324 Knud Rasmussen. 



sidered, such an excursion would render it hopeless to think of getting 

 back home before next year's light period. 



Practised hunters might I believe, easily manage to spent a sum- 

 mer and the following winter here in Adam Bierings Land and Peary 

 Land, even when counting exclusively on game as food for man and 

 beast. Still, under such conditions, it is not wise to go too near the 

 limit of safety. And we had now already been out for a long time, 

 and covered big distances, so that we might well be justified in taking 

 some thought for ourselves and our dogs, and recollecting our duties 

 at Thule. 



Knowing the country here as we now do, and being to some ex- 

 tent acquainted with the conditions which one may expect to encounter 

 at any time, the most natural way of making connection with our 

 surveys of the east coast and Victoria Inlet would be from the west. 

 In addition, the great stretch of open country, free from snow and ice, 

 on the northern coast of Greenland, offers an excellent sphere for 

 scientific investigations of a more detailed nature than we should now be 

 able to make in the course of a hasty visit. These considerations give 

 birth to new plans of exploration. With Thule as a starting point it 

 would be possible at any time, and without very great expense, to 

 send out an expedition which could complete, thoroughly and in detail, 

 the work commenced and pursued by the many previous expeditions 

 in these inaccessible regions. 



Up over Nyeboes Glacier. 



Having loaded our sledges with clean meat, we started off up 

 Nyeboes Glacier to get across to the Navy Cliff country. The dogs 

 were almost unrecognisable; the twelve days' rest in Valmuedalen had 

 completely restored them, and they were now in such good condition 

 that we were almost obliged to hold them in on the way up. It was 

 very uneven going on the glacier, with continual ups and downs at 

 abrupt angles, making it difficult to keep the sledge clear of the teams 

 on a sudden downward turn ; we managed to get one of the dogs run 

 over as it was. We arrived soon after the streams had begun to break 

 through the ice; only ten days before we had been able to look down 

 from Bierings Land over a number of brightly flowing streams. By 

 this time, however, most of them had emptied their waters into the 

 Glacier lake elsewhere described by Freuchen, to that by making wide 

 detours we were often able to get across by finding some place where 

 the sledges could reach from one side to the other. Only once did we 

 encounter a really broad stream, and that took us a whole day to get 

 across. It was a regular river, not very deep, but broad, and as the 

 bottom of these glacier streams is formed of smooth-worn, polished ice, 

 it is so slippery as to make it almost impossible to stand upright on 



