102 EJNAR MIKKELSEN. 
far more steeply here than on the other side of Nordost-Rundingen, breaks 
off precipitously towards the sea in a glacier wall, often of considerable 
height. The Inlandice is here full of fissures, and to sledge along the 
edge would be, in our opinion, almost impossible. The lack of grounded 
bergs and floes would prevent the new ice from settling, and this part 
of the journey has doubtless proved so difficult that My Lrus-ERIcHSEN 
and his comrades decided to abandon the coast route, as soon as they 
found a favourable place, at which they could make the ascent to the 
Inlandice. 
From Amdrup’s Land southward to Lambert’s Land the Inlandice 
does not reach out to the sea; if therefore they had already realised that 
the coast route was impracticable, they would have to make the ascent 
north of Amdrup’s Land. 
In accordance with the view of Capt. Amprup and Koch! the 
ascent was probably made at the base of Antarctic Bay, where condi- 
tions generally would be favourable. This theory is supported by the 
last entry in BRØNLUNDS diary — the only one, by the way, concerning 
the homeward journey. He writes on the 1/,,: 
“In the afternoon we came up on the Inlandice. The ascent took 
“us four days. The fifth of the remaining dogs has now also died, butted 
“to death by a musk-ox”’. 
Amdrup’s Land is the first place on the outer coast where a sledge- 
party coming from the north would find musk-ox?, and they cannot 
have reached beyond Amdrup’s Land, as the depot here was untouched. 
Here, then, the ascent must have been made, and they probably 
remained some days at the spot, as JØRGEN BRØNLUNDS diary contains, 
between the two last entries, a verse, the beginning of an essay on the 
legend of the Polar Eskimos, and some recollections of the stay at 
Cape York. 
One does not write things of this sort on a sledge-trip, unless one 
has been resting for a few days, and certainly not unless provisions are 
sufficiently plentiful to leave no cause of anxiety for the immediate 
future. They must have found plenty of seal, etc. on their way down 
along the coast, since we can see that they had no lack either of provi- 
sions or fuel (i. e. blubber). That they probably had no need to econo- 
mize in this latter respect is evident from the fact that BRONLUND spent 
some time writing for his own amusement in the tent, from which it 
follows that they must have had fuel enough to warm the place at least 
during some part of the day; otherwise it would have been too cold 
to write more than was absolutely necessary. 
MYLIUS-ERICHSEN and his companions have doubtless found their 
further progress from Amdrup’s Land southward checked by open water, 
1 Amprup, Medd. om Grønland, Vol. XLI, pag. 218. 
2 ibid. 
