Report on the Danmark expedition to the north-east coast. 73 



thought, that the work would be so engrossing, that this fact Avould 

 only be of any practical importance to the artists. 



The small plot of land, where the station was set up on shore, 

 might itself be regarded as an island, being surrounded by the two 

 small rivers (Øster-Eh^en and Vester-Elvenj and the harbour. The 

 ground here consisted of a low gravel plain, through which rock pro- 

 jected here and there. The vegetation was rich considering the con- 

 ditions; immediately north and east of the dwelling-house (Villaen) 

 extended continuous carpets of Cassiope and further north in the 

 swampy bog (Basiskæret) there was a sparse gro^^^h of Cyperaceae. 

 The two rivers were just so wide, that one could in general jump over 

 them; but especially the Vester Elv in the early summer could bring 

 down considerable quantities of water and a gangway (Spang | had 

 to be thrown over it. 



According to the original arrangement the Expedition was to 

 carry 2 houses to Greenland, a larger to be set up at the winter quarters, 

 and a smaller intended as a dwelling house at a depot, which might 

 be formed away from the ship as far north as possible. In both cases 

 the walls, gable, floor, loft and roofing had been constructed at home, 

 so that only a few hours' work was required to set up the houses in 

 Greenland. The largest of the houses, which was sent to Iceland by 

 mail-steamer, had to be left behind owing to lack of space in the vessel 

 and only the smaller was taken to Greenland. The unwieldy large 

 pieces of which it was composed, had to be lashed over the main- 

 hatch and here they were so damaged and warped to such an extent, 

 that it became necessary in great part to separate the planks and set 

 them together again before the house could be built. 



The house, which was almost 5 meters square internally, had 

 only one room. In the one gable was a window, in the opposite gable 

 the door and above a trap-door; there was no porch. As the window 

 of necessity had to face southward, the door and trap-door faced north- 

 ward. With the prevailing north-west winds this was an extremely 

 unfortunate arrangement; a small porch was therefore built on the 

 north side of the house with entrance from the east. As the porch 

 could not be raised higher than the trap-door for certain practical 

 reasons, this was directly exposed to snow-drifts and the consequence 

 was, that the loft became absolutely full of snow during every snow- 

 storm. 



A heavy wall of earth and stone was raised with great labour 

 round the house almost to the eaves; in the autumn of 1907, when 

 the wall had crumbled partially, it was repaired with provision boxes. 



The interior furnishing of the house was quite spartan-like. 

 On each side and nearest the door there were 2 broad berths one above 

 the other. Against the south gable wall stood a long table, with sitting 

 room for 4, one at each end and two at the long .side in towards the 



