452 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



the day, and travelled in the afternoon. The snow became 

 deeper and deeper, and it was with great difficulty that 

 we could bring the sledge along ; completely exhausted, 

 we rested some hours by Cape Berlin. On the 10th of 

 May, after four hours' march, we had scarcely made half 

 a German mile (two miles and a half English), and in this 

 distance had sunk deep in the snow at every step ; only by 

 "Aussingen,"^ with jerks, could one get the sledge along 

 — a most depressing and fatiguing expedient. But the 

 prospect in the Fjord, beyond a snow waste, two German 

 miles and a half broad, which we still had to cross, was 

 somewhat more favourable, and greatly raised our hopes; 

 and, indeed, we did find a good road, as on the evening 

 of the 10th of May (19° Fahr.) we started for Cape Ham- 

 burg, at the mouth of the Fligely Fjord. As a rule, we 

 could now make more than 260 steps within five minutes; 

 and as on the morning of the 11th (19° Fahr.) we stopped, 

 the reddish gneiss wall of this promontory, with its winding 

 strata and masses of granite, was only one nautical mile 

 and a half distant. At its foot we hoped to find some 

 smooth ice. 



In order to lighten the sledge as much as possible, we 

 proposed erecting a depot here, so that all articles of 

 clothing that could be dispensed with, as well as all pro- 

 visions for the return journey, were placed in a sack. 



In the evening we started again (19.5° Fahr.), but at 

 the very next step the difficulties increased to such a 

 pitch that we were almost in despair. From seventy 

 steps a minute it fell to twenty, and at last we stood still. 

 The sledge sank in softened snow, and was scarcely to be 



'^ " Aussingen " is a seamau's term for a peculiar rhythm, iu time to 

 which the meu pull. 



