546 THE GEEMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



On the 5th of August preparations were made for a 

 boat journey, and on the 6th we sailed at nine a.m. with 

 provisions for eight days. The wind blew fresh from the 

 north, and the water was as flat as the land, which just 

 here rose but little. After a course of eight nautical 

 miles we came to a tongue of land, beyond which the 

 coast took a curve to the north-west. From here we 

 soon saw that Mackenzie Inlet was only a creek into 

 which a stream fell, often running through a valley. We 

 sailed to the end of the creek and landed. Our men 

 gazed with longing eyes on some reindeer which were 

 feeding near, and soon shot one. Close against the shore, 

 under the green slope of a hill, were the remains of some 

 Esquimaux huts, evidently much older than those on 

 Clavering Island. Whilst Dr. Copeland investigated 

 these. Dr. Borgen and the Captain took the bearings 

 of our position. During the morning we had made 

 twelve nautical miles in three hours, and now spent the 

 whole afternoon on our work. In the evening the Captain 

 and Dr. Copeland climbed a hill lying to the north-west, 

 about 475 feet high : from thence we could see the end of 

 Loch Fine, the Fjord discovered by Clavering in 1823, 

 behind which rose a highly picturesque mountain chain. 

 Before us lay a plain stretching far to the south-south-west 

 as far as Cape Franklin, and disappearing with a mountain 

 chain to the west, marked on our chart as Bennet Island. 

 Beyond this plain, near Cape Franklin, glittered a number 

 of icebergs, bringing us to the conclusion that yonder 

 must be the mouth of a large Fjord; for along the 

 coast we had seen no glacier from which they could have 

 sprung. Delighted with this apparent discovery we 

 returned to the tent, agreeing that the next morning we 



