CHAPTER X. 



NEW LAND ! 



HASSEL was now occupied weighing out provisions for the spring 

 sledge expeditions, a bit of work which kept him busy for some 

 little time. We had several journeys in mind, but I was still 

 doubtful how it would be best for us to bestow our work. 



From the point on the eighty-first parallel where we had 

 been obliged to turn back the previous year, the laud trended 

 northward for as great a distance as we were able to see. We 

 did not deem it probable that this could be very far, but how 

 far it might be we were unable to decide. Nor had we solved 

 the question as to whether this country was new to us, or was a 

 continuation of King Oscar Land. 



In our overland journeys from Hayes Sound we had observed 

 that the country was indented by large fjords, and it appeared 

 to me that the best thing we could now do, would be to ascertain 

 whether or not these fjords were connected with Nbrskebugten or 

 Greely Fjord, or whether there really existed a sound northward 

 to Greely Fjord. 



We all considered the sound theory to be the more probable one, 

 and thought that it was a new land whose coasts we had followed 

 the previous year. According to the results obtained by Isachsen 

 on his journey of the previous spring, it was reasonable to presume 

 that the inlet he had visited on his return journey was only a 

 long fjord. He himself thought very decidedly that this was the 

 case. The sum and substance of this reasoning therefore was, that 

 if a sound penetrated northward, we must look for it farther east. 



We knew that from the north side of the country round about 

 Bjornekap, deeply cut fjords penetrated the land towards the 



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