General observations as to natural conditions. 349 



nunataks above mentioned. At the foot of these, however, we found 

 ourselves in the bottom of a basin, now empty, resembhng that near 

 Ymers Nunatak, described by Captain J. P. Koch, and which I visited 

 in company with him. It is thus, as a matter of fact, fresh water ice, 

 with, however, nothing but calved ice at the bottom and sides, which 

 in this case seemed to me to suggest an annual draining of the basin. 

 Here, however, we found both calved ice and pieces of true fresh water 

 ice, 1.5 metres thick, now consisting of perpendicular sharp needles, 

 left behind when the water below had flowed off. This must thus have 

 taken place while there was still ice on what was then a lake. 



We had, however, but little opportunity of making observations 

 at all, partly on account of the driving snow, and partly because our 

 course led us almost at right angles to the direction of the basin, 

 which, as far as I could see, lay north and south. We could not see 

 whence the calved ice had come; wherever we passed, the sides were 

 rounded off by melting. There is however, no doubt of the fact that 

 the place in question was a drained lake with calved off fragments 

 from the inland ice itself; the calved blocks lying on the dry bottom, 

 the high water marks in the basin, and finally the true fresh water 

 ice lying loose on top, furnish proof enough. The basin was shaped 

 like a long narrow trench, the ends of which, as mentioned, we were 

 unable to see. The breadth was about 800 metres, and depth from 

 highest water mark to bottom 20 metres. 



We followed the bottom of the basin for a couple of kilometres, 

 until we reached a big watercourse, the bottom of which was filled 

 with snow, leading in to the basin from the east. This offered a com- 

 paratively easy road, and we took it accordingly. We were now on 

 the "plain" which we had seen from the summit of the nunatak. 

 Strangely enough, it did not slope down towards the land for the first 

 500 metres, all the watercourses which here furrowed the surface of 

 the ice indicated that the water flowed down to the basin above men- 

 tioned, or, as was frequently the case, disappeared down perpendicular 

 holes, where the watercourse then ended abruptly. 



The ice here made difficult going, partly on account of the many 

 watercourses, and partly because of the very slippery surface, where 

 dogs, men and sledges found no foothold. We were forced to keep as 

 far as possible to the furrows and patches between the higher por- 

 tions of the uneven ground, where there was some snow. Consequently, 

 while still nominally working towards the edge of the ice, we were 

 actually shaping our course so as to take advantage of such opport- 

 unities as the nature of the ground afforded, this same ground, more- 

 over growing steadily worse. We reached the edge at last, only to find 

 that we had happened on a most inconvenient spot. The ice termin- 

 ated here in a steep precipice with overhanging brow, and we were 

 thus obliged to lower ourselves down with all our gear. The margin 



