176 WILHELM LAUB. 
Furthermore, it had appeared in the course of the winter, as I have 
stated elsewhere, that around Bass Rock and both north and south of 
it, there was much open water, and this was stated also in the ice reports 
of several years, so that we felt quite convinced that any advance over 
the sea ice would be difficult so late in the year. 
On the 9th of June | wrote in my diary, after having been up to 
the top of Bass Rock: 
“The ice has broken up right up to the SE point of Pendulum Island, 
and it looks as if it had also done so farther towards the west. If this isa 
fact, the plan of endeavouring to make Clavering Island must be relin- 
quished, as I do not consider it feasible to go to the main land and try 
to reach Clavering Island over land, as this would take too much time. 
The house at the winter quarters must also be built, and this before 
the 15th of July, if there should be a chance of getting home by ship 
this year, so that MIKKELSEN and IvERSEN may have something to live 
in, should they come this way; and this I regard as the principal 
thing, while Clavermg Island and with it the survey of the Tyroler- 
fjord must come second. Thus if there is ice south of Pendulum Island 
to justify me in thinking that I can be back at the ship by Ist of July, 
I will try to go there, but it will be only with a week’s supply of 
petrol and without a kayak, as I have presumed, that there was both 
petrol and kayaks here, just as at the Shannon depot. It had all the 
time been my intention from the time I started from the “Alabama” 
to take a kayak with me to the mouth of the Tyrolerfjord in order to 
be able to undertake the return journey, if the ice had broken up, 
when I came out of the Tyrolerfjord”. 
There was a boat at Bass Rock, or rather a skeleton of a boat, as 
the canvas which should have served as a sheathing for the boat had 
rotted completely, so that she was absolutely useless. 
During the night between 10th and 11 of June we proceeded on 
our journey south and made the southern end of Pendulum Island, where 
our progress was stopped by perfectly open water, which apparently 
extended right away to the Tyrolerfjord, only broken by a very small 
belt of drift ice. We observed this both from the ice down below and 
when we were up on the hills of Pendulum Island. Here we also found 
something of the game we had so long looked for, as we came across a 
lot of hares. 
As regards the ice conditions at Pendulum and Sabine Islands my 
view was absolutely confirmed by the crew of the “7de Juni”, from 
which two men, a week after I had left Bass Rock, rowed round to the 
depot from their winter quarters at Germania Havn. 
Another “tip” which I got from the captain of the “7de Juni” was 
that it was impossible to sail round Clavering Island, it being joined 
to the main land by a very low isthmus on its northeastern side, but 
one can go over the isthmus in a yawl at high tide. 
