Notes on the sea-ice along the east coast of Greenland. 189 
it was evident, that the sea on this stretch had been quite open during 
the preceding summer. 
We followed the coast from Oksebladet to Cape Marie Valdemar, 
sledging on new ice, and we noticed the edge of the heavy pack about 
3 miles off the coast. There were rather large ponds between the 
ice-floes far out to sea. The new ice extended across Skerfjorden and 
further along the coast as far as a few miles beyond Bjorneskeret, where 
it gradually passed into unbroken year-old ice. 
From there and northward we did not meet with ice, which had 
been broken in the course of the preceding summer, and the sea-ice 
among the many islands of Jokelbugten was very old. 
Another journey was performed from Shannon Island and north- 
ward during the spring of 1911. 
Between Shannon Island and the south end of Koldewey Island 
we passed several very large ponds, only recently frozen over, and it 
was evident that the ice, far into the bay between the two islands, 
had been in continuous motion during the winter. 
An open lead of landwater was noticed and partly followed along 
the east coast of Koldewey Island, variating in breadth from 200 to 
1000 metres. Some large ponds between the pack-ice were seen several 
miles off land from an elevated part of Koldewey Island. 
The open lead extended all the way from Koldewey Island to 
Cape Bismarck, further past Oksebladet and to Cape Marie Valdemar, 
but it was as a rule considerably narrower on this latter stretch than 
further south. The pack-ice outside appeared very slack. 
A remarkable change in the breadth of the landwater took place 
in the days between May 13th and 18th, although the weather had been 
quite calm during the intervening days. The landwater had for some 
reason or other increased so much that it appeared as an open sea with 
small floes drifting about in it, and extended as far as could be seen 
from the high land back of Cape Marie Valdemar toward Ile de 
France, and all the way along the coast southward at least as far as 
beyond Oksebladet. The breadth of the landwater was on an average 
about 3 miles, and the pack-ice beyond had no defined edge. The solid 
land-ice was only about 100 metres broad off the most prominent 
points of the coast from Cape Marie Valdemar to Syttenkilometer- 
næsset. 
The lead along the east coast of Koldewey Island was the same 
when we saw it on our return-journey (beginning of June) as when going 
north in May. The open water or unsafe ice between Koldewey Is- 
land and Shannon Island came within 10 miles off Haystack, where we 
passed ice, which was at most a month old, an absolute proof that the 
ice-floes even in this rather sheltered bay are churned about during the 
winter and spring. 
