland, Svalbard, Etc. Geography and General