ACROSS ELLESMERE LAND. 135 



aud in that way travel down the fjord, to lay under subjection as 

 much new land as possible. 



On Friday, April 28, we took our belongings on our backs, 

 and started forth. Bay was simply a hero at carrying things, and 

 had incomparably the larger burden. The first part of the way 

 we did quickly, although our packs were pretty heavy ; but the 

 descent of the steep and slippery rock was quite another thing. 

 We found the best way was to sit down and slide, breaking and 

 scraping continually with our hands. Slide we did, and rubbed 

 our clothes through into the bargain ; but we put a brave face on 

 it, and got to the bottom without other mishap than much destruc- 

 tion of a certain portion of our nether garments. 



After the descent we rested a while under the face of the 

 glacier, and amused ourselves by trying the marvellous echo which 

 there was there. The dogs followed suit, and when they heard 

 the answer to their barking, went nearly mad, until at last the 

 wilds fairly rang with the echoes of our din. 



We had now reached the level sandy expanse which we had 

 earlier observed, and on we pressed as long as we had strength 

 to go. At three o'clock on Saturday morning we at last reached 

 the outer edge of the sands, where low mountain-ridges cut off all 

 further view to the west. Here we encamped in a fairly sheltered 

 valley, remained there until the afternoon, and then went on again, 

 leaving behind us the dogs and all our things, except the rifles, 

 glasses, and camera. We had now but little to carry, and it was 

 not long before we were on the top of the westernmost ridge. 



Before us lay another expanse of sand, but considerably smaller 

 tjian the two we had already crossed. West of the sands was 

 a small conical mountain, which we at once named ' Tommen ' or 

 the ' Thumb,' and we decided to climb it, in order to get a view 

 over the fjord which we expected to find behind and west of it. 



We set our course for its southern side, thinking that it 

 appeared the easiest to climb, but a couple of miles from Tommen 

 we came across fjord-ice. The chief fjord branched off here for a 

 long distance into the land, east of our mountain, through a very 

 narrow sound. We now gave up the idea of climbing Tommen 

 in favour of the far easier way straight across the fjord and 



