Survey of Northeast Greenland. 261 
The greatest use of the hodometer is, however, to be looked for 
in a different field. During the long and fatiguing marches it has a 
stimulating effect to see how the little register adds kilometre to 
kilometre. Many a time when fatigue and hunger have come very 
near to making me give orders to camp, the hodometer has roused 
me to reneved efforts, by showing me that another hour would 
round off the kilometres up to thirty. 
The Astronomical Determinations. 
The spring journeys are of the greatest importance, as far as 
surveys are concerned, in that it is then light throughout the twenty- 
four hours, so that one may continue one’s work independently of 
the time of the day, until one’s labours at the station are completed. 
By far the greater part of the astronomical determinations therefore 
become observations of the sun; only in the autumn can there now 
and then be occasion to have recourse to the stars. 
As mentioned above, the conditions on long sledge trips as a 
rule make it necessary for the cartographer to reduce the ideal 
claims he has cherished in respect of his work, and look for modest 
comfort in the fact that “half a loaf is better than no bread”. One 
must guard against the danger of this, in particular as far as the 
astronomical determinations are concerned. 
When after a fatiguing march one camps at 3 o’clock in the 
morning, no small amount of energy is required to tackle the ob- 
servations so as to be able to finish the latter with a determination 
for time at about 6 o’clock; at seven one has, at an estimate, com- 
puted the observations and marked off the results on the map, and 
then at last one may go to one’s badly-needed rest in the sleeping 
bag, not to give way to fatigue and enjoy a deep sleep, but to force 
oneself to wake up at eleven in order to make ready in good time 
for the noon latitude. One is far too apt to let things slide, hoping 
to awake at the right moment or comforting oneself with the thought 
that on an emergency a latitude can be taken outside the meridian. 
But when, after one’s return, one sets to work on the often extremely 
troublesome and irritating puzzle of bringing a reasonable harmony 
between the observations from the various stations, bitter repentance 
ensues for every proof of weakness, and decided distrust is mani- 
fested towards every observation for which ihe most favourable con- 
ditions possible have not been provided. 
During the sledge trips part of the observations must often be 
roughly computed, in order that a map may be sketched on the 
spot. It will often be possible to content oneself with treating the 
observations of latitude and azimuth, whereas the determinations of 
