West Greenland and Mount Raleigh, Baffin Island. The objective for Mischief’s second voyage to Davis Strait was Mount Raleigh in Exeter Sound on the east coast of Baffin Island. This mountain was so named by the great seaman-explorer John Davis in 1585. “We lay under a brave mount,” his narrative goes, “the cliffs whereof were orient as gold. We named this Mt. Raleigh.” It had not been climbed and no height for it is given on the Canadian map. The Arctic Pilot calls it about 4900 feet. As the east coast of Baffin Island is not free from ice until late August or early September, we spent July climbing in Evighedsfjord (N. Lat. 66) about 100 miles north of Godthaab, the capital of West Greenland. Here, there are many peaks of true alpine character from 4000 to nearly 7000 feet high. Roger Tufft and I climbed four of these, including the highest, Agssausat (6955 feet). The weather was almost too good. Sun temperatures up to 80° F. made the snow of the upper glaciers slush and that on steep slopes too wet to be safe.

On August 1 we crossed the strait to Baffin Island, but on meeting heavy pack-ice ten miles off the coast went back to Greenland to wait. Much to our surprise when we were once more off the coast on August 20, all the ice had gone except for scattered bergs. From an anchorage in Exeter Sound the cliffs of Mount Raleigh seemed obvious enough, so that from a camp three miles up the glacier-filled valley (c. 500 feet) we climbed the mountain and found the height to be 5700 feet. The only snag was that the Canadian map marks Mount Raleigh on the opposite side of the valley, and so to make sure we climbed that next day and found the height to be 5200 feet. This last mountain, the false Mount Raleigh as I think, is inconspicuous from the roadstead, and its cliffs, which face the glacier are not even visible. Presumably the map has been compiled from air photographs and the name stuck on at a venture. No ground surveyor could take this to be the mountain which impressed itself so forcibly on John Davis.

H. W. Tilman