GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



lives will be closed, and its access to the ocean and to food will 

 be barred. Even if the seal should succeed in slipping down 

 through the fissure, it woidd run the risk of being killed, and 

 this is probably the reason for the short duration of its sleep, 

 and for its being so easily startled by the slightest sound. 



When we had wasted a good deal of time on the teasing 

 seal, we abandoned ice-hunting to try our fortune on land. 

 Here Bosun quickly succeeded in bringing down three fat, 

 delicious barnacle-geese, which proved a comforting com- 

 pensation. 



We spent a day at Low Point with quick changes in the 

 weather, and a temperature of a constant minus 1° (Cent.). 

 Due north the sky is clear, but thick banks of fog constantly 

 drift in from north-west, enveloping everything in a raw, 

 whitish-grey haze ; the sun is permitted to shine on us for a few 

 moments, then once more it disappears ; towards evening a 

 belt of fog settles on the mountains to the south-west, leaving 

 the horizon visible, and we decide to continue. 



We cross Jewell Inlet, which, with its pointed high moun- 

 tains, reminds one of Mascart Inlet. We pass Cape Wykander, 

 which proves to be an island, and from this point we enter on 

 an even gradient of coastland trending in towards the mouth of 

 de Long Fjord. All this even mountain-land is very fertile, 

 and seems to be the favoured haunt of hares and ptarmigan. 

 Without the slightest delay in our progress, we succeed in 

 killing, almost straight from our sledges, four hares and six 

 ptarmigan. But in spite of the wealth of willow and grass, 

 we find no sign of musk-oxen. The whole of the connected 

 high mountain ridge which runs from the sound by Cape 

 Wykander in to de Long Fjord has before its foot a wide and 

 pretty plain. 



On a very low projecting point we find a small beacon which, 

 to our surprise, contains a report from Lock wood. 



In a lane 5 kilometres from land Ajako shoots a seal, and 

 we now feel well provisioned for our stay in the fjord where we 

 are to finish our work. 



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