As commander of the Denmark Expedition Mylius-Erichsen undertook and carried out the task of exploring and charting the entire coastline of unknown northeast Greenland by three months' field work. The expedition made sledge journeys of more than 4000 miles, exceeding the record of any single Arctic force. The main travel, excluding duplications, of Johan Peter Koch was some 1250 miles, and that of Mylius-Erichsen must have exceeded 1000 miles. Their explorations showed that Robert Peary's chart of a coast trending southeast from Navy Cliff was radically incorrect. Instead the shore ran to the northeast, adding about 100,000 square miles to Greenland and extending it about halfway from Navy Cliff—where the maps wrongly placed Greenland Sea—to Spitzbergen. Mylius-Erichsen's own exploration disclosed the nonexistence of Peary Channel, and thus established the continuity of Greenland from Cape Farewell, 60° N, to the most northern land ever reached, 83° 39' N. He also discovered and explored the great fiords of Danmark, Hagen, and Brønlund.
Death
Misled by existing maps, Mylius-Erichsen with Niels Peter Høeg Hagen and the Greenlander Jørgen Brønlund so prolonged his journey that a return to the ship that spring was impossible, and they were forced to spend the summer in the area of the Denmark Fjord without the necessary footgear for hunting in the stony area. The need for food for men and dogs forced them to reduce their three dogteams to one. Finally in September they were able to start their return journey on the new frozen sea ice, around the northeastern corner of Greenland. But when they arrived at the southern shore of Mallemuk Mountain, they found open water and were forced to travel inland. En route Mylius-Erichsen and Hagen perished of starvation, exhaustion, and cold walking on the ice of the Nioghalvfjerd Fjord. Hagen's map sketches and the body of Brønlund together with his diary were found next spring by Koch in Lambert Land. Some cairn reports, left at Danmark Fjord by Mylius-Erichsen, were found and brought to Copenhagen by Ejnar Mikkelsen in 1912.
Report on the nonexistence of Peary Channel in Meddelelser om Grønland,, volume xli, edited by Ejnar Mikkelsen.
Honours
Mylius-Erichsen Land in northern Greenland was named after him.
Denmark Expedition Memorial in Copenhagen.
A silver commemorative medal issued in 1933 —25 years after the expedition— by Alf Trolle, captain of expedition shipDanmark and leader of the Denmark expedition after Mylius-Erichsen's death.
Literature
Achton Friis, Danmark Expeditionen til Grönlands Nordostkyst, peprinted in 1987 and 2005.
