GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



by Tornge's home, all ruins of houses on this coast are remark- 

 ably small in size. The ruins at Cape Wood consisted of eight 

 houses in a row, built of sand. The bank of earth encircling 

 the house was quite plain and large, and small stones had been 

 added to it ; but everything seems to indicate that the builders 

 must have had some difficulty in procuring material. Re- 

 mains of turf walls were not to be found at all, neither was 

 there any trace of vegetation ; the country was absolutely 

 barren, and no peat was discovered in the neighbourhood. The 

 camp gave one the impression of having been an " experiment 

 station." The conditions for hunting must have been excel- 

 lent. By a big stone near the houses one yet saw soot from a 

 cooking-fire. Wherever possible the ruins were measured, but 

 a proper exploration was out of the question, as we passed them 

 in the beginning of April in 30° (Cent.) of cold. Everything 

 was covered by deep snow. 



April 18th. — On the 18th of April we reached Dallas Bay, 

 from which, near by Cape Kent, we drove out on Peabody Bay 

 to cross over to Washington Land. 



The first day's journey we made fifty-six kilometres, 

 though for the first twenty kilometres we had to toil slowly 

 through deep snow. In some places we drove across awkward 

 floes of old ice, similar in character to the edge of the inland- 

 ice. These floes have a rugged surface with deep holes, due 

 to many summers of sunburn ; they look like a high sea, and 

 the heavy sledges bob up and down on them as ships on the 

 waves. 



April 19th. — When we arrived approximately in the 

 middle of the bay, we built a camp of snow-huts, and here for 

 the first time we had an excellent view of Humboldt's Glacier, 

 thejargest glacier in Greenland, so highly praised by Dr. Kane. 

 Our expectations were tremendous because of his picturesque 

 descriptions, which really do give the picture of an imagination 

 overwhelmed by the great unknown. I will therefore quote 

 this white man, the first who set eyes on this region. 



"I will not attempt to improve on reality by a flowery 

 description. Man can only improvise about Niagara or the 

 58 



