18 EJNAR MIKKELSEN. 
the plentiful and good food. On Oct. 21th one dog died, and on the 
following day another, our largest dog. 
It may be taken as a common rule that large dogs do not have 
the endurance of smaller ones and are consequently not so serviceable 
on a long sledge-journey, as the large dog demands more food to keep 
his body in good form, and does not work very much more than a smaller 
dog — at least not in proportion to the size of the necessary rations — and 
it is difficult to give to each dog the exact amount, which he needs. An 
ideal team must consist of dogs of very nearly the same size and weight. 
Each dog was given a ration of a little more than 1 lb. a day, but in the 
course of a few days they became very hungry. 
We passed the north point of Hagen Island Oct. 25rd at noon and 
found new trouble, as the crust on the surface of the snow, which was 
not strong enough to carry the dogs, was so sharp that it cut their paws 
and legs. This of course caused them considerable suffering, but the 
going became worse on Oct. 24th, as the surface of the ice was full of 
larger or smaller holes, where a stone, a mound of sand or some other 
dark object had lain on the surface of the snow during the summer, 
which in their turn had caused the snow to melt round them. These 
holes, ranging from са. 5 ст. to ca. 1 meter in extent and with a 
rather uniform depth of са. 1, meter, were covered with a very thin 
layer of ice, cat-ice, on which lay the snow. But the very moment 
when we — or the dogs — stepped on a place like this, the cat-ice 
would break, and we fell down into the empty space underneath, 
twisting and hurting our feet, particularly as the bottoms of the holes 
were very uneven and often had a sharp, pointed cone in the middle. 
A surface like this is rather a common feature when close to a high and 
steep coastline, where squalls can tear off the stones or earth and carry 
it across the ice, thus providing the material for melting the holes. 
On Oct. 27th the second depot was left on the northernmost of 
Parisergerne, and just north of it we got on to the floating glacial ice, 
where we found good going for the first time since Cape Marie Valdemar. 
The surface was undulating, and we continually had to ascend and descend 
quite flat hills with a slope so small that it did not make much difference 
whether we went up or down, and the conditions became even better 
close to the east coast of Schnauder Island, where we got glare-ice. 
Cape Drygalski was passed on Oct. 30th, and from there and on to 
Lambert’s Land the going was as bad as it could be, while the darkness 
— the sun had disappeared on Oct. 26th — helped to make matters 
worse, as it was impossible to see the large undulations, before it was 
too late. The glacial ice was intersected by many cracks, where often 
either we ourselves or the dogs fell in. One dog burst a trace and fell 
into a crevasse about 10—15 metres deep, and one of us had to be lowered 
down in order to get hold of him. 
On Oct. 3151 at 11 a.m. we reached Lambert’s Land, and at 5 p.m. we 
