190 NEW LAND. 



Without over-runners, and on the plates of German silver only, 

 we set forth next day, obliquely up the sound, towards the west 

 shore. The sledges travelled fairly well, but, as bad luck would 

 have it, there was a biting draught of north wind up the sound, 

 which caught us mercilessly. It made one feel as if one would 

 like to wrap up one's nose, or at any rate wear a mask ; but the 

 first man in a caravan wants bis eyes about him more than the 

 others, and ought not to encumber himself with a nose-mask. 



A little before noon we reached the point. It was the first 

 of May, and we christened it ' Maiodden,' or ' May Point.' From 

 here the sound ran north-west, and it began to dawn upon us 

 that, when we first discovered the sound we had overlooked the 

 great lowlands we now saw in the north on account of their 

 distance away. 



We made our midday halt between some large blocks of ice 

 which lay pressed up on land, and afforded some shelter from 

 the wind. A meridian altitude showed our present latitude to 

 be 79 17'. 



As the snow seemed to be getting heavier, we decided to try 

 what it was like under the lowlands, and thither we accordingly 

 steered, camping a few miles from land. 



It was long now since we had seen any polar oxen, but that 

 evening we saw a herd up on the cliffs to the west, and the same 

 the following day. The two herds, however, were perhaps 

 identical. 



The travelling did not improve, so next morning we set our 

 course obliquely northward under the west shore. A good way 

 south of Maiodden, and for many miles to the west, as far as we 

 could see, stretched large plains. The land rose evenly to the 

 north, until it suddenly shot up into a ridge out on Depotodden, 

 and from there fell precipitously into the sea ; while inwards from 

 Depotodden the whole country was a continuous lowland. On 

 the east side of the sound, north of Maiodden, extended I should 

 imagine right up to Greely Fjord a widespread lowland, which 

 in certain places out by the sound had a margin of wild, broken 

 mountains. Straight across the sound glittered great pressure- 

 ridges in long parallel ranks, just as in Baumann Fjord. 



