138 EJNAR MIKKELSEN. 
to undertake rather than to be dependent upon the ships which might 
or might not reach Shannon Island, we had to go to Cape Philip Broke 
after some outfit left there, and the journey lasted from January 28th— 
30th. It took so long, because we had to make a very long detour to 
get inside the open water in Freeden Bay. 
Judging by the many footprints of fox and bear it was evident 
that a great number of these animals had been near the house, since 
we left. They had done considerable damage, but had fortunately not 
broken into the house. We shot a bear shortly after our arrival and 
experienced one of these rare cases of a polar bear adopting offensive tac- 
tics. The animal wanted to break into the house, and it was by mere 
chance that we were able to shoot it, after it had burst the door. The 
bear was not very old, its stomach was quite empty, and absolutely 
no blubber was found inside its skin. 
On Feb. 3rd we had the first gale since the beginning of December, 
and it was not very strong. 
The return-journey to Bass Rock was made from Feb. 10th—12th, 
after the sun had returned. 
All our outfit for the sledge-journey to the south was ready on 
Feb. 28th, and we made a small sledge-trip to Walrus Island between 
Feb. 29th and March 3rd, partly to find the depot left there by Na- 
THORST for SVERDRUP, but chiefly to test our outfit, which was rather 
heavy. 
We could, however, hardly make any progress, though the ice was 
in excellent condition, there being no more snow than usual during the 
autumn and no snowbanks of any importance to leeward of the frozen- 
in pieces of ice. It took us sixteen hours of the most strenuous. 
work to cover the distance of only fourteen miles, and it was evident 
that we lacked strength for the work in hand and had to abandon all 
hope of managing the journey to Angmagsalik. The depot on the Walrus 
Island had been removed by sealing vessels, and we found nothing whatso- 
ever, but left a message in a cairn on the NEpoint of the Island, stating 
therein that we lived on Bass Rock. 
Our return-journey was as strenuous as the journey out, and we 
realized with great regret that our strength had waned to such an ex- 
tent that in the future we had to give up sledging any long distance. 
We fell ill shortly after our return and suffered much from a severe 
cold, and practically all of March was spent in the house or its imme- 
diate neighbourhood, as we did not feel well enough to go abroad. 
We wanted to make a final attempt to set ourselves free, this time 
by means of the boat, already dragged across Frozen Bay in the autumn, 
and on March 31st we left the house on Bass Rock. It was, however, 
necessary to return and make our sledge lighter, as we could not drag 
it through, although its weight did not exceed 90 kilo. We left the 
house for good on April 3rd, and reached the house on Cape Sussi on 
