354 Andr. Lundager 



in its winter-sleep. At Hvalrosodde the gravel and the sand is so 

 dry and loose that the frost is not able to bind it. 



On January 7, 1907, the ground is for the first time covered by 

 loose snow — everywhere. 



On April 5 the Snow Bunting arrived ; but not until the 23rd 

 can the weather be said to have grown milder. On that day I saw 

 two Buffon's Skua in the bay betwen Cape Amélie and Cape Marie 

 Valdemar. Off Isle de France there was open water. 



Even now evaporation is in full activity and consequently the 

 mountain darkens from day to day. 



On May 2 4 we have for the first time a positive temperature; 

 six days afterwards the thermometer records above 0° at all three 

 readings. 



At the end of May, with the commencement of the higher 

 temperature, we have also other common spring phenomena; small 

 gatherings of water begin to appear in Basiskær and on the 20th, 

 Saxifraga groenlandica flowers on Termometerfjeld — beneath a 

 "pane" of ice. 



From Hvalrosodde open water is recorded along the shore of a 

 lake near Lakseelv. At Danmarks Havn, before June, only a few 

 boulders had become visible by the melting of the snow along the 

 margin of Drikkevandssø. 



On June 4 Saxifraga oppositifolia is in flower, but only here 

 and there and not quite expanded. The next day it is found 

 flowering commonly at Stormkap, and on the same day flowering 

 individuals are also met with at Termometerfjeld. 



There are now in a great many places small, open tarns, where 

 wading birds rest in their journey. 



In the night previous to the 3rd of June the large flight of 

 birds occurred just at the point of time when the door of the 

 cupboard was thrown wide open. As we know, these pools contain 

 swarms of living creatures such as larvæ and other creeping things 

 which condition the existence here of small wading birds. It is 

 quite a peculiar experience to be out on a night when the flight 

 of these birds takes place. The air is full of the music of their 

 notes and of the whirr of wings. I was on my way to Stormkap 

 in the night in question with a hand-sledge, so for several hours I 

 had a good opportunity of hearing the winged crowds as they made 

 towards land to their breeding places, where the flocks separate. 



Out on the ice a bear was lying with its two cubs and was 

 devouring a seal which it had caught at a breathing-hole. This 

 meal was watched over with apparent interest by foxes and ravens, 



