Northward over the great ice : a narrative of life and work along the shores and upon the interior ice-cap of northern Greenland in the years 1886 and 1891-1897, with a description of the little tribe of Smith Sound Eskimos, the most northerly human beings in the world, and an account of the discovery and bringing home of the Saviksue or great Cape York meteorites . UPERNAVIK. Leaving the islands, we shaped our course direct forCape York, with the most sanguine expectation ofmaking a speedy passage across Melville Bay, and per-haps reaching Whale Sound on the 4th of July, the dayon which famou
Northward over the great ice : a narrative of life and work along the shores and upon the interior ice-cap of northern Greenland in the years 1886 and 1891-1897, with a description of the little tribe of Smith Sound Eskimos, the most northerly human beings in the world, and an account of the discovery and bringing home of the Saviksue or great Cape York meteorites . UPERNAVIK. Leaving the islands, we shaped our course direct forCape York, with the most sanguine expectation ofmaking a speedy passage across Melville Bay, and per-haps reaching Whale Sound on the 4th of July, the dayon which famous old Baffm cast anchor in the Soundover 275 years ago. Our expectations, however, weredoomed to speedy disappointment. Sixteen milesnorth of the Duck Islands, we met the dreaded Mel-ville-Bay pack, and after running along its edge closeto the Devils Thumb, and then back again to thewestward, in search of a good opening, the Kite, at7:30 , on July 2d, stuck her sturdy little nose intothe pack and began a long struggle. 62 Northward over the Great Ice The Greenland ice-cap, which we could discern abovethe coast mountains, seemed very rough and brokenby crevasses. I had no doubt, however, that fartherinland it offered the favourable conditions for sledcrino- It . -* ^ that 1 expected to find on the inner ice of North. THE PARTY AT THE DUCK ISLANDS. Greenland. Baffled by the ice of Melville Bay, Iencountered at the outset of my arctic work one ofthe common vicissitudes of polar exploration in ships ;while not many miles east of us was the great interior Brooklyn to McCormick Bay 63 ice-plateau, offering an imperial highway to the farNorth. The ice of the pack, where we first encount-ered it, was only six to fifteen inches thick, and ice-pans, as sailors call very small and somewhatrounded floes, averaged perhaps twenty-five feet across,and numerous icebergs were scattered through thepack. As we got farther into the pack, some of thepans were six or seven feet thick.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecteskimos, bookyear1898
