Survey of Northeast Greenland. 429 
Natural phenomena of such a violent character as the calving 
of icebergs, as a rule stimulate the imagination strongly. И is, there- 
fore, not quite easy from a layman to get an objective picture of 
what has really taken place, and therefore I venture to think that 
the following little personal experience may be of interest from a 
scientific point of view. 
On July 28th 1912 I had moored a large iron lighter loaded 
with goods weighing sixteen tons to an iceberg stranded in Dove 
Bugt near Stormkap. The moorings were made fast to an ice anchor 
on a terrace projecting from the iceberg, and the surface of which 
lay about two to three metres above the surface of the water. Sailor 
LARSEN and myself were carrying some goods, which were to be put 
ashore at Stormkap, down into a motor boat lying alongside the 
lighter. While thus occupied we heard the loud report of a calving 
on the opposite side of the ice colossus, and shortly afterwards we 
observed how the part of the iceberg rearing above the water was 
veering towards us. The platform to which our ice anchor was 
made fast, sank below the water, and in order to prevent the lighter 
from being crushed down by the moorings, we made ready to slip 
the latter. It was quite clear to us that a catastrophe might occur; 
but we never thought that there might be time to get away, before 
it happened. After a few minutes the terrace with the ice anchor 
again emerged from the water, and it was now quite evident to us 
that the iceberg performed a kind of pendulum oscillations, and that 
the chances of an impending peril were in reality very small. How- 
ever, we did not dare to run any risks, and so we slipped the 
moorings and hauled the lighter a couple of hundred metres away 
from the iceberg. While this was being done, the terrace rose several 
metres above its original position, and then again swung quite slowly 
below the water. As we were very loth to lose our anchor and 
moorings, we went back to the iceberg with the motor boat only, 
and when the terrace emerged once more, we jumped on to it, 
clutched the anchor and jumped’back into the boat, without having 
to join in the upward oscillation of the iceberg. 
When the iceberg became settled at last, it had performed a 
rotation of about ten degrees. Besides it had got clear of the bottom 
and drifted further out into Dove Bust. 
Unfortunately I neglected to take the time of the oscillations, 
which would have been quite possible without any risk whatever; 
but from the description given above, it will be at least possible to 
get a direct impressiou of the extreme slowness and deliberation of 
the movement. 
Only in a single case did the members of the Danmark-Eks- 
