318 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



more than 3900 feet high. Reindeer came from all sides 

 of the strand in a state of wonder ; but this time we with- 

 stood the desire to hunt, in order to lose no time. Only 

 once was the journey interrupted by a slight topographical 

 incident. A bear which came near us, we frightened 

 away by shouting, after which, Klentzer fell through the 

 ice ; he was pulled out, and had to cross a long broad 

 breach. The ice had now become so thin that it began 

 to break dangerously ; w^e might, therefore, tliink ourselves 

 fortunate, when in the darkness, after a seven hours' 

 march of eighteen (English) miles, and after crossing a 

 small field of snow, we arrived safely at the west side of 

 the Fjord, which bent sharply to the north. It suddenly 

 struck us that the sound in which we had landed was con- 

 nected with the Ardencaple Inlet ; we therefore altered 

 our original plan of ascending the Domberg, and followed 

 the Fjord northwards in order to climb one of those over- 

 looking summits from which we might expect to solve this 

 question. On the morning of the 1 7th of September, there- 

 fore (28° Fahr.), the sledge was left in the care of Tram- 

 nitz (who this day killed a reindeer), Kranschner, and 

 Klentzer, whilst Captain Koldewey, Ellinger, and Payer 

 hurried along for two hours in a northerly direction over 

 the smooth ice, carefully jumping over the fragments 

 broken by the tide, till at length they stood on the land 

 at the foot of the mountain they wished to climb. 



Everywhere we were met by chilly glacier-streams, 

 buried deep in a sedimentary crystalline formation. Our 

 way led off over a precipitous declivity. Above a lovely 

 valley containing a lake, we went, stop by step, over 

 large boulders ; then over a small ice-field to the summit, 

 which had taken us six liour.-^ and a half to rvacli. N':<- 



