Report on the Danmark expedition to the north-east coast. 121 



To understand why Mylius-Erichsen broke through the per- 

 haps too sohd principle, which he himself had expressly laid down 

 in his plan for the sledge journey, that they were not to venture fur- 

 ther than regard for a safe retreat permitted, the following considera- 

 tions may be given here; they are in the main a repetition of the 

 statements made by Mylius-Erichsen to Koch on the journey be- 

 tween April 26th and 30th. 



The difficulties of the journey had been underestimated. A sledge 

 party of 10 sledges, which had only 3 fully experienced drivers, must 

 always travel more slowly than a smaller, more select party, and this 

 becomes more and more evident as the difficulties on the way increase. 



In the autumn of 1906 Mylius-Erichsen with untrained men 

 and fully loaded sledges had achieved an average day's journey of 

 over 60 kilometers on the return from the Pendulum Islands; it might 

 seem justifiable, therefore, to take 35 kilometers as the average day's 

 march for the spring journey. 



The distance from Danmarks Havn to Independence Bay had 

 been estimated at about 400 kilometers, an estimate based partly 

 on Gerlache's statement of the lie of the coast up to 79° and partly 

 on the fact, that Peary had given the direction of the coast line from 

 Academy Glacier to be south-east. 



Had these, seemingly correct suppositions held good, Mylius- 

 Erichsen would have been able to reach Independence Bay without 

 in any way depending on what he got from hunting. On the other 

 hand, it was reasonable to hope for game. It had proved certainly, 

 that the musk-ox was much rarer in North-East Greenland than we 

 at home had expected, nor had the bear hunting been very promi- 

 sing; but again the goal itself was a district, Avhich was known from 

 Peary's journeys to contain musk-ox and that, in all probability, 

 in considerable abundance. 



The estimate of the distance was erroneous. The land projected 

 much further to the east than expected and the length of the journey 

 was thus increased by about 300 kilometers. Worse still, the estimate 

 of the day's march was also erroneous. Even fjord ice and firm snow, 

 such as had been met with on the journey to the Pendulum Islands 

 in 1906, were only exceptionally encountered during the spring journey 

 of 1907: instead, the travellers met with screw-ice of the worst kind, 

 in which sledges were damaged daily, or deep snow, where the dogs 

 could not pull the sledges, or lastly, a rough and sloping ice-foot, 

 where progress was very slow and laborious. The disadvantage of 

 having only 3 fully experienced sledge drivers among 10 was very 

 marked under such conditions. The drivers had in fact to learn during 

 the journey itself and probably most of them never learnt how to 

 repair a sledge. 



Naturally, Mylius-Erichsen had already seen, that the sujjpo- 



