BANGSTED'S EXPEDITION TO THE ICE-CAP 



When we had reached the edge of the inland- 

 ice at the one accessible place where it had been 

 entered by the summer parties, we found the sur- 

 face quite different from that with which I had 

 become acquainted farther north in Greenland. 

 Only in the ravines of the surface was a little 

 snow to be found. Elsewhere the ice was smooth 

 and clear and represented a chaos of hummocks 

 and deep crevasses. To heat the tent we made use 

 of a blubber lamp made from a photograph de- 

 veloping tray and fed with seal blubber from seals 

 which we had shot at Camp Lloyd. 



Once on the ice-cap surface we found ourselves 

 struggling forward to get in as far as practicable 

 and there camp for as long a time as the supply 

 of provisions would warrant. Several times my 

 party was stopped by strong gales of wind. 



In this remarkably mild winter there was not 

 sufficient snow on the ice to make an igloo or snow 

 house, and so the specially constructed tent was 

 used and protected on the southeast or weather 

 side by a wall of snow blocks supported by the 

 sled set up on edge. Within we used the Arctic 

 primus lamp for cooking our food. This lamp 

 gives a hot flame by an air supply worked by hand 

 pump and it burns about a quart of kerosene a 

 day. 



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