Report on the Danmark expedition to the north-east coast. 185 



On February 23rd at 10 a. m. the ship was reached. 



The journey had been successful in every respect. Depots had 

 been laid out and the ethnographical results were satisfactory. 



On the loth of February, the same day that the above sledge 

 expedition set out, the sun shone for the first time that year on the 

 small colony in Danmarks Havn, bearing promise of the coming sum- 

 mer, in the course of which the members of the expedition hoped to 

 meet their friends at home once more. 



Onboard they were all the time busy with the preparations for 

 the sledge journeys, of which the expedition with the drag-sledges 

 to the inland ice was already to begin in the first days of March and 

 the relief and search expedition towards the north about the middle 

 of March. 



Drag-sledge journey over Sælsø to Dronning Louises 

 Land and Mørke Fjord, 



1/3 to 'U, 1908. 



The object of this expedition was to chart Sælso and to examine 

 whether from this lake they could come up on the inland ice and by 

 crossing this reach the snow-free land, which had been observed behind 

 it and which was afterwards named "Dronning Louises Land". Fur- 

 ther, Morke Fjord was to be surveyed. 



The members of the expedition were Bertelsen, Lindhard, 

 Wegener and Weinschenck, the first-named as leader. 



On March 1st the departure took place with one drag- 

 sledge, the weight of load plus sledge being about .350 kg., i. e. every 

 man had to drag about 88 kg. In the evening the tent was raised 

 at Snenæs. 



On March 2nd they reached Hvalrosodden in spite of heavy loads 

 and bad sledging. 



On March 3rd they continued out on Sælsø, which was covered 

 with rough, hard snow. 



On March 4th at noon they reached the naze where the lake 

 bends westwards. The ice was free of snow here and from various 

 signs it was seen that the lake had not been ice-free the previous year. 



On March 7th the glacier at the head of the lake was reached. 

 On the way they had come across small frozen-in blocks of calf-ice 

 produced by the glacier. 



The Sth of March was spent in making a survey, painting and 

 photographing and in looking for the best way to get up on the in- 

 land ice. It appeared that this fell off steeply towards the land on 

 the 3 to 5 kilometers that could be seen, while on the glacier itself 

 they found an apparently good ascent. 



