60 EJNAR MIKKELSEN. 
about 50cm. over the crevasses, where we sometimes broke through. 
The snow was not very hard, but quite smooth. 
Bildsoe’s Nunataks disappeared below the southern horizon at 2p.m., 
and the extreme tops of mountains far to the north became visible at 
6 p.m. 
During the last few days there had been a strong indication of a 
large tract of land far to the west, but only in one case we thought that 
we could see a long, low and quite dark streak on the western horizon, 
where large masses of cumulus clouds have been hanging in a sharply 
defined place, just as over the highest mountain-peak. 
Made a distance of 16.8 miles with a decline of 50 metres. Total 
elevation above sea-level 920 metres. 
May 2nd, was spent in camp, as a violent gale had sprung up from 
NW, with a velocity ranging from 30—10 metres a second. 
May 3rd. The NW gale which blew all yesterday and throughout 
the night abated in the morning, and later in the day it became quite 
calm — the first really calm day we had had on the Inlandice. 
The surface was slightly undulating, and on the whole it was 
difficult to feel whether we were going up or down, but all day 
long we thought that there was a very small gradual rise. This may 
however have been an optical delusion as — whenever the surface is 
level — it always seems, as if the sledges are driving along the bottom 
of a very shallow indentation in the Inlandice. This optical delusion 
is caused by the refraction, which raises the horizon, but even in cases 
where the visible land is not distorted by refraction, it seems as if the 
horizon is lifted. The ice was here and there broken up by crevasses, 
which however were narrow and not at all dangerous. The layer 
of snow was quite smooth and hard, offering a splendid sledging 
surface. 
On this day we noticed for the first time a slight breaking and con- 
sequent sinking of a rather large snow-crust. It gave a peculiar rustling 
sound, when this breaking took place, and the snow-crystals glittered 
very much, when they changed position. This sinking of the surface 
has been noticed by Scorr while on the antarctic barrier during his first 
expedition, and I myself have seen it on large drifting floes with a 
level surface. It is caused by the hard snowcrust breaking under the 
weight of the sledges, and sinking a little it compresses the loose snow 
underneath. The depth to which the hard surface-layer sinks depends 
on the amount of loose snow underneath and its consistency — viz: 
the deeper and looser the snow, the deeper the sinking, which can amount 
to a couple of centimetres. The area thus sinking has often a large 
extent, but it is impossible to form an idea as to its size. 
Saw again Molkte’s and Garde’s Nunataks to the south at 
2.30 p.m. 
When we camped after 101% hours’ continuous sledging, we had to 
