The Insects of the "Danmark" Expedition. 39 



As above mentioned, the winter at North-East Greenland may 

 be considered as beginning about the first week in September. 

 The small number of insects occurring about this time indicates 

 distinctly that winter is close at hand. Most of the migrating birds 

 are away, the freshwater lakes bear fairly thick ice and new ice 

 has begun to form in the quieter parts of the harbour. The mossy 

 bogs are almost dried up and the water remaining in the rivers 

 is scarcely flowing. Digging in the ground we find it frozen even 

 in the upper layers; and the withered leaves and dried fruits give 

 the stretches of vegetation a uniformly, brownish-yellow appearance. 



Fig. '2. At tlie Harhoiir. April. 



The weather is in general fine and calm, but the sun which lends 

 the frozen ice-fields and the clouds the most beautiful colours of 

 red, yellow and blue-green, jusl confirms the impression of the sur- 

 rounding land as an empty waste. It is as if the land was dead 

 and stiff and only waited for the snow lo come and spread itself 

 like a sheltering cover over the plants and stones. It is only with the 

 most careful search that we can find any trace of the hibernating 

 insects; many stones must be turned over before we come upon a 

 rolled-up little spider or mite, though these are much more fre- 

 quent than the large downy larvae of Dasyclûra groenlandica, which 

 seek a similar hiding place. And especially later on in the winter, 

 when the snow has fallen and by thawing become unevenly dis- 



