412 JP)'of. NordensMdld — Expedition to Greenland. 



south of ClaushaYn. By means of certain arrangements made by 

 the Inspector, we were enabled to make a particularly interesting 

 tour inland, to the extremity of one of the largest ice-fjords in 

 Greenland — the ice-fjord of Jakobshavn. 



This fjord is found inserted on very early maps of G-reenland, 

 though generally as a sound uniting the North Atlantic with Baffins 

 Bay. It is now known that the supposed sound is only a deep 

 fjord, filled throughout its whole length with huge icebergs, which 

 completely close the fjord, not only to ships, but also to whale-boats 

 and umiaks, nay, even to kajaks (canoes). The shores of the fjord 

 are therefore uninhabited, and seldom visited. A tradition exists 

 among the Grreenlanders, that the fjord was in former times less ob- 

 structed by ice, and was consequently a good hunting and fishing place ; 

 and this is confirmed by the older maps of the fjord, but especially 

 by the numerous remains of old dwellings, which are still met with 

 along the shores, not only of the principal fjord,, but of its southern 

 arm, Tessiursak, now completely barricaded by icebergs and inacces- 

 sible from the sea (not to be confounded with the fjord Tessiursarsoak 

 which we had just left). Tessiursak itself is still tolerably free from 

 ice, and is easily reached by dragging an umiak over the point which 

 separates the western shore of Tessiursak from the ocean. For such 

 a purpose, however, a traveller must take his umiak with him, partly 

 because he cannot obtain any boat at the now deserted Tessiursak. 

 partly because about half-way over the point he meets with a lake, 

 to go round which would be a considerable circuit. 



On our arrival at Leerbugten, we found, in consequence of the 

 Inspector's excellent arrangements, a Greenland family there to 

 meet us, and the woman's boat, or "umiak," lay drawn up upon the 

 shore. The journey over the point was immediately commenced. 

 Six men took the roomy umiak upon their shoulders, others took our 

 instruments, provisions for us and our people for two days. The 

 way was taken first over a highland ridge, which separates the sea. 

 from the lake, on the shore of which the Greenlanders had pitched 

 their summer tent. Here we rested awhile, and tried the temperature 

 of the water (12° Centigr.), by a bathe in the lake, to the great 

 astonishment of the Greenlanders. We then rowed over the lake in 

 the umiak, took it up and carried it on our shoulders over another 

 point, steeper but shorter than the former, and clothed just at this 

 time in all the colours that the Flora of the extreme north can 

 offer. On the other side of this point was water again, not however 

 fresh, but salt — it was the above-mentioned southern arm of Ja- 

 kobshavn ice-fjord. The umiak was again launched, and, after 

 a row of a few hours, interrupted by hunting after young sea- 

 gulls, we reached the spot where Tessiursak falls into the main ice- 

 ■ fjord very near its inner extremity. Here the water that was free, 

 or nearly free from ice, terminated, and we had to make our way 

 along the southern shore of the ice-fjord for a distance, not indeed 

 long, but dangerous, on account of the masses of ice driven hither 

 and thither by the violent currents near the shore. 



Further out the fjord was completely covered with lofty sharp- 



