352 P. Freuchen. 



becomes difficult to distinguish between lake and river. The lie of the 

 water may perhaps best be described by saying that the river varies 

 in width from 20 to 1000 metres. It is apparantly not very deep 

 anywhere, as there are small islands in many places and rocks jutting 

 up above the water. These are, however, greatly water-worn — the 

 islands themselves are but rocks — and probably submerged for the 

 most part during summer by the water, which then, as is evident 

 both from the ice and from the algæ, rises considerably higher, in 

 places possibly 1 metre above. The various widenings of the channel 

 are marked on the map according to the odometer; for these features, 

 and others generally, reference should be made to the rough map, 

 which has been drawn from sketches made on the spot. A couple of 

 kilometres beyond Lake No. 3, the main river is joined by a tributary 

 from the north, which apparently brings down a great quantity of 

 water. Through the valley down which it flows we could see the in- 

 land ice whence it came. Two km, below the mouth of this tributary 

 river we found, in the main channel, a piece of inland ice rising 1 

 metre above the water — a sufficient indication of the great volume 

 of water brought down by the river in summer. 



As already mentioned, and as noted on the map, the rows of hills 

 gradually diverge towards the west, the bottom of the valley at the 

 same time rising above the water of the river, which thus cuts its 

 channel deeper and deeper, the banks at the first break being 20 me- 

 tres high. The bottom of the valley is here formed terrace-wise, and 

 consists of raised sea bottom. 



At one or two places in the final, eastern reach, the river had 

 washed through to the rock, which here showed through the bank. 

 Samples of this were brought home. 



After making its way some 38 km. or more to the east, the river 

 turns suddenly northward (barometer here showed 290 metres above 

 sea level), and after about another 8 km. W. by N. after which it 

 continues for some distance towards north-west. This reach slopes 

 more sharply than any other place below the falls; at the mouth of 

 a river which drains the lake lying between the two portions of Zig- 

 zag Valley before and after the break, the altitude was 190 metres, 

 and at our camping place in the evening, 170 metres. 



It will readily be understood that we were not altogether pleased 

 to find ourselves thus compelled to work towards the north-west, a 

 direction which should probably bring us to Hagens Fjord or there- 

 abouts. Our business being to search for Einar Mikkelsen, the natural 

 objective would have been Cape Kronborg, which place Einar Mik- 

 kelsen had indicated as his goal before starting. 



On the 22nd May, after covering scarcely 7 km., we found that 

 the river again turned eastward, and a little later on even slightly 

 south of east. This was terribly discouraging, the more so as the snow 



