24 EJNAR MIKKELSEN. 
We were of course surprised to lose so many dogs, all the more as 
there was nothing to account for their death, save a general weakness. 
This however ought not be the case, as we fed the dogs very well, and 
the short working-day gave them more than sufficient time to rest. 
One definite cause may perhaps be mentioned — with what right I dare 
not say — viz. the fact that there is no evaporation during the autumn 
or winter. The consequence is that all the moisture penetrating into 
the furs of the dogs must be dried by the heat of the body, which how- 
ever is not sufficient to do it altogether. On sledge-trips at this time 
of the year the dogs are consequently always wet, and they suffer much 
from this continuous state of wetness, which will very likely lower their 
bodily temperature and weaken their vitality, 
This explanation, such as it is, seems the only reasonable one, as 
the dogs were fed about 1% lbs. a day and had only to work as much 
as about six hours a day. 
The Haystack was passed on Dec. 13th, and we were compelled to 
leave the coast and go across the ice, direct for Shannon Island. The 
going was very rough and difficult and became still more so, as in the 
darkness it was impossible to see the state of the ice even a few metres 
ahead. We had to work blindfold and often fell into deep holes, or 
we were stopped by a wall of ice, neither of which things were visible 
beforehand. The dogs were so exhausted that they could hardly stand, 
and so our progress was exceedingly slow. 
We reached Shannon Island on Dec. 16th, but we did not reach 
the “Alabama” before the 17th 4 p.m., as in the darkness we had taken 
too westerly a course, thus striking land at a place where it was too 
steep to climb. To cover the distance from Danmark’s Havn to Shannon 
Island, a stretch of 90 miles, we had used sixteen days with in all 78,3 
sledging hours, an hourly average of 1,14 miles. 
We had all in all been eighty-four days on the trail, nine of which 
were spent in the house in Danmark’s Havn. We had had eleven storm- 
bound days, and our investigations at Lambert’s Land had taken four 
days, so that in reality we had been fifty-eight days on the trail with 
446,7 sledging hours, giving an hourly average of 1,07 miles. 
Of the twenty-one dogs, which we took north, only seven remained, 
and two of the seven died on the day after our arrival. 
The Sledge-expedition to Danmark’s Fjord. 
Plate I and ПТ. | 
The plan and outtitting. 
The journey from Shannon Island, via the Inlandice to Danmark’s 
Fjord, along the outer coast, round Nordostrundingen and back to 
Shannon Island covers a distance of about 1020 miles, and this journey 
was to be performed without the aid of depots, save one laid out in Feb. 
