174 G. Amdbup. 



October 24th. From a hill top on the island Bistrup thought 

 he could see a fairly passable way betweeii the icebergs across the 

 sound. It took, however, no less than 5 hours to pass the ca. 8 kilo- 

 meters broad sound, a proof of the number of icebergs that had 

 to be passed. In the evening they raised the tent on Carl Hegers 

 Island. 



On October 2öth the journey was continued towards A. 

 Stellings Sound and the tent raised on the western end of Teufel Cape 

 Island. Off the southern point of the biggest island they found open 

 water, which however was passed by driving on a border of ice run- 

 ning along the land and just thick enough to bear. W several places 

 between the islands there was newly formed ice. 



On October 26th the tent was raised off the western end of 

 Lichts Island where a bear and its cub were shot. 



On October 27th they began the return journey and reached the 

 ship on the 28th. 



Regarding the journey Bistrup states, that though the weather 

 was good and the temperature not very low, the conditions were un- 

 favourable owing to the feeble light. In spite of the unclouded air they 

 could not see very far or rather they could not clearly distinguish 

 the projecting points, cairns and the like. Owing to the early dark- 

 ness each travelling day was besides shorter, and this was especially 

 inconvenient here where unknown ground of difficult nature had to 

 be surveyed. 



Hagerup lent good assistance to Bistrup throughout the work. 



On the 18th of October the and party of the relief expedition, 

 consisting of Peter Hansen, Hendrik Olsen and Ring returned 

 (see p. 168). They only brought bad news about the conditions further 

 north, which added to the pessimisti«'. feeling that increased every 

 day as nothing was heard of Mvlius-Erichsen and his comrades. 



But the hope was not dead, for they all knew the sterling qualities 

 of these three men. if they could not find their way out nobody could. 



About these days the so-called "ice-cave" up in the hills near 

 the station was surveyed by Bertelsen, Koch and Wegener. It 

 was formed by a deep crevice in which the snow had accumulated 

 during centuries and become ice. Every summer the water from 

 the melting snow forced its way through the bottom of the crevice, 

 in this way forming a most splendid vault in the ice. When the water 

 in late summer began to fall in the river, it was possible to penetrate 

 into the ice-grotto, which was more than 2 kilometers long and ca. 

 20 meters high. 



In order to try and get fresh meat for the very exhausted dogs 

 Avhich had cume home from the north, Bertelsen and Manniche 



