Report concerning the remaining part of the expedition. 161 
consequences from frost-bite, which we knew might cause us great 
difficulty and inconvenience. 
Also in this camp the storm and the keen wind found us out 
and kept us prisoners on the 27th and 28th. I wrote in my diary for the 
28th: “One day is worse than another, as we have again to-day a keen 
wind blowing dead against us, so that sledging was out of the question. 
As time hung heavy on my hands in the afternoon, I resolved, despite 
the weather, to go a short way to the south along the coast, in order to 
see something new. I went 7 to 8 miles and then on to a nunatak, 
from which I could see the land stretching in a southerly direction, 
so that I think I reached the westernmost point of the country. As 
far as the eye could reach the Inlandice ran right up to the land and 
almost up to the top all the way. The height of the nunataks above 
the ice was on an average about 300—400 metres. From the elevation 
on which I stood, I saw a nunatak about 20 miles away in SW by S 
(Poulsen’s Nunatak), and in SSW I saw two small nunataks which I 
estimated as being about 40 miles away (Olsen’s Nunatakker)”. When I 
returned to the camp in the evening, the storm had abated a good deal, 
and I looked forward confidently to having fine weather on the following 
day, but “man proposes, God disposes’. In the course of the night 
the wind freshened considerably, and not until 3 p.m. on the 29th was 
there any chance of sledging south, which we then did. The weather 
was good and we made about 10 miles southwards, with a gradient of 
ice of some 250 metres and reached a bit further south than I had 
been on the previous day. We camped here in the evening, and im- 
mediately climbed the island where I had been on the day before to 
have a look round. We had in fact at this time debated whether we 
had not better go back, but before making up our minds, I wanted 
my two companions to know how the land lay, particularly as my 
own feeling was in favour of continueing south. I did not, however, 
wish to insist on doing so, preferring to come to a definite decision after 
having held a council of war with my comrades, when they had had 
an opportunity of studying the surroundings. Moreover, I had 
Capt. MIKKELSEN’s instructions to go by, and there he had written as 
follows: — 
“The ice being more impassable than we had anticipated on the 
stretch we have travelled over, whilst seeming better both towards 
north and west, I beg you to be cautious and not advance further, 
than you can see your retreat clear”. 
After having ascended the nunatak, Henius’ Nunatak, which had 
an altitude of 400 metres above our camping site, we got a splendid 
view of the interior of Dronning Louise’s Land. It proved to consist 
of a number of nunataks and not of compact land (Fig. 80). 
All the nunataks in the interior rose steeply out of the ice, and 
many of them were considerably higher than the one we were on the 
LUI. 11 
