GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



time being is interrupted. And these days of good hunting do not 

 merely mean that in the course of a few days we shall again be 

 ready to continue our journey with fit and willing dogs ; they 

 also mean that we shall be able to clear up behind us before we 

 continue. For we are now going back to Sherard Osborne 

 Fjord so that we may chart this fjord as well. 



To-day we choose a convenient site for our camp, where we 

 can enjoy life at not too great a distance from the killed musk- 

 oxen. We drive up the river which runs through the southern 

 side of the valley to the big, beautiful lake on the banks of which 

 the welcome big game had to bite the dust. The trac ts round 

 the river and the sea look kind and fertile, comparatively large 

 grass plains stretching across the well-watered spaces. We, 

 who for a long period have been accustomed to barren, stony 

 fields, feel that all this grass dotted with willows is a greeting 

 from the summer, which fights its everlasting battle against 

 the ice. 



Here is plenty of excrement of musk-oxen ; every stretch 

 of clay and sand bears the imprint of their hoofs, and all signs 

 point to the probability that the killed animals must have lived 

 near this sea for a long time. 



Behind the sea the lowland stretches inland as a broad 

 clough-like valley. Wherever the eye rests, stone predominates ; 

 but nevertheless it is apparent that the many little rivulets, which 

 during summer-time seem to run down the brown sides of the 

 mountains, water the neighbourhood so plentifully that in the 

 midst of this desert of stone one finds little oases where 

 herbivorous animals can exist. Apparently here is also an abun- 

 .dance of hares, and for the first time since we left the flesh-pots 

 of home we have the feeling that we can eat our fill, without 

 the fear that a greedy appetite shall take too big a slice out of 

 the rations apportioned to each man. 



The ice on the lake bears witness that we have arrived in 

 no quiet valley. Along the bank it is bare of snow and shiny, 

 but further in the drifts have been whipped stony hard by sand 

 and gravel. On the snow-bare grass plain we pitch the tents, 

 and it is delicious for once to lie on ground which does not con- 

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