General observations as to natural conditions. 355 



this extends out as far as Gape Kronborg, without growing broader. 

 The land now grows gradually lower, the rock of the hills being soon 

 no longer visible; clay slopes, however, occur frequently. Somewhat 

 farther inland the land rises again ; it is somewhat hilly, and everywhere 

 covered with barren clay mixed with gravel, or gravel with a slight 

 admixture of clay. 



Immediately to the south of a large river we came upon a point 

 which I remembered from Hagen's map. The coast turns northward 

 here. At this place we sighted something sticking up on the shore, which 

 proved to be a sledge runner, bent into a right angle, standing apex 

 upwards from the ground, into which both legs were fixed, and further 

 supported by tent stones, which had been piled together in two small 

 heaps, the whole evidently calculated to attract the attention of any 

 who might pass by the spot. 



Proceeding to closer examination, we immediately recognised that 

 the place must be Mylius Ekichsen's camp; not, in all probability, 

 the summer camp, but the spot where the party had pitched their tent 

 on landing again after their premature attempt to cross the ice. 



A sadder picture of utter want I have never seen. All that we found 

 — all, that is, which could be identified as having belonged to the Dan- 

 mark Expedition, — might have been packed in one small parcel. A 

 pair of ragged drawers, a metal plate which Jørgen Brønlund had 

 used to repair one of his sledge-runners, some fragments of a leather 

 trace, which I recognised as having been made on board, and finally 

 the lid of a meat extract jar. 



The extremity to which they were reduced was evident from the 

 fact that the excrements of the dogs were too poor even to tempt the 

 foxes and ravens, containing mainly fragments of bone and rags, the 

 latter either remnants of tent cloth or portions of clothing, with some 

 grass and bits of rope. A single horn lay near the camp, that of a young 

 musk ox ; it had been sawed off from the head. This was the only sign 

 of their having found game at all. 



We went up inland, on the south side of the river. Flat plains of 

 clay and mounds of gravel, with but the slightest possible amount of 

 vegetation; beyond comparison the most unfavourable spot for a sum- 

 mer camp of any place we saw on the whole journey. 



Here on the actual spot where my old comrades had encountered 

 so much suffering and disaster it becomes more and more evident that 

 they must have been forced to settle down here for the summer for 

 reasons unknown to us, possibly induced thereto by the unfortunate 

 accident of encountering here, by some unusual chance, a large herd 

 of musk ox. Had they but carried their gear up towards the inland ice, 

 they would, after a couple of days, have found a region where game 

 was plentiful enough to furnish food for themselves and the dogs. Some 

 sickness must have overtaken them, which as far as Mylius Erichsen 



