GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



beak whizzed past our eyes, and we had to duck to protect our 

 faces from its outstretched claws. 



On the utmost point of the brink we found a primitive nest 

 containing nine white eggs, not unlike hen's eggs but somewhat 

 smaller and rounder. The nest, which was very simple, con- 

 sisted of a depression of the soil with a little grass at the bottom. 

 We left them in peace, to the great surprise of the male owl, 

 which was only accustomed to fight against ermine and wolf, 

 which know not mercy. 



Some distance further ahead Ajako shot two hares, where- 

 after we parted to hunt each in our own direction. I climbed 

 the mountains to obtain a view, whilst he continued right ahead. 



The mountain I ascend is a slate-stone mountain 40 metres 

 high, black and cone-shaped, with crumbling stones which pro- 

 vide a poor foothold. When at last I reach the top I obtain a 

 view which nearly takes the breath away from me. I have to 

 rub my eyes before I dare to believe in the reality of that which 

 I look upon. Before my feet, in along the fjord, I discover a 

 whirlpool with a couple of floating ice-mountains. 



An arm of the fjord, only 2 kilometres broad, cuts into the 

 country, first in the direction of north-west towards Mascart 

 Inlet, to which it seems to send an arm, later, turning north 

 and north-east in the direction of de Long Fjord, it is lost 

 among the mountains, where I cannot see its head. But the 

 circumstance that here, in the middle of a Sikussaq fjord, nearly 

 at N. Lat. 83°, we came across an opening in the ice, points 

 to the probability that this narrow branch must be part of a 

 channel which either runs out into Mascart Inlet, or probably 

 into Jewell Inlet. There is a very strong current in the open 

 water. From the high ground on which I stand I can plainly 

 discern vortices. And the main direction runs towards Chip 

 Inlet. On the firm edge of the ice I discover to my surprise 

 and joy two seals, and in the snow the depressions of a third 

 which has just gone down. 



This surprising discovery opens up unsuspected possibilities. 



The land itself is ice-free in all directions — i.e., without a 

 connected glacier ; merely an occasional local tongue of a glacier 

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