Chapter IV: Part 4

“On the 19th of June (1860), at about eight miles from land off Cape Farewell, we found much ice; on the 22nd, off Julianshaab, there was no ice. The ice was in patches, more north, and the greater part of our voyage on the coast, it was near to land. We were informed by the old people of Godthaab, that during the past thirty years there has not been any year with as much ice on the Greenland coast as the present, 1860.”

_Opinions of Lieut. von Zeilau, of the Royal Danish Army, and Arnljot
Olafsson, Member of the Icelandic Diet (both of whom accompanied
the “Fox” Telegraph Expedition in 1860), Commissioners appointed by
the Royal Danish Government, on the practicability of the proposed
telegraphic route._

“We concur in the opinion that it is practicable to submerge or land telegraph-cables at the places selected on the Færöe Islands, and also to construct a line over-land there, and that in our opinion, cables, when landed, will remain undisturbed.

“We have the same opinion in regard to the landing and maintaining cables on the coast of Iceland, and also that a line can be constructed across Iceland with all reasonable prospects of permanency.

“As regards Greenland, we give it as our decided opinion, based upon our own observations and received information from the best authorities, that cables can be safely laid from Greenland during the autumn months, for instance, at the Igalikko (Julianshaab) Fiord, where cables can be submerged beyond the reach of icebergs.”

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Transcriber’s Notes:

Footnotes have been moved to the end of the chapter and relabeled consecutively.

Illustrations have been moved to paragraph breaks near where they are mentioned, except for the frontispiece map.

Punctuation has been made consistent.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have been corrected.