Report on the Danmark expedition to the north-east coast. 183 



which is now carried out with difficulty in 8 days only took 2 or 3 

 days without the least trouble the ^^^nter before". Onboard ship 

 they thus gained the same experience as the party to Shannon Island. 



On the 20th of December Trolle climbed the hill and observed 

 open water out to sea and a very distinct "water sky" both in the 

 north and south. On the 10th of December G. Thostrup had seen 

 open water off Bass Rock, so that there seems to have been much 

 open water off the coast during this time. The weather was now com- 

 paratively mild and the ice was this year very much thinner than 

 the preceding year. In a crack between Baadskær and Lille Koldewey 

 Island the thickness of the ice was on the 3rd of January 62 cm. The 

 average thickness was 70 cm. as compared with 100 cm. the fore- 

 going year. 



Christmas was spent very quietly. Of the 28 members of the 

 Expedition, who had all been together the previous Christmas eve, 

 10 were wanting; 5 of them were on Shannon Island, 2 were at the 

 station in Pustervig and 3 were in the north and their unknown fate 

 gave room for many depressing and anxious thoughts. 



At 1 p. m. a short service was held. Trolle read the Christmas 

 service and some Christmas hymns were sung. 



At 4 p. m. they partook of Christmas dinner, but the humour 

 was not as the year before, owing to the anxiety and uneasiness re- 

 garding the fate of jMylius-Erichsen, Hagen and Jørgen Bronltjnd, 

 though everybody tried to keep up hope and only consider them as absent. 



In January wolves visited Danmarks Havn. They had followed 

 the sledges of Peter Hansen and Gundahl Knudsen, when they 

 drove from Pustervig back to the ship and were now staying in the 

 neighbourhood. The men gradually succeeded in killing all 3 of them, 

 a most welcome booty to the zoologist. 



On the 23rd of January the party from Shannon Island at last 

 returned. As the hunting near the station during the winter had 

 yielded practically nothing and the Shannon party brought no supply 

 of dog food, it was found necessary to kill some 20 dogs. They had 

 still 28 good dogs left and had enough food to keep them alive. 



Otherwise the time was spent in doing all kinds of scientific in- 

 vestigations and in preparing for the projected sledge journeys in 

 the spring, first and foremost the relief and search expedition towards 

 the north. With a view to the sledge journeys southwards, depots 

 were laid out at various places already in the middle of February. 



Sledge journey to Teufel Cape, Roon Bay and 

 Bessel Fjord to lay out depots, 



^^2— ''/2, 1908. 

 The object (if this expedition was to lay out depots at the places 

 mentioned as a suppoil for Bistrui', Jarner and the artists, who 



