38 EJNAR MIKKELSEN. 
Under land the going became much better, as the ice was compa- 
ratively smooth, and from the Haystack northward to Cape Peschel, we 
even found large stretches of glare-ice. The depot laid out by Laus 
at the mouth of Bessel Bay was passed on March 9th at 11a.m., and 
having convinced ourselves that it was in good order we proceeded at 
once towards Cape Peschel, which we passed on March 10th, after which 
we unloaded the sledges on a little island just north of it. We had 
now to begin double-banking, and LauB, assisted by OLSEN and POULSEN, 
returned for the depot in Bessel Bay, while IVERSEN and myself went 
across towards Cape Helgoland in order to try to find the depot left 
on a iceberg during the autumn of last year. We met very bad going 
and had to plough through snow more than ”/, meter deep. This kind 
of going continued all the way across Dove Bay, and it was not till March 
12th at 10,30 а. m. that we had reached a place somewhere in the neigh- 
bourhood of the depot. We left the tent on the ice and drove out with 
an empty sledge, zig-zagging along, thus hoping to get near the depot. 
We had nearly given it up as lost, when a stick was seen, sticking 
out of the snow far away, and driving close we found that it was one 
of the sledge-runners which we had raised on end to mark the depot. 
Our surprise was great when we reached the iceberg, which had been 
rather imposing in the autumn, and found it quite buried in the snow; 
the snow must in this place have been almost five metres high, as we 
could drive right over the iceberg without noticing anything but a small 
undulation. 
Bears and foxes had disturbed the depot, but all necessary articles 
were intact, and our mission ended we returned to Cape Peschel, which 
we reached on March 14th, laying out our second depot for the return- 
journey on the cape itself. 
LAUB arrived in camp in the course of the afternoon, having suc- 
ceeded in bringing up the depot from Bessel Bay and advancing it about 
10 miles to the west, where it was unloaded on the ice between Tvil- 
lingerne, and on March 15th we advanced the rest of our stores, once 
more working together. 
Thus far we had not had a single rest since leaving Shannon Island, 
and the dogs were very tired and needed a day off, so we were quite 
pleased, when a gale sprang up compelling us to remain in camp all 
of March 16th, in which manner we got the much needed rest. 
To our infinite surprise our dogs had become very much weakened, 
probably not, however, so much on account of the work as on account 
of immoderate sexual intercourse. More than half of our dogs were 
bitches, and as they were all in heat at the same time, the male dogs 
could not be kept within bonds. This sapped the strength of males 
as well as females, and great care ought to be taken to avoid an occur- 
rence of this kind, as in particular the male dogs became quite worn 
out. If we had not been so fortunate as to get a bear on March 17th, 
