204 XEW LAND. 



we might just as well have worked on west as lie still, but as 

 things were, I thought we could do nothing before it cleared. 



On the night of May 11 the fog began to clear, and we decided 

 to drive back to ' Smorgrautberget,' which lay in a particularly 

 convenient position for observations ; for one reason because we 

 could take azimuths to the different fjords. The wind had swept 

 away all the loose snow, and the ice was irreproachable. Driving 

 across a large bay, we saw, at the head of it, a herd of polar oxen ; 

 they formed into square up on a precipice. How many there 

 were I do not know; but a good many. We left them in 

 peace, for meat was not what we wanted just now, but to get on 

 quickly. 



On the same bay a colossal iceberg had come to anchor. We 

 measured it, and its length was not far off a thousand feet, while 

 its breadth was almost the same. It was about forty feet high, 

 and table-topped. We then continued northward, and in brilliant 

 sunshine and calm weather pitched our tent about midday at the 

 northernmost point of Smorgrautberget. 



We took an altitude, cooked some dinner, and went ashore. 

 On the top of the point I took a few bearings, and set off some 

 angles between the fjords and points. 



North of us was a very high mountain, which fell perpen- 

 dicularly into the sea. So overwhelmingly large did it appear to 

 us that we both thought it to be, without exception, the highest 

 mountain we had seen on the expedition. Afterwards we called 

 it 'Blaafjeld,' or 'Blue Mountain.' East of this spot Greely 

 Fjord penetrated far into the land towards the north-east. In the 

 opposite direction the land continued far, far, to the west, 

 intersected by great fjords. 



In about the true west rose a lofty mountain, which we called 

 ' Kvitberg ' (White Mountain). West of this, again, the land ran 

 on in the same direction, but far away on the horizon it began to 

 trend north. To all appearance the two shores overlapped, but we 

 received the distinct impression that a large sea opened out to the 

 north-west. Due east of us, on the other side of the sound, 

 stretched extensive lowlands. Where the land ended and the sea 

 began we could not decide, but at any rate we saw so much as that 



