PROF. NORDENSKIOLD, EXPEDITION TO GREENLAND. 399 



■svitli the excellent photogen portable kitchen, which we had 

 hitherto carried with us, were laid up in a depot in the neighbour- 

 hood, on which a piece of tarpaulin was stretched upon sticks, that 

 we might be able to find the place on our return ; which, however, 

 we did not succeed in doing, though we must have passed in its 

 immediate vicinity. 



Dr. Berggren and I then proceeded farther inward. The 

 Greenlanders turned back. 



At first we passed one of the before-mentioned extensive bowl- 

 shaped excavations in the ice-plain, which is here furrowed by 

 innumerable rivers, often obliging us to make long circuits ; and, 

 when to avoid this, we endeavoured to make our way along 

 the margin of the valleys, we came, instead, upon a tract where 

 the ice-plain was cloven by long, deep, parallel clefts running true 

 N.N.E. — S.S.W., quite as difficult to get over as the rivers, and 

 far more dangerous. Our progress was accordingly but slow. 

 At twelve o'clock on the 22nd we halted, in glorious, warm, sunny 

 weather, to make a geographical determination. We were now 

 at a height of 2,000 feet, in latitude 68° 22', and in a longitude of 

 57' of arc east of the position of our tent at the fjord. 



During the whole of our excursion on the ice we had seen no 

 animals except a couple of Ravens, which on the morning of the 

 the 22nd, at the moment of our separation, flew over our heads. At 

 first, however, there appeared in many places on the ice traces 

 of Ptarmigans, which seemed to indicate that these birds visit 

 these desert^tracts in by no means inconsiderable flocks. Every- 

 thing else around us was lifeless. Nevertheless, silence by no 

 means reigned here. On bending down the ear to the ice, we 

 could hear on every side a peculiar subterranean hum, proceeding 

 from rivers flowing within the ice; and occasionally a loud single 

 report like that of a cannon gave notice of the formation of a new 

 glacier-cleft. 



After taking the observations, we proceeded over comparatively 

 better ground. Later in the afternoon we saw, at some distance 

 from us, a well-defined pillar of mist, which, when we approached 

 it, appeared to rise from a bottomless abyss, into which a mighty 

 glacier-river fell. The vast roaring water-mass had bored for 

 itself a vertical hole, probably down to the rock, certainly more 

 than two thousand feet beneath, on which the glacier rested. 



The following day (the 23rd) we rested in latitude 68° 22' and 

 76' of arc longitude east from the position of our starting point 

 at Auleitsivik. 



The provisions we had taken with us were, however, now so 

 far exhausted, that we were obliged to think of returning. We 

 determined, nevertheless, first to endeavour to reach an ice-hill 

 visible on the plain to the east, from which we hoped to obtain an 

 extensive view ; and, in order to arrive there as quickly as possible, 

 we left the scanty remains of our provisions and our sleeping sack 

 at the spot where we had passed the night, taking careful notice 

 of the ice-rocks around ; and thus we proceeded by forced march, 

 without encumbrances. 



The ice-hill was considerably further ofl" than we had supposed 



