354 THE GERMAN ARCTrC EXPEDITION. 



entirely deserted the eastern coast of Greenland or have 

 become extinct. 



We found that sledge journeys could only be under- 

 taken across the frozen sea or the Fjord in the autumn ; 

 the temperature ranging at that time (in the latitude 

 in which we were) between 21° Fahr. and — 11° ; the 

 weather was now perfectly clear and settled ; and, lastly, 

 the Fjords were mostly covered with smooth ice. Again, 

 the moderate cold of this time of the year, when com- 

 paratively Hght clothing is sufficient, is preferable to the 

 sharper cold of the early spring. Plenty of woollen 

 clothes can then supply the place of heavy fur. Masks, 

 hoods, and so on, are still unnecessary; and, when 

 wanted, leather boots can be used instead of those made 

 of sail-cloth. Even snow spectacles are not needed in 

 the autumn, except after freshly-fallen snow or under 

 a cloudy sky, as the land with its dark masses affords 

 rest enough to the eye. 



A small tent served us as a sleeping apartment. The 

 general sleeping-sack, which in our spring journey to the 

 north we were obliged to use, did not yet exist ; each had 

 his own peculiar one. A lamp for cooking, twelve bottles 

 of spirit as our only fuel, two breech-loaders with car- 

 tridges, skates, mountain-shoes, an aneroid barometer, 

 a theodolite, and mathematical instruments ; bacon, salt, 

 suet, pemmican, extract of meat, coffee. Cognac, cocoa, 

 and hard bread, formed our store, — a load for five men 

 during a nine days' sledge journey, which we (Copeland, 

 Iversen, Herzberg, Wagner, and myself) undertook late 

 in the autumn of 1869, for the purpose of investigating 

 the passage from Clavering Island to the conjectured 

 opening into Gael Hamkes Bay, to the north of the first- 



