Report on the Danmark expedition to tlie nortli-east coast. 93 



screw-ice, which under such conditions was always to be preferred 

 to the glassy ice. Here Bronlund's sledge broke do\NTa; but with 

 almost incredible hardiness he unloaded his sledge with bare hands, 

 loosened the straps of the sledge, lashed it together again and loaded 

 it — a work that took over an hour. Koch and Ring, who helped 

 him naturally as well as they could, were obliged every minute to 

 stick their hands into their mittens and beat their arms, to avoid 

 being frozen. On continuing through the screw-ice to reach the 

 land, Koch was so unfortunate as to fall down from the top of a hum- 

 mock over his own sledge. One of the sledge uprights struck him 

 in the breast just at the spot where he was carrying 2 chronometers 

 in a skin-bag against the bare chest. The glass of one of them was 

 broken with the blow and the chronometer at once stopped. 



When the 3 sledges reached the edge of the screw-ice at a spot 

 where even, snow-covered ice led into land, Bronlund stopped and 

 explained, that now he believed he could find the others again; his 

 team of dogs, he said, had winded something or other, and it would 

 almost certainly prove to be the track of the others' sledges; in any 

 case it could not be bear, of that he was quite certain ! Koch and 

 RiXG, who had only been able with the greatest difficulty to follow 

 Bronlund through the screw-ice and whose eyes were so glued to- 

 gether by the snow, that they could hardly see the sledge, though 

 holding on to the uprights, half thought that Bronlund's suggestion 

 was ill-timed boasting. But when Bronlund left his sledge and dis- 

 appeared in the driving snow, to return after a quarter of an hour 

 with the information, that he had really found the tracks, all doubt 

 vanished. The sledges were set in motion again and before very long 

 they reached Mylius-Erichsen's tent. 



November 17th. Snowstorm. No advance owing to the weather. 



November 18th. Towards eA'ening the weather cleared. Sledges 

 repaired. 



November 19th. Calm. Temperature — 22° to — 28° С Sought 

 for the dogs with lanterns for two hours. Two of the dogs, Kunuk 

 and Lady, could not be found and had consequently to be left be- 

 hind. A third dog had run away at Haystack i. In the evening, 

 after a long day's march under the most favourable ice conditions, 

 they reached the south-west corner of Shannon Island, close to the 

 north of Cape Tramnitz. 



November 20th. Whilst Koch, G. Thostrup and Wegener con- 

 tinued south towards Pendulum Straits, Mylius-Erichsen with 

 Brøklund and Ring drove east along the south coast of Shannon 



'^ The third dog fell in with the parly again at Haystack on the return journey. 

 Kunuk and Lady arrived at the ship in the end of January 1907. One of the 

 places visited by them was Store Koldewey Island, where in the manner of foxes 

 they had dug their way down to a deposited bear. 



