GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



comparatively high stone walls, so that they gave one the im- 

 pression of having been a sort of structure between a house 

 and a tent. It may be that lack of material has led to an 

 invention peculiar to this locality. 



I have mentioned the excellent conditions for seal-hunting 

 which this neighbourhood offers ; even for Eskimos with very 

 primitive hunting gear it cannot have been difficult to procure 

 their daily food. The catch must have been chiefly seal, and 

 there may also have been, especially in spring and autumn, a 

 good hunt of ice-bears in Peabody Bay, and of reindeer and 

 musk-ox in Inglefield Land. 



April 23rd. — I was glad that the energetic explorations 

 during these latter days had given such good results ; for the 

 ruins found and measured by me pushed the record of Eskimo 

 ruins to the north side of Humboldt's Glacier ; and as my aim 

 was to collect material for a contribution to a study of the 

 Eskimos' wanderings north of Greenland, I considered the 

 start made was a good one. The point was now to prove 

 whether camps had existed further ahead along our route ; and 

 even if at the outset one might take it for granted, with some 

 degree of certainty, that habitation must have been somewhat 

 fitful all the way along this inhospitable coast, I had some 

 reason to hope for decisive results in the great fjords between 

 Cape Bryan and Cape Washington north of de Long Fjord. 



Encouraged by our good luck, we set out at once to over- 

 take our comrades and the pack-sledges which had already a 

 day's start of us. 



Near Cape Webster we met Uvdloriaq, previously a mem- 

 ber of the first Thule Expedition. He was now engaged with 

 a pack-sledge, and although he originally should have accom- 

 panied us right up to Cape Constitution, he had had to stop 

 here, as severe and painful sciatica prevented him from navigat- 

 ing the sledge across the pressure-ice and on the, in some places, 

 rather awkward ice-foot. 



Round this steep red cape a fresh wind and a sweeping 

 snow-spray is always blowing, and Uvdloriaq had been forced, 

 in spite of his pains, to build himself a snow-hut against the 

 64 



