Melville Land

Melville Land is an area in Peary Land, North Greenland. Administratively it is part of the Northeast Greenland National Park.Nunat Aqqi; Stednavne
/ref>Google Maps

History

Robert Peary named the territory, together with Heilprin Land, in 1892 during his North Greenland Expedition sponsored by the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. He named it after Chief Engineer George W. Melville (1841–1912), chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering of the United States Navy. Peary sighted the coast of Melville Land shore from afar to the northeast. He drew a rough map based on the panorama that he saw from Navy Cliff, at the head of Independence Fjord, but did not explore the area.Peary, Robert E. (Robert Edwin), 1856-1920, ''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'',1898Independence Fjord, Peary, and the First Thule Expedition
/ref>

In 1912 Knud Rasmussen, during his First Thule Expedition, compared favorably Melville Land with the barren and desolate land that he had crossed south of Independence Fjord. He marveled at the abundance of game, including muskoxen, hares and ptarmigan. Birdlife was plentiful, and many seals lay out on the ice of the fjord, basking in the sun. He mentioned that

The territory was finally mapped with accuracy by Lauge Koch from a height of during his cartographic air expedition of 1938. Koch noted in his exploration that the land was ice-free.''Sailing Directions for the East Coast of Greenland'', United States Hydrographic Office, p. 264Dan Laursen, ''The Place Names of North Greenland.'' Kommissionen for Videnskabelige Undersøgelser i Grønland (ed.): Meddelelser om Grønland. Vol. 180, Nr. 2. C. A. Reitzels Forlag, Kopenhagen 1972, ISBN 87-421-0070-4, p. 244Geographical Items on North Greenland - Encyclopedia Arctica 14
/ref>

Geography

Melville Land is located in southern Peary Land, on the northern side of the middle section of the Independence Fjord. To the west it is limited by the Bronlund Fjord, and to the east by Kjovesletten, a small coastal area beyond which lies Herlufsholm Strand. Cape Harald Moltke marks the southwestern end and Cape Caroline Marie the southeastern. The Børglum River flows from the Nordkrone southwards at the western end.GoogleEarth

Remarkably for the high latitude the terrain is unglaciated. The part along the shore of Independence Fjord has high sandstone cliffs with elevations averaging , including the Pyramide Plateau in the western sector. The banks near the shore are dissected by small river valleys and ravines. The inner part to the north is mountainous and not clearly delimited, with the highest point reaching .Map of far Northern Greenland.
/ref>

Bibliography

*H.P. Trettin (ed.), ''Geology of the Innuitian Orogen and Arctic Platform of Canada and Greenland.'' 1991
* B. Fristrup, ''Winderosion within the Arctic Deserts.'' 1953

See also

*Cartographic expeditions to Greenland
* Innuitian orogeny

References

External links

The Project Gutenberg eBook of My Arctic journal, by Josephine Diebitsch-Pearymindat.org - Odins Fjord - Melville Land, Northeast Greenland National Park, GreenlandFull text of "Greenland" - Internet Archive
Geography of Greenland
Geography of the Arctic
Peary Land

{{greenland-geo-stub