Prof. Nordenshibld — Expedition to Greenland. 303 



upon the inlaad ice with dogs immediately to the north of the ice- 

 fjord at Jacobshavn, but that they turned back again on the 

 second day, after having proceeded only some few miles. The reason 

 of this was probably the unfitness of dogs for such a purpose. 



It was originally my intention to renew these attempts, but on 

 conversing in Copenhagen with Messrs. Eink and Olrik, who had 

 formerly been Inspectors in North Greenland, as also with several 

 other persons who had visited Greenland, I found all so un- 

 animous in considering further advance over the inland ice as im- 

 possible, that I determined not to risk the whole profit of the 

 summer on an undertaking of the kind beforehand disapproved of 

 by everybody. Nevertheless, I was unwilling entirely to abandon 

 my plan, and determined therefore to make a little attempt at a 

 journey on the inland ice only of a few days' extent. 



If the inland ice were not in motion, it is clear that its surface 

 would be as even and unbroken as that of a sand field. But this, 

 as is known, is not the case. The inland ice is in constant motion, 

 advancing slowly, but with difi'erent velocity in difi"erent places, to- 

 wards the sea, into which it passes on the west coast of Greenland 

 through eight or ten large and a great many small ice- streams. 

 This movement of the ice gives rise in its turn to huge chasms and 

 clefts, the almost bottomless depths of which close the traveller's 

 way. It is natural that these clefts should occur chiefly where the 

 movement of the ice is most rapid, that is to say, in the neighbour- 

 hood of the great ice-streams, but that on the other hand at a greater 

 distance from these the ground will be found more free from cracks. 

 On this account I determined to begin our wanderings on the ice at 

 a point as far distant as possible from the real ice-fjords. I should 

 have preferred one of the deep " Stromfjords (stream-fjords) for 

 this purpose, but as other business intended to be carried out during 

 the short summer did not permit a journey per boat so far south- 

 ward, I selected instead for my object the northern arm of the 

 above-mentioned Auleitsivikfjord, which is situated 60 miles south 

 of the ice-fjord at Jakobshavn, and 240 miles north of that of 

 Godthaab. The inland ice, it is true, even in Auleitsivikfjord 

 reaches to the bottom of the fjord, but it only forms there a per- 

 pendicular glacier, very similar to the glaciers at King's Bay in 

 Spitzbergen, but not any real ice-stream. There was accordingly 

 reason to expect that such fissures and chasms as might here occur 

 would be on a smaller scale. 



On the 17th July, in the afternoon, our tent was pitched on the 

 shore north of the steep precipitous edge of the inland ice at Auleit- 

 sivikfjord. After having employed the 18th in preparations and a 

 few slight reconnoitrings, we entered on our wandering inwards on 

 the 19th. We set out early in the morning, and first rowed to a 

 little bay situated in the neighbourhood of the spot occupied by our 

 tent, into which several clayey rivers had their embouchures. Here 

 the land assumed a character varied by hill and dale, and further 

 inward was bounded by an ice wall sometimes perpendicular and 

 sometimes rounded, covered with a thin layer of earth and stones, 



