Northern Ellesmere Island

Bibliographic Data

ID4660494
AuthorsGeoffrey Hattersley-Smith (corresponding author)
Year1956
Volume122
Issue1
Pages13
Publication date1956-03-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeographical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7398 • E-ISSN: 1475-4959
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1791470
OpenAlexW2320126475
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited1

The ellesmere ice shelf expeditions of 1953 and 1954 were launched under the auspices of the Canadian Defence Research Board * and the Canadian Geo? logical Survey, with the addition in 1954 of the United States Air Force Cambridge Research Center (A.F.C.R.C.) and the Snow Ice and Permafrost Research Estab? lishment, Corps of Engineers, United States Army (S.I.P.R.E.). In the course of our work we came on a number of relics of our predecessors in the northern regions of Ellesmere Island, and, before describing the course of the expeditions themselves, it may be of interest to recapitulate briefly the history of exploration in these parts. Hayes in 1861 appears to have been the first explorer to see the mountains of the north east corner of Ellesmere Island, from Lady Franklin Bay (his furthest north),1 but it was another ten years before Hall looked for the first time on the north coast of Ellesmere Island. Hall's ship, the Polaris, wintered in 1871-2 in Thank God Harbour, where Hall died. Sledge parties were active on the Greenland side of Robeson Channel, but the north coast of Ellesmere Island was not visited.2 In 1875 tne British Arctic Expedition (Captain Sir G. S. Nares, r.n.) went north. While Captain Stephenson wintered his ship, the Discovery, in Discovery Harbour, Nares himself succeeded in forcing the Alert to winter quarters at Floeberg Beach near Cape Sheridan, the western portal of Robeson Channel. The latitude of 820 30' became the furthest northing of any ship under her own power in American waters, and remained so until the U.S. icebreaker operations of 1948, although from 1905 Peary shared with Nares the credit of taking a ship thus far. From Floeberg Beach the following spring Nares sent out man-hauling parties in the tradition of those days. By modern standards ill-equipped and inadequately fed, the northern party under Markham and the western party under Aldrich, with great resolution and an unflinching contempt for the elements and the deep soft snow, pursued their objectives, a Farthest North and the exploration of the north coast of Ellesmere Island. Markham returned from lat. 830 20' north of Cape Joseph Henry, but in order to reach this point he was obliged to travel 520 miles to make good a distance of less than 60 miles north-north-west of winter quarters; and he lost one man. He returned with the conviction that the Pole would not be reached by travelling over the ice floes. Aldrich's journey is perhaps the more remarkable, for he reached Alert Point, 200 miles distant from winter quarters. Like Markham he returned with the finest margin between safety and disaster, but lost not a man. Scurvy forced Nares to abandon his plans for a second year and return to England, with the Discovery in company, in the summer of 1876.3 4 5 In 1881 Greely led the United States Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, which spent two winters at Fort Conger on Discovery Harbour. The subsequent retreat southward of this party in 1883-4 was attended by disasters which have had few parallels in the history of Arctic exploration. From Fort Conger sledge parties were active inland, on the Greenland and on the Ellesmere coasts. A northern party

Archaeology · Geography · Climate change and permafrost · Cryospheric studies and observations · Geology · Polar Research and Ecology

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