10 



MAEIOIs^ 



EXPEDITION TO DAVIS STRAIT AXD BAFFIN BAY 



tightly jammed by the spreading of the wire, but also because 

 the drum, being full, was most heavy and cumbersome with the 

 vessel rolling as it was on the swell. Neither was it a small task 

 to hoist the spare drum with its heavy shafting from the main deck 

 up to the top of the deck house, considering the gear with which we 

 had to work. It was done, however, and by 9 a. m. the next day, 

 after working the whole night, the new drum was in place and the 

 wire being reeled on it. At noon we took our next station. 



In the cold current close to the Greenland coast a few bergs were 

 located. A number of birds were on the bergs and a few Avith 

 strangely shaped tails were noted soaring about under the gray 

 clouds overhead. The mountains of Greenland were sighted at 

 2.20 a. m. on July 31. Throughout the day, glimpses of the high 

 rugired coast were had as the vessel cruised northward toward 



GREENLAND CODFISH 



Figure G. — While waiting for the fog to lift off the entrance to Godthaab Fiord, Green- 

 land, on .July 31, 1928, we threw over our lines and immediately began to pull in large 

 codfish as fast as we could bait. 



Godthaab from 8 to 18 miles offshore. It was overcast over the 

 sea, but clear over the land and in places the sun lit up brilliantly 

 the streams and the trickling waters proceeding from snow patches. 

 Our first landfall on the Greenland west coast was truly a grand 

 and inspiring sight. The piloting along the sunken mountainous 

 shore was very difficult because of the jutting headlands, the hun- 

 dreds of bare rock islands, and the outlying reefs which lay pep- 

 pered about. Aids to navigation, such as we mean by the term, did 

 not exist, of course, and, added to these conditions, the best chart with 

 which we could be supplied before we left was only a general one 

 of the entire west coast. Fog shut in about us just before the entrance 

 to Godthaab was reached, so we anchored off' Eaven Island. While 

 waiting for the fog to lift the crew caught several dozen large cod- 

 fish like those shown in Fio-ure G. 



