Kink. J -^"4 [March 20, 



icewall here projects almost to the open sea, from which it is separated 

 only by a narrow sandy and marshy plain. It therefore faces the sea in 

 its full heij^^ht and for a length of about IG miles, and can be seen Irom 

 ships at a remote distance. This desolate spot is situated N. 62^° N. lat., 

 and is well known under the name of the " Iceblinl?." Here Lieutenant 

 Jensen ascended the glacier, followed by Kornerup, Groth and a Green- 

 lander. They had their luggage loaded on small sledges to be dragged by 

 the travelers themselves. The locality was extraordinarily favorable for 

 observing the movements of the ice on account of the unusual number of 

 Nunataks which here are seen. They form a sort of bulwark or palisade 

 against the ice stream from the interior, the direction and force of which 

 are visible in the disturbances caused in the fragile mass by striking against 

 these hindrances. But at the same time the road across it is rendered dan- 

 gerous and troublesome in a degree hardly to be imagined by people who 

 never tried to accend a glacier. 



On a large scale, says Jensen in his report, the surface of the ice was 

 undulating, sometimes rising by terraces and not so level as it appears from 

 a distance. Where the gradient increased, the unevenness was enlarged 

 too, the clefts varying from a few feet to upwards of a hundred in breadth, 

 the length was sometimes many hundred feet but generally they were 

 shorter. In many places they were so frequent that the walls were nar- 

 rower than the fissures. Steep hummocks of ice were still more toilsome, 

 and the tortuosities of the road prohibited using the rope which for security 

 the travelers had stretched from one to another. In places the sledges 

 had to be carried along on the top of the steep and narrow ridges between 

 the gulfs. As soon as a sledge happened to slip sideways, the one that 

 dragged it had instantly to prostrate himself lest he should be drawn into 

 the abyss. When a cleft could be passed, one of the party had to jump 

 over first, while the other remained behind with the sledge, and then both 

 united their efforts to a sudden pull and push. Sometimes the sledge 

 would fall into the crevice and be squeezed between its narrow walls, or 

 would proceed with too much speed and slip into the next fissure. In 

 other places where the slope was less considerable, the fissures were regu- 

 larly pai-allel, very long and broad, but with longer intervals. A glance 

 into these gulfs offered the most splendid view of an azure-blue, passing 

 into the darkness of the narrow deep, in many cases perhaps a thousand 

 feet beneath the surface. Sometimes there were no depths at all, and 

 then the water-courses for want of sutficient outlets formed small brooks 

 or lakes very troublesome to the wanderers. The surface was studded with 

 needles of ice, cutting the footgear as well as the hands. 



When they had reached a height of 2000 feet above the sea a deep layer 

 of snow commenced covering the ice. This caused more labor in dragging 

 the sledges and greater danger by concealing the abysses. 



On the seventh day snow-blindness began to make its appearance. 

 Finally, on the eleventh day, ihe 24th of July, they reached their goal, 

 the foot of the Nunatak, from the top of which an extensive view further 



