120 EJNAR MIKKELSEN. 
steep basalt cliff. A very good and rather large harbour is found between 
this basalt cliff and the main land, and a large river coming from the 
top of Hovgaard Island had its outlet in this harbour, where the ice 
had already melted away. 
The land seemed splendid and was covered with a rich vegetation 
consisting of heather, willows in bud, several kinds of flowers as well 
as a great amount of grass. The vegetation became more luxuriant 
further away from the coast, and the mountain-slopes were covered 
with grass and heather. 
We saw many traces of animal life, but mostly old. The excrements 
of hares were so plentiful on the mountain-side that we had not formerly 
seen anything like it, and on the flat land we saw many traces of musk- 
ox and bears. Of birds we saw snow-buntings and a small wader, some 
sea-gulls and eiderducks in the open bay to the south. A few seals were 
seen in the broad tidal crack, and we felt quite certain that we would 
soon get game. 
But we got nothing on July 19th, and on July 20th we sledged 
round to the southern side of the Island, where we had seen a large 
valley, which seemed splendid for hunting purposes. It was a difficult 
trip, as the ice close under land was full of large and deep melting holes, 
and one of our three dogs succumbed to the permanent wetting. We 
reached the valley after 9 hours’ hard work and camped in the low and 
wet river-delta, as we had not strength enough to keep on, after we 
had once reached land. The temperature was very high + 5° С. 
It was still warmer on July 21st, when we had a temperature of 
+ 7°5, and the rivers which enclosed the tent swelled to such an extent 
that the water almost reached us, although we had camped on the highest 
spot. To go hunting was out of the question, as we could not ford the 
rivers, before the supply of water became less plentiful. It began to 
rain at 2,30p.m., a perfect downpour, and it was not till July 22nd 
that the water of the rivers had fallen so much that we could ford them. 
We went out in two different directions to cover as much land as pos- 
sible, but it soon became evident that we could not expect large results 
of the day’s hunting, as the country was barren. We saw one snow-owl, 
some lemmings and two ptarmigans, which ТУЕВЗЕМ shot. 
We returned to our permanent camp on July 23rd, and a bear 
came to our tent during the night, when we were asleep. We fired a 
shot at a long distance and wounded the animal, but it swam over the 
broad tidal crack and disappeared in the fog. 
For two days we searched the land and the mountain-slopes for 
game, without any results at all, and then we determined to concen- 
trate all our energies on getting seals, which we occasionally saw in the 
tidal crack along the coast, and we watched by turns so that nothing 
should escape us. 
The weather was raw, windy and cold, and no seals crawled out 
