Report on the expedition. 191 
Island, which we had great difficulty in reaching, as open water came 
within 50 metres off the coast. 
We reached Koldewey Island at last on April 28th and intended to 
follow the east coast, where we would be certain to find ice bare of snow, 
but open water close in land at Cape Arendts forced us to cross the is- 
land and follow its west coast. The snow was very soft and deep all 
along the coast, and progress would have been very slow but for a regular 
path close inland, formed by a very great number of bears, which had 
kept on walking along the broken trail. We saw several bears and shot one. 
We went into Bergs Fjord and over the low land to the east coast 
on May 3rd and reached Danmark’s Havn on May 5. 
On May 9th the journey was resumed along the outer coast of Ger- 
mania Land. We passed a large opening in the packice 1 mile broad and 
3 miles long and lying close inland just north of Syttenkilometernesset, 
but no other open water was seen along the coast, not even from the 
rather high land just behind Cape Marie Valdemar. 
The snow was very deep and soft in Skerfjorden, and we did not 
reach the skerry, on which we had left our depot, till May 15. 
A bear had found our depot and broken into it, scattering every- 
thing all over the ground. It was now covered by a deep layer of snow, 
but some few fragments were found on top of the snow, and a small 
stick belonging to our knapsack projected through it. The snow was 
dug away round it, and we found our diaries, journals and barometer. 
Only one of my journals was lost, and though the bear had apparently 
tried to chew everything, the actual damage was not great. 
The return-journey began on May 17th, and having our old trail 
to follow we made very much better progress than when going north. 
Cape Marie Valdemar was passed on May 18th, and to our surprise we 
saw a very broad lane extending along the coast from the south, close 
to the cape and as far as we could see all the way to Ile de France, where 
it broadened so much that it lost the appearance of a lane and rather 
looked like open sea. 
The water followed the coast and came within 100 metres of Sytten- 
kilometernæsset, where it had a breadth of at least 2 miles. The weather 
was cloudy, when we passed the cape, and the sky was in the best con- 
dition for showing open water and presented the same appearance as 
when seen over scattered pack-ice in summertime. 
Danmark’s Havn was reached on May 20th, and there we were de- 
tained by warm weather, fog and snow until May 29th, when we conti- 
nued our return-journey, now following the east coast of Koldewey Is- 
land, where the ice was very good. 
On May 31st we passed the cairn erected by the Danmark-Expe- 
dition, when it landed there in the summer of 1906, and we took out 
the record, which had been left in it. We rebuilt the cairn and left a 
message from ourselves. 
9* 
