Report on the expedition. 87 
“ca. 500 miles journey back to the ship, which we hope to reach before 
“the end of September with or without the dogs. 
“The cairns built in the neighbourhood of this cairn were set up 
“by HAGEN for trigonometric measurement of the land and contain no 
“reports. 
“In one or more cairns further up in the Fjord we shall deposit 
“reports on our later fate. 
“August 8th 1907. 
L. MyL1us-ERICHSEN, 
Leader of the “Danmark Expedition to the 
north-east coast of Greenland” 1906—08.”’ 
Nothing whatever was found in the vicinity of the cairns, and none 
of the other cairns were investigated, as we knew from the above that 
nothing could be found. 
That which interested us most in the report found was Mytius- 
ERICHSEN’s statement as to the non-existence of Peary Channel, as the 
many gales and the consequent delay on the Inlandice had forced us 
to consider it most prudent to go through this channel and down along 
the NW coast of Greenland, until we met the Eskimos. This we thought 
was our only chance of escaping a summer somewhere on the coast. 
This plan was now impossible, as we could not think of going an 
unknown distance overland where bare land might stop the sledges any 
moment, and we had consequently to follow the exact wording of the 
orders from the Committee, in which it was stated that ... “If the jour- 
“nals are not found in the vicinity of Cape Holbæk or Cape Kronborg, 
“then the homeward journey must be made along the outer coast of 
“NE Greenland, round Nordostrundingen to Lambert’s Land. The jour- 
“ney will be facilitated by the depots left on the coast by the Danmark- 
“Expedition. The coast must be carefully examined, and all depots 
“opened in search of journals or information”. 
The orders further stated: “The Committee must emphatically point 
“out that the aforesaid journey towards the west through Peary Channel 
“is only to be attempted, provided conditions are so favourable as to 
“practically exclude the possibility of losing the results obtained”. 
We still wanted, however, if possible to explore the bottom of 
Independence Fjord, as we now knew that the extent of this journey 
would be limited to about 100 miles either way (Fig. 54). We there- 
fore kept on northward from the summer-camp to Cape Rigsdagen, 
along the low coast, which — like most other parts of the land — was 
covered with snow (Fig. 55). The coast became a little higher, as we 
advanced, but was not precipitous and ended toward the extreme NE 
in a low naze, which was reached on May 27th at За. м. 
The layer of snow on the ice was very soft and became still more 
so just after passing this naze, and it was evident that the hundred 
