70 EJNAR MIKKELSEN. 
On May 17th (80° 36’ Lat. N) we climbed a mountain, 410 metres 
high, in order to get a general view of the surrounding land, but primarily 
in order to ascertain the conditions for crossing over land to Danmark’s 
Fjord. We saw that a good way could be found by following the small 
lakes on top of the moraine, separating the lake from the fjord, and 
we further had an opportunity to look around from this rather elevated 
position. 
Danmark’s Fjord could be seen as far as a short distance beyond 
Cape Holbæk, and from there, through N to SW, the country was studded 
with mountains, all of rather equal height i.e. about 4—500 metres, 
and mostly with steep sides facing east. 
The Inlandice and Leffingwell’s Nunataks could be seen to the 
SW through a smooth snow-covered valley (Fig. 39), but this was the 
only place where it was visible, and no Inlandice could be seen over 
the comparatively lower undulating land to the east of the lake (Fig. 40). 
As far as we could see, the conditions were the same to the north, 
as they were here, i. e. to the east of the lake and the fjord, where the 
country was hilly and undulating, being steep and mountainous as well 
as higher to the west of this line of demarkation (Fig. 41). 
The mountain, on which we stood, bore evidence of having once 
been covered by ice, as the top was worn quite smooth and furrowed 
by deep notches. 
The luxuriant vegetation, which we noticed close to the Inlandice, 
continued all along the lake, and the mountain which we climbed, was 
covered with a surprising amount of grass, heather and willow, until 
at a height of about 300 metres the vegetation disappeared altogether, 
and not even mosses were seen in the sheltered places on the extreme 
top. The same vegetation was seen everywhere on the land — save on 
the moraine — and we saw musk-oxen on the mountain-sides, as well 
as footprints and excrements of hares, ptarmigans, foxes and wolves. 
The ice-sheet covering the lake was level, but large domes, 2—3 
metres high, had been formed in many places by the pressure of the 
water, flowing down into the lake after it had frozen over. If these 
domes had not been so high, they might have been formed by the ice- 
sheet sinking down on a rock, but this could not have been the case, 
as the ice had only sunk about 70cm. along the coast of the lake. 
This sinking indicates that the water of the lake must have flowed 
out into Danmark’s Fjord, some time after the ice-sheet had become solid, 
thus causing the whole ice-sheet to sink about 70cm. The outlet must 
then have been blocked by ice, so that no water could escape, but the 
water must have continued to flow into the lake through some under- 
ground channel and reservoir from under the Inlandice, thus causing a 
pressure from underneath the ice, which had been relieved through the 
framing of the large domes with cracks on their tops. These cracks 
acted as a kind of safety-valve, through which the water could float 
