General observations as to natural conditions. 357 



sible to see more than ten metres ahead ; this lasted so long that we were 

 obliged to relinquish our idea of investigating the two cairns inland, 

 proceeding instead along the coast by way of Cape Rigsdagen. The fact 

 was, that our provisions had come to an end, and we had now no food 

 either for ourselves or the dogs. Our only choice therefore, was either 

 to go back, — which in view of the rapidly approaching spring would 

 have been a very risky thing to do, if we wished to avoid going into 

 summer quarters — or to press on towards better hunting grounds. 

 Here, at any rate we had no means of subsistence. 



The route round by Cape Rigsdagen is known from the journeys 

 made by Koch and Berthelsen; I will here only mention that we found 

 the ice ground up and closely packed about 2 km. from land ; beyond 

 this, as far as the eye could see, the ice was flat and level, making easy 

 going. 



We followed the line of Valdemar Glückstadts Land in to Hagens 

 Fjord. The land slopes down here in a hilly formation towards Indepen- 

 dence Fjord; gravel and clay, with but slight vegetation and nothing 

 in the way of game save a very few musk ox tracks, and these very old. 

 A solitary bear's track led out from the land northward over the ice. 



At the mouth of Independence Fjord and farther in we saw a con- 

 siderable number of icebergs, which was not surprising, as we know 

 from Peary's map that there were glaciers reaching down into the fjord 

 and the supposed „Channel". What interested us more was the finding 

 of „sikosaq" i. e. fresh-water ice formed on the sea. 



This kind of ice originates from the same causes as the glaciers, 

 viz; excessive rainfall or thaw, and differs only from ordinary glacier ice 

 in the fact that it is formed not on land, but on the sea ice. Fissures 

 appear in this glacier ice formed on the sea. The phenomenon has, by 

 the way, been observed by Capt. Koch in Jøkelbugten, and in pos- 

 sibly all the fjords of East Greenland north of the 79th degree. No better 

 opportunity of investigating these sikosaq could be found than at Thule, 

 where one fjord, near Cape York, is covered, for the greater part, by 

 sikosaq; this form of fresh-water ice is thus well-known to the Eskimos. 

 On our present journey, we encountered it, as already mentioned, in its 

 first stage in Danmarks Fjord, and in great quantities up near the base 

 of Independence Fjord. Sikosaq is also found throughout all the open 

 fjords on the north side of Grants Land, according to the reports of 

 the Eskimos who have accompanied Peary. This would indicate that 

 there must be very little open water, and but slight current. 



Several large floes of sikosaq lay outside Hagens Fjord, the largest 

 being about 1 square kilometre in extent. All rose 7 metres up above 

 the level fjord ice, and had perpendicular sides, with the irregular sur- 

 face characteristic of ordinary inland ice. 



From Hagens Fjord, where, as already mentioned, no game was 

 to be found, we crossed over to Peary Land, the pressure of hunger. 



