GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



an encouraging sight which we have not witnessed since the 7th 

 of May ; they all wear kamiks and do not suffer much from the 

 sharp points of the ice. At six o'clock we pitch our tent in the 

 middle of the fjord off Reef Island, which is one of the Beau- 

 mont Isles. In spite of the occasionally difficult condition of 

 the ground, we have already rather heavy loads for the return 

 journey. We have paraffin, pemmican, biscuits, coffee, tea, 

 sugar, oats, our clothes, and each eight ox-shoulders and legs, 

 besides tallow and melted marrow. We really do not need a 

 great addition of seal meat for each sledge. But so far we have, 

 strangely enough, not seen any seals at all. 



If only we can get two whole seals per sledge — altogether 

 six — in addition to what we shall require before we ascend the 

 inland-ice, we shall easily reach the land by Cape Agassiz, 

 situated only 400 kilometres from St. George Fjord. 



It is the fourth time on this journey that I come to Sherard 

 Osborne Fjord. Without comparison it is the most beautiful 

 of all the fjords up here, the wildest horizon outward, most air 

 inward, with peculiar geological formations. The Devonian 

 section out towards the mouth is light brown and warm in tinge, 

 with numerous tongues of glacier pushing down between the 

 high out-jutting capes ; the Silurian further in, bluish, leaden- 

 grey, strongly changing in colours in the varying light ; and 

 inmost the tender, often pink algonkium, the eozoic section 

 with its fine pinks of dawn. 



In the background, through a mighty wide gateway by Cape 

 Buttress, is the inland-ice, which from this point shows against 

 the horizon as a whitish sun-glittering fog. 



In the beautiful, quiet afternoon as I am writing this, pre- 

 vious to the start for Dragon Point, the enormous stillness of 

 the fjord is broken by occasional rolling thunder from the many 

 small local glaciers which seem unusually lively here on the 

 north-east side of the fjord. Our camp is in the middle of the 

 fjord. At seven o'clock in the afternoon we break up, setting 

 our course for Dragon Point. 



Fortunately we have the same easy going as yesterday. The 

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