Survey of Northeast Greenland. 91 
special preparations on account of this, as I had thought that it 
would be easy enough to improvise a meridian mark by placing a 
wooden screen with a couple of little holes at a distance of a few kilo- 
metres, a lantern placed behind the screen serving at night to make 
the holes visible. The natural conditions of the country, however, did 
not permit of the erection of a meridian mark towards south, where 
the nearest land — Lille Koldewey — lay at a distance of nearly 
13 kilometres. In the north we might, it is true, have put up a 
meridian mark at a proper distance, but this would scarcely have 
been of any practical value, because it would not have been possible 
during the winter, in the dark, to reach the lantern, whenever it was 
to be lighted or extinguished, without submitting to hardships dis- 
proportionate to the result. 
Under arctic conditions one must be prepared to be able to do 
without a meridian mark, and consequently a universal instrument 
will generally be preferable to a transit instrument. However, if one 
wants to use the meridian mark, the latter ought to be connected 
with the observatory by an electric current, so that it would be 
possible to light and extinguish the light of the meridian mark from 
there. 
The universal instrument, which was manufactured by Max 
Hildebrand, Freiberg, was the one used by Professor E. v. DRYGALSKI 
on the Gauss Expedition. 
The circles, the diameters of which were 13.5 cm were divided 
into ‘/6°. The reading of the vertical circle was done by means of 
reading microscopes of the usual kind. The smallest division on 
the graduated head being 5”, estimations could be made in half 
seconds. The horizontal circle had a scale 
microscope which allowed of reading in tenths BR QE 
of minutes. 
The finder was divided into whole degrees, 
the reading being made by means of an index. 
The angular value of the division of the 
level was in the case of the level of the axis 
44, for the level of the vertical circle 5”.4. 
Both levels were provided with air-chambers, 
and they were both encased in a protective Fig. 4. 
glass tube. 
The telescope was eccentric. The objective aperture was 6.2 cm. 
The two eye pieces (oculars) had a magnifying power of twenty and 
thirty times respectively. 
The reticule was, as indicated by Fig. 4 arranged with three 
horizontal and six transit threads. Thread No. 3 was the one which 
