Report on the expedition. 37 
weight the personal work in hauling done by the men would amount 
to much more than formerly — that is, the men could almost pull the 
sledge themselves — and finally, that the permanent weight will de- 
crease a little in course of time and that one sledge would be left behind, 
when it was possible to drag all that remained on one sledge. All this 
would count so much that the apparent larger average pr. dog after 
55 days’ of sledging would, in spite of everything, be proportionally 
smaller. 
This list was worked out onboard the ship and used on the trail 
with very little alteration. 
The Journey from Shannon Island via the Inlandice 
to Danmark’s Fjord. 
March 3rd—May 12th 1910. 
It was not till March drd that everything was ready for the final 
departure of the sledge-expedition to Danmark’s Fjord, and we were off 
at 9 a.m. with four sledges drawn by all our dogs, twenty-one in all. 
LAUB, IVERSEN, OLSEN, POULSEN and myself formed the party, which 
was later on to be divided in the following manner: LAUB, OLSEN and 
POULSEN were to go along the west coast of Dronning Louise’s Land, 
while IVERSEN and myself were to go all the way to Danmark’s Fjord. 
At first the going was rather hard, as the low temperature of the 
preceding day had crystallized the snow, which made the sledges drag 
very heavily, and this in spite of the fact that the sledges were rather 
light, weighing on an average not more than 220 kilo. At any rate 
we made but poor progress, which may however be caused by some 
of the dogs becoming unserviceable, as their pads were quickly worn 
through by the sharp snow. 
It took us 36 sledging hours to cover the distance between Shannon 
Island and the Haystack, which we reached on March 7th after having 
crossed a very bad stretch of ice covered with very large hummocks, 
some of which were so high and steep that all hands had to help to take 
each sledge across. 
In this connection it may be of interest to state that sledging is 
very much easier when going over the ground on a course cutting the 
general direction of the wind at so small an angle as possible. Wherever 
there are hummocks, the wind will cut away the snow from its wind- 
ward side, leaving it steep and bare, while it deposits the snow to the 
leeward of the same hummock, thus forming a long and even snow- 
bank, over which it is fairly easy to drive the sledges, even to a rather 
considerable height. The same holds good on level ground, but in a 
much smaller degree, as the end of a snow-wave pointing towards the 
wind is steep and may stop the sledge, while its other end is so even 
and slanting that it can hardly be felt. 
