A HUXTING TRIP TO NORTHERN GREENLAND 121 



Almost everywhere along the Greenland coast we had caught 

 glimpses of the Great Inland Glacier, or mighty Ice-Cap, which 

 covers th« interior of the country. From the North Water a vast 

 stretch of the great ice-sheet had been seen, flowing over the peaks 

 which bordered Inglefield Gulf. 



On August 23 we started with dogs, sledges, and Eskimo dog drivers 

 for a trip upon this might}' table-land of ice. Three Eskimo with 

 their families had come over with us from Inglefield Gulf, and Ave 

 had two sledges and eight dogs. In the afternoon we rode across 

 Olriks Bay, each man shouldered his pack, the Eskimo took up the 

 dog-traces, and we were fairly on our way. 



Our route lay up a steep glacier, to the Avest of Half Dome Moun- 

 tain. To the right Olriks Bay ended abruptly in the white mass of 

 the Marie Glacier ; opposite rose the high plateau we had scoured so 

 often for deer, and be.yond, in the dim distance, stood out the purple 

 mountains on the north shore of Inglefield Gulf, bearing on their 

 summits the eternal icy covering of Greenland. We descended into 

 a valley. Soon the soft, spong}^ soil of the latter changed to a field 

 of ice, and the dogs were harnessed again to the sledges. But the ice 

 was exceedingly sharp and rough, and the poor dogs howled most 

 piteously ; before long, indeed, their wounded feet were leaving blood- 

 S{)ots on the snow. .So we harnessed all but two — which ran away — 

 to one sledge, and pulled the other ourselves, until, a rocky ridge ap- 

 pearing, we halted and cami)ed for the night. 



By the next afternoon we had skirted a river, made another i)assage 

 over rough ice, and were .standing, at a point some six miles inland, 

 before the towering white wall of the Great Inland Glacier. Tlie steep 

 sloi)e was manv hundred feet in heiglit, and it was something of a 

 struggle to climb it, Init it was done, and, tlie snow furnishing easy 

 traveling, the dogs were once more divided between the two sledges. 

 With sledges, snow-shoes, and ski we made good speed. Gradually 

 the land behind us faded away, and the undulating surface of the 

 ice-cap became more level ; on ever}^ side stretched the snowv wastes 

 of the Arctic continent. 



Three or four reddish-brown nunataks cropped uj) through the snow 

 far to the left. A low ridge of ice was ascended, and at the same time 

 a line of pale blue mountains, probabl^y those about \\'olstenholnie 

 Sound, came into view to the soutliwest. A sort of snow-fog settled 

 upon us, covering us with hoar-frost. 



Here, some fifteen miles from the ice edge and at an elevation of 



