DE LONG FJORD TO CAPE SALOR 



would be no musk-ox, no lemming, no hare ; and without these, 

 again, no ermine, no wolf — just a cemetery where only the 

 silence of death broods. 



From our flat camp-ground we had an excellent view of 

 Nordenskjold Inlet. Our thoughts took their own way in across 

 the inland-ice at its narrowest point to Independence Fjord. 

 From here it was that Mylius-Erichsen, Hagen, and Bronlund 

 were the first men to view the head of the fjord which overthrew 

 the whole theory of the Peary Channel ; and even if they did 

 not succeed in mapping their discovery, they laid down a report 

 in a beacon with full information as to what they had seen. The 

 tragedy which struck them down on their homeward journey, 

 when they were forced to spend the summer in a place in Den- 

 mark Fjord, poor in game, is too well known for me to repeat. 

 Suffice it to mention the heroic task which Jorgen Bronlund 

 accomplished, when from the depot in Lambert Land he fetched 

 food for his two comrades who could keep up no longer — a 

 sacrifice which was not destined to save their lives. When, 

 later on, after the death of Mylius-Erichsen and Hagen, 

 Bronlund once more struggled along to Lambert Depot to 

 deposit the scientific results in a spot where they would be 

 found, he wrote his own and his camp comrades' death-rune on 

 the leaf of his diary with the proud words : 



" Skirted 79-Fjord after attempt return journey across inland 

 ice in November month. I arrived here in waning moonshine 

 and could not continue because of the darkness and of frost-bites 

 to my feet. The corpses of the others will be found in the 

 middle of the fjord in front of glacier. Hagen died 10th Novem- 

 ber and Mylius about ten days later." 



The concluding work of charting the head of Independence 

 Fjord and its near surroundings was executed by the first Thule 

 Expedition, when Peter Freuchen was cartographer. In 

 memory of his contribution towards the exploration of the 

 northernmost Greenland, we named the great expanse between 

 I. P. Koch Fjord and Nordenskjold Fjord, Peter Freuchen 

 Land. 165 



