GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



excursions showed the way. Thus there was no reason for us to 

 continue, all the more as on our departure we had pointed out 

 this fjord as being our absolute goal. 



As far as our work was concerned, I had arrived at a result 

 which could not be elaborated by a continuation of our excur- 

 sion ; for the possibility of a migration of Eskimos north of 

 Greenland had been disposed of by the natural conditions which 

 we found here by the last great fjord on the north-west coast. 

 The land offers no means of subsistence, and the inner regions 

 of the fjord, being covered with floating inland-ice, forbid the 

 seal-hunt so essential for all Eskimo life. 



On the same day we built a final beacon, the Thule beacon, 

 near the large mountain which gave us the terminating view of 

 the last regions of Greenland which were not yet known. 



HOMEWARD AT LAST 



June 22nd-2Srd. — The sudden arrival of the spring had 

 melted the snows, so that we began to find water beneath. This 

 isa stage rightly feared by all Arctic travellers ; for at any 

 moment the sledge may be sucked down by the wet snow, when 

 it is only with the greatest difficulty that one can get it up 

 again. The good seal meat had once more stiffened the tails of 

 the dogspbut the slushy ground quickly wore down their courage. 

 It therefore seemed high time to go down to Dragon Point. 



Even our skis, which had been of such great advantage to 

 us, were heavy as lead with all the wet snow that clung to them ; 

 we rubbed them with a candle, but the beneficent results did 

 not last long. And the snowshoes which bore up so well in the 

 soft snow were now, like the skis, enveloped in thick layers of 

 wet snow and hung like weights round our feet. 



We started at seven o'clock on the 22nd, and by one o'clock 

 we had covered the 22 kilometres to Lockwood's Beacon, where 

 we pitched our tents and cooked as many hares as we could 

 manage to eat. We had shot seven on the way during the 

 day, and with the addition of a piece of blubber these lean hares 

 were a delicacy. We suffered from the heat and went about 

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