CHAPTER VI 

 THE CAMP BY THE OWL'S NEST 



THE FIRST WANDERING IN PEARY LAND 



JUNE 4th. — We had no other choice but to get away from 

 Nordenskjold Fjord as quickly as possible. A hunting 

 expedition across the ground where Hendrik and Bosun 

 had shot their musk-oxen gave no result ; we merely made the 

 acquaintance of a stone desert which gave no promise for the 

 filling of our meat-pots, and close behind the mountainous 

 coast lay the inland-ice. As the weather appeared to be clear- 

 ing up, I decided to go in along Chip Inlet. The fjord had to 

 be charted, and it would be as well to get it done on our outward 

 journey. Also, at a distance the land looked good ; the moun- 

 tains had even slopes and many doughs seemed to cut into the 

 land like valleys. We therefore set off in spite of the discourag- 

 ing haze. The fog lasted obstinately all during our day's 

 journey, until we were quite near to land ; then the clear sky 

 slowly began to break through, with rich promise for the day 

 from which we now expected so much. In the forenoon the 

 sun at last conquered the raw thickness. 



A cold, snow-white, mountainous land lay before us in full 

 winter dress, but brilliantly beautiful with cone-shaped moun- 

 tains, big cloughs, and sloping foreland. No glacier covered 

 the land ; here was at last a piece of Peary Land which 

 seemed to promise good hunting. 



But pushing ahead was slow work. We had to walk the 

 whole way, two men by the sledges and one in front, and thus 

 twelve hours elapsed before we had covered the 31 kilometres 

 to the point which we found convenient for making our camp. 

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