Danish Expedition to Peary Land, 1947-1950

Abstract

U NTIL recently, Peary Land, the northernmost part of Greenland and the northernmost land in the world, has remained an impregnable fort, protected to the south by the inland ice and along the coasts by a belt of pack ice that to date no ship has been able to force. Expeditions traveled by sledge, starting from Thule or Danmarks Havn. The journeys were long and strenuous; a prolonged stay was out of the question; and it was impossible to make any sizable geological or archeological collection. Further exploration has been made possible through the combined use of the airplane and the dog sledge. The first explorer to enter Peary Land was Lockwood in I882, but it was Peary who more closely explored the area on his expeditions of i892, i895, and I900. In I906-I908 the Danish Danmark expedition, under the leadership of Mylius-Erichsen, explored southern and eastern Peary Land. Among other things, it was proved that the country was not an island, as Peary had supposed, but part of Greenland itself Later, Knud Rasmussen's first and second Thule expeditions visited Peary Land, and in I92I Lauge Koch went around it by dog sledge and crossed the inland ice back to Thule. His survey work together with that of the Danmark expedition formed the basis of the great map covering North Greenland, scale I :300,000, published by the Geodetic Institute of Denmark. In I933 and I937 Lauge Koch saw the area from the air. The objective of the Danish Peary Land Expedition of I947-I950, initiated by Ebbe Munck and Eigil Knuth, was a geographical, geological, biological, and archeological exploration of the area. In the summer of I947 a reconnaissance party was sent out to find a suitable place for the winter station, to test the equipment, and so on; it had at its disposal two ships and a Catalina flying boat. A south base was established at Zachenberg, at the head of Young Sund, from which the flights to the north could take off. The first flight was made on July 27. It was found that Jorgen Br6nlunds Fjord, a small side branch of Independence Fjord, was ice-free; in Independence Fjord itself the unbroken winter ice made landing impossible. On July 30 the first party of scientists, under the leadership of Eigil Knuth, were landed at Br6nlunds Fjord; during their two weeks' stay they made a temporary