Their object was more to subserve the interest of physical geography than to promote the interest of geographical discovery; but one of the expeditions, that of the United States under Lieutenant A.W.Greely, again took up the study of Smith Sound and its outlets, and one of his men, Lieutenant Lockwood, succeeded in reaching 83.24 deg.

N., within 450 miles of the Pole, and up to that time the farthest north reached by any human being.

The Greely expedition also succeeded in showing that Greenland was not so much ice-capped as ice-surrounded.
Hitherto the universal method by which discoveries had been made in the Polar regions was to establish a base at which sufficient food was cached, then to push in any required direction as far as possible, leaving successive caches to be returned to when provisions fell short on the forward journey.

But in 1888, Dr.Fridjof Nansen determined on a bolder method of investigating the interior of Greenland.

He was deposited upon the east coast, where there were no inhabitants, and started to cross Greenland, his life depending upon the success of his journey, since he left no reserves in the rear and it would be useless to return.