Report on the Danmark expedition to the north-east coast. 145 



They drove back to the tent-place near the depot with the dead 

 bears, which were skinned, cut up and the greater part of the meat 

 placed in the depot. While piling up the depot G. Thostrup had 

 the bad luck to get one of his fingers severely crushed by a stone 

 tumbling on it. 



.AJl these doings took another few days. 



On May 11th they drove into the district south of Holms Land. 

 It proved to be a sound, the two branches of which, Hekla Sound 

 and Dijmphna Sound, encircled Lynn Island and afterwards ran between 

 the mainland and Hovgaards Island down to the Nioghalvfjerdsfjord. 



During the days from the 11th to the 18th of May Hekla and 

 Dijmphna Sound were examined and surveyed, though the weather 

 was often hazy and the sledging л-егу bad owing to exceptionally 

 large quantities of deep and soft snow in the Sounds here. A lot of fossils 

 were found here. On the 18th the journey was continued down through the 

 Sound between the mainland and Hovgaards Island, G. Thostrup and 

 Wegener hoping to get confirmation of their supposition that this Sound 

 would lead them to Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden. If this was not the case, 

 they would be obliged to return by the same way and would then be in 

 want of provisions. They drove in the middle of the Sound but gra- 

 dually the ice became quite impassable. There could be no doubt 

 that they were on the boundary between the outflowing glacier-ice 

 and the sea ice. The tidal water had also caused some large screwings 

 here. They therefore drove in to land and raised the tent. 



On May 19th they succeeded in finding a passage through the 

 screwings and across the slopes and cracks behind them. The journey 

 was now continued on the inland ice across the ice-stream between 

 the mainland and Lamberts Land. On the whole they made good 

 progress this day. The tent was raised near Lamberts Land. 



May 20th. The journey was continued down along Lamberts 

 Land. To begin with they made good progress but later their way 

 was barred by cracks and screwngs, forcing them to make great de- 

 tours. One of the cracks was almost 20 meters broad and filled with 

 brackish water, though Ьочуел'ег with a distinctly saltish taste. Later 

 the ice was very uneven and rougli but towards the end of the day's 

 journey it became rather good. They raised the tent off a headland 

 on the southern side of the fjord after having crossed the sledge- 

 tracks of Bistrup and Ring (who had been here on the 27th of April, 

 i. e. 24 days earlier, so that the tracks may last a long time if condi- 

 tions are favourable). 



Г)п May 21st they reached the depot on Lamberts Land without 

 difficulty. It had been an interesting but very fatiguing journey 

 over the magnificent and picturesque Nioghalvfjerdsfjord. The 

 travellers were also very exhausted when they reached the dejml, 

 not only on account of the exertions but also owing to insufficient 

 xu 10 



