Prof, Nordenskiold — Expedition to Greenland. 305 



circumstances of dragging with us the 30 days' provision with which 

 we had furnished ourselves, especially as it was evident, that if we 

 we wished to proceed further, we must transform ourselves from 

 draught to pack horses. We therefore determined to leave the 

 sledge and part of the provisions, take the rest on our shoulders and 

 proceed on foot. We now got on quicker, though for a sufficiently 

 long time over ground as bad as before. The ice became gradually 

 smoother, and was broken by large bottomless chasms, which one 

 must either jump over with a heavy load on one's back, in which 

 case woe to him who made a false step, or else make a long circuit 

 to avoid. After two hours' wandering, the region of clefts was 

 passed. We, however, in the course of our journey, very frequently 

 met with portions of similar ground, though none of any very great 

 extent. We were now at a height of more than 800 feet above the 

 level of the sea. Farther inward the surface of the ice, except at 

 the occasionally-recurring regions of clefts, resembled that of a 

 stormy sea suddenly bound in fetters by the cold. The rise inwards 

 was still quite perceptible, though frequently interrupted by shallow 

 valleys, the centres of which were occupied by several lakes or 

 ponds with no apparent outlet, although they received water from 

 innumerable rivers running along the sides of the excavation. These 

 rivers presented in many places not so dangerous though quite as 

 time-wasting a hindrance to our progress as the clefts — with this 

 difference, however, that they did not so often occur, but the circuits 

 to avoid them were so much the longer. 



During the whole of our journey on the ice we constantly enjoyed 

 fine weather, frequently there was not a single cloud visible in the 

 whole sky. The warmth was to us, clad as we were, sensible ; in 

 the shade, near the ice of course, but little over zero ; higher up, in 

 the shade, as much as 7° or 8° ; but in the sim 25° to 30° Gentig. 

 After sunset the water-pools froze, and the nights were very cold. 

 We had no tent with us, and, although our party consisted of four 

 men, only two ordinary sleeping sacks. These were open at both 

 ends, so that two persons could, though with great difficulty, with 

 their feet opposite to each other, squeeze themselves into one sack. 

 With rough ice for a substratum, the bed was thus so uncomfortable 

 that, after a few hours' sleep, one was awakened by cramp in one's 

 closely contracted joints, and, as there was only a thin tarpaulin 

 between the ice and the sleeping sack, the bed was extremely cold to 

 the side resting on the ice, which the Greenlanders, who turned back 

 before us, described to Dr. Nordstrom by shivering and shaking 

 throughout their whole bodies. Our nights' rests were, therefore, 

 seldom long ; but our midday rests, during which we could bask in 

 a glorious warm sun-bath, were taken on a proportionately more 

 copious scale, whereby I was enabled to take observations both for 

 altitude and longitude. 



On the surface of the inland ice we do not meet with any stones at 

 a distance of more than a cable's length from the border ; but we 

 find everywhere instead, vertical cylindrical holes, of a foot or two 

 deep, and from a couple of lines to a couple of feet in section, so 



VOL. IX. — NO. xcvii. 20 



