182 NEW LAND. 



several hares,* of which I shot three. I shot two Buffon skuas 

 (Lestris longicordata), while ptarmigan and sandpipers (Tringa sp.) 

 were also seen. 



' We could hardly step without treading in the tracks of 

 polar oxen; but all the tracks were old, the freshest being 

 probably from the spring. Their direction, as a rule, was west 

 or south-west, so it is possible that these animals seek the 

 coast in the spring, for we observed the same migration in many 

 other places. We were, however, very much surprised that where 

 there was such abundant pasture for them, we never met with any 

 of the animals themselves. We brought back with us the antlers 

 and under jaw-bone of a reindeer; and also a lemming. We 

 saw several glaucous gulls in the glacier-lake. Judging by the 

 acquaintance I now have with the topography of this country, I 

 should consider the Beitstadfjord glacier as the boundary between 

 Ellesmere Land and Grinnell Land. This also coincides with 

 the names of the lands, for it was supposed that Hayes Sound 

 divided them, t Geologically, too, this division seems to be 

 justified, for the Silurian formation which is so typical of the 

 cpuntry north of Hayes Sound and Bache Peninsula, is not so 

 apparent south of Beitstadfjord. According to Herr Simmons, 

 none of the specimens of plants which we brought back with us 

 were of the kinds which are found only on Grinnell Land. 



' Finally, I wish to emphasize that Braskerud on the journey 

 proved himself to be a capable and interested fellow.' 



* That these bounded more on two legs than on four evoked from Braskernd, to 

 whom this mode of progression was new, the most forcible expressions of surprise. 



t A more natural division between these two lands, however, is the pass which 

 Sverdrup and Bay went over. G. I. February, 1903. 



