Report of the First Thule Expedition 1912. 303 



ice. Freuchen and Uvdloriaq were lowered down first to take the 

 things as they came down. Inukitsoq was posted a httle way farther 

 down, in a fissure, whence he could steer the dogs as they reached 

 him; there was a jutting edge here, when they generally kicked about 

 so much that we were afraid of getting the. line hung up in some 

 cracks running at right angles into the glacier wall. Once while I was 

 at work here on the edge, there came a gust of wind so violent 

 that it simply lifted all my dogs, as I was about to lower them down. 

 They could no longer keep their foothold in the treacherous surface, 

 and came whirling down towards me with their traces entangled, and 

 with such force that they could not fail to dash me from my own 

 slight footing down over the precipice. Seeing no other way of escape, 

 I jumped down into a fissure close by, where there was snow enough, 

 I hoped, to break my fall. The dogs followed instinctively, thus 

 averting what might have been a fatal accident. I came off easily, 

 as it turned out, with only the loss of three dogs. One was flung 

 over the edge which we had just managed to escape; the two others 

 were simply blown out over the curve of the glacier and down into 

 a fissure, where they disappeared. We never succeeded in getting them 

 up again. We could not see them, but we could hear their pitiful 

 whining for several days. After toiling faithfully all through the hard- 

 ships of the inland ice towards new land and new hunting' grounds: 

 it was a poor reward. 



Through the Zig-Zag Valley towards Danmarks Fjord. 



Reconnoitring . 



On our descent, we found ourselves in country new and unknown 

 to us all. At the time of our leaving home, the maps of the Danmarks 

 Expedition had not yet been pubhshed, and our only guide on the 

 journey over the inland ice had been one of the small ice charts is- 

 sued by the Danish Meteorological Institute, covering the whole coast 

 of Greenland, on which Danmarks Fjord was marked. There was no 

 means of obtaining any information on the spot; all that we knew 

 for the time being was, as our observations showed, that we had 

 struck the east coast somewhere in the immediate vicinity of the base 

 of Danmarks Fjord, on the northern side. This was, as a matter of 

 fact, sufficient; we had, however, not the slightest idea as to what 

 progress we might be able to make on our way down to the coast 

 ice. Before moving down to our present camp, we had made a brief 

 halt up in the drifts, from where we could see some heights away to 

 the south-east, which might perhaps be taken as situated on the 

 southern coast of Danmarks Fjord. We knew from the first, however, 

 that it would in any case be a very risky thing to make a descent 

 on unknown ground, and had therefore at once determined to try 



