FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER 



mountain under some plausible pretext. The next day fresh 

 tracks in the snow show that the bear-mother has had visitors, 

 and her face glistens with blubber. 



THE FIRST POLAR-ICE 



Before dawn, just as we had got up to light the Primuses, 

 we were surprised to hear the barking of dogs and strange voices 

 outside. Two young men had returned from a successful hunt 

 of musk-ox in Ellesmere Land, where they had slain forty 

 animals. They provided us generously with fresh meat and 

 tallow ; we then parted, each going his own way. 



From Anoritoq to Renslaer Harbour we had a beautiful 

 but strenuous day's journey. From Cape Inglefield to Cape 

 Ingersoll we travelled through strongly pressed-up ice. During 

 this part of the autumn the whole of Kane Basin consists of 

 huge drifting ice-floes ; the current here sets very strongly 

 towards land, and, whilst new ice is being formed, blocks of 

 ice are pressed up where the drifting floes freeze together. 

 These pressure-ridges are often so tall that one must hew a way 

 through with axes. T he heavily loaded sledges have to be 

 slowly and carefully worked across, so that they shall not be 

 crushed in a sudden fall from a height of several metres ; often 

 they stick in awkward and desperate positions, where several 

 men's strength is required to free them again. This is hot and 

 laborious work, which, however, generally leads to so many 

 comic situations that the task is shouldered with good temper. 



Near Cape Ingersoll we climbed on to an ice-foot about 

 sixty metres broad which stretched before us as a beautiful and 

 easy snow-free road. Above us towered the high red sandstone 

 mountains, with an even gradient of snow-clad talus at the foot 

 and steep precipices near the top. The red rays of the evening 

 sun were refracted on to the snow and the mountains, and with 

 this beautiful landscape before us we drove at a rapid trot to the 

 camp by Renslaer Harbour which the Eskimo calls Aunartoq. 



The inner bend of this bay gives an exceedingly friendly 

 impression. The country hereabout consists of beautiful 



47 



