GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



a greeting from our comrades. Right off us there is a pressure- 

 ridge of about 20 metres ; outside this the ice is smooth, 

 whilst the pressure-ice of the old Polar-ice commences already 

 a few kilometres seaward. Along the ice-foot there is an old 

 track of bear. 



The depot proves a disappointment in so far as we find only 

 three cans of paraffin and six tins of pemmican. 



To our surprise, we find excrements of musk-ox also on this 

 island, which almost entirely consists of high, rugged mountain- 

 land without a trace of valley tracts. The musk-oxen, then, 

 must have been here only temporarily. Three barnacle-geese 

 come flying from far out on the Polar Sea, and on land the 

 ptarmigan are cackling. 



We are back again in the tent at eleven o'clock, gourman- 

 dizing to our hearts' content on Peary's pemmican. This 

 Polar pemmican, in contrast to the sort with which we are 

 acquainted, has a wonderful addition of lots of raisins and sugar 

 kneaded into the meat and fat, so that it has the consistency 

 almost of a sweetmeat ; at any rate, no marzipan cake could 

 have tasted better. For the sake of economy, we mix it with 

 porridge, and boil it into a thick gruel, which settles down in 

 our stomachs with an unusual, but not uncomfortable, heaviness. 



Wulff 's letter, which is as usual a welcome sign of life in our 

 monotonous treadmill round, goes from hand to hand and gives 

 rise to much discussion and conjecture. We then snuggle 

 down in our sleeping-bags, relishing for the first time outside 

 our tent the unusual summer warmth. We close our eyes after 

 a journey of thirty-six hours. 



But our food has been heavier than our customary meals of 

 hare ; our sleep is restless and we frequently wake up. 



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