EXPEDITION TO DAVIS STRAIT AND B AFFIX BAY 27 



maneiivei' and throw their spears at objects in the water near the ship 

 and the grounded bergs. The Greenlanders could dart about very 

 siviiifuUy in their tiny craft and coidd throw tlieir spears very accu- 

 rately into pieces of 

 meat and blubber 

 from distances o f 

 about 20 yards. 



At 6.15 a. m. on 

 August 11 the Mar- 

 ion departed from 

 the smooth anchor- 

 age off Ata. She 

 rounded the south- 

 ern tip of Prince Is- 

 land and then pro- 

 ceeded n o r t h w a r d 

 into the Yaigat. 

 The day, like the 

 preceding one, was 

 almost calm, with 

 partly cloud}^ skies 

 and temperatures 

 from 40° to 51° F. 

 The northern end of 

 Disko Bay and the 

 Viagat— the same as 

 the water between 

 GodhaAii and Ja- 

 cob s h a v n — w^ a s 

 studded with hun- 

 dreds of bergs of 

 every size. 



The run up tin 

 Vaigat between tlic 

 heights of Disko Is- 

 land and Xugsuak 

 Peninsula was most 

 impressive, for on 

 either side of the 

 narrow^ strait tow^- 

 ered mountains over 

 5,000 feet high. 

 Their tops w^ere 

 capped with ice 

 domes, but lower 

 dowm there was lit- 

 tle but bare rock. 

 Low^ vegetation flour- 

 ished where there was soil near sea level and could be seen in ever- 

 diminishing quantities as altitude was gained. 



The higher parts of the mountains were formed of alternate layers 

 of red lava and ash. Farther down they consisted of yellowish 



BOUND FOR THE INLAND ICE 



Figure 22. — During our stop at Port Quervain we took the 

 opportunity to journej' eastward to the edge of the vast 

 sheet of inland ice that covers about half a million square 

 miles of the surface of Greenland. Only the coastal regions 

 of the great island are free from glacial ice. This view 

 shows some of the crew surmounting the terminal moraine 

 of the ice cap. 



