Peter Freuchen og J. P. Koch

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Kilde 1: Peter Freuchen: Min grønlandske Ungdom, 1936.

S. 21 – 22 [Tilbagekomsten fra Danmarksekspeditionen 1906 – 08 og tiden derefter]:
Vi blev straalende modtaget i Danmark. Det var ordnet saaledes, at vi ankom til Toldboden en Søndag Formiddag, saa Folk kunde faa Lejlighed til at beskue os. Kongen og Statsministeren og Universitetet hyldede os, og de nærmeste Dage gik med officielle Fester og Interviews i Pressen. Men snart kom den Tid, hvor vi ikke var aktuelle længere og maatte interessere os for Hverdagens Krav.
Vi spredtes ud over hele Landet. Mange af de brave Kammerater har jeg ikke set siden. Jeg tog tilbage til Universitetet og studerede en smule Kemi, samtidig lærte jeg at lave Kort hos min Ven J. P. Koch, som jeg boede hos i et halvt Aar. Men jeg fandt det næsten umuligt at falde til Ro i et ordnet Studium, og især var det mig umuligt at slutte Kammeratskab med Studenterne. De virkede saa fjogede og mindede om Skoledrenge. Jeg havde set lidt til Livets Alvor og kunde ikke se noget stort i Studenternes Narrestreger. Jeg var stadig opsat paa at klare mig selv, og det, der laa nærmest i Øjeblikket, syntes at være at skrive og holde Foredrag.

Kilde 2: I. P. Koch: Survey of Northeast Greenland. Danmark-ekspeditionen til Grønlands Nordøstkyst 1906 – 1908, Bind VI, Nr 2. (Særtryk af ”Meddelelser om Grønland” XLVI). København 1916.

P.81 [Introduction]
It will, however, always be a difficult thing to find people with the necessary professional training willing to undertake the more accurate surveys. The young men who have the time and opportunity to travel in Greenland have, as a rule, only received a general theoretical education as regards mathematical and nautical subjects, and they thus lack not only the theoretical, but in particular also the special practical knowledge of survey work which will be requisite in this instance.
This theoretical knowledge, as adjusted to the objects of which in the first place I am thinking, need not be very deep. On the other hand it is not very easy to acquire, because the existing textbooks aim at giving a different and much more exhaustive training, whereas they do not at all, as regards certain questions, mention the methods which are most suitable for arctic conditions. A thorough theoretical knowledge acquired through forced studies, which have not had the chance to become rooted by means of practical training will, however, be of no great use. At best the cartographer when arriving in Greenland and being left entirely to his own resources, will rather quickly realize “that theory and practice are widely different things”, and that in order to do part of the work which he set out to do, he must emancipate himself from his cherished theories and, instead of that, have recourse to his commonsense. But a sudden transition of this kind is not easily made, at any rate not without suffering by it, and it requires a sure, instinctive feeling of what is the central point, which feeling can only, as a rule, be acquired by practical training.