356 P. Freuchen. 



himself is concerned, appears to have been the case, according to Brøn- 

 lund's diary. We found no message, however, and it is thus unhkely 

 that the riddle will ever be solved. 



Two cairns had been built on a couple of hills south of the river, 

 probably by Hagen, for survey purposes; we set out towards them, but 

 the snow was so deep that we were forced to return to the tent for our 

 ski, and then decided to go on first to the principal cairn at Cape Kron- 

 borg, and camping there, proceed to examine the two others later on. 



Cape Kronborg is, as a matter of fact, not a cape at all, in the sense 

 of a promontory, being rather a high, conspicuous hill close to the sea. 

 Here a cairn about 1 metre high had been built ; owing to lack of material, 

 it was not made solid all through. We found no report there, and the 

 cairn did not appear to have been previously visited. A wolf had been 

 there; the excrements might have been from the previous year. Jud- 

 ging from what is generally accepted as customary, we could not but 

 suppose that Einar Mikkelsen would himself have left some message 

 here if he had visited the spot at all; failing any such, therefore, we 

 presumed that he had never reached it. The question before us now 

 was whether to go on, or turn back and follow Einar Mikkelsen's 

 route in search of him. 



It should be borne in mind that our search was throughout a purely 

 personal undertaking, based on newspaper reports which in themselves 

 contained several improbable features, such as one would hardly sup- 

 pose to have originated from so practised an explorer as Einar Mik- 

 kelsen but rather from some misunderstanding on the part of the jour- 

 nalist responsible. We had at any rate, no certain facts on which to 

 act, and were thus naturally somewhat at a loss whither to direct our 

 search. 



There was, moreover, reason to suppose that an expedition under 

 the leadership of Capt. I. P. Koch would arrive at Danmarks Havn in 

 the course of the summer, so that it would be superfluous on our part 

 to proceed thither; by so doing, we should also render it impossible to 

 carry out our own independent plans of exploring the Peary Channel. 

 Our work as a search party in quest of Einar Mikkelsen could there 

 fore only be regarded as at an end, with negative result. 



The country about Cape Kronborg was similarly waste and unin- 

 viting. The vegetation was of the scantiest, and the very few musk ox 

 tracks found were all old. From the summit of the hill, an excellent 

 view is obtained out over Danmarks Fjord and the big islands beyond. 

 The snow lay deep and soft on the ice, and on the slope down towards 

 the sea; the summit itself was almost free from snow. This is due to 

 the fact, which we had occasion to note during our stay, that the wind 

 on the summit was north, about 10 metres per second, while on the ice 

 it was perfectly calm. 



On the 3rd June, a thick fog came down which rendered it impos- 



