Report on the Danmark expedition to the north-east coast. 197 



April 9th. Returned towards the evening — tried to reach the 

 others. Dog-food (to be remembered), ice (to be remembered). 



April 10th. We got past the disgusting ice and came in on the 

 low-water mark. Our comrades . . . 



April 11th. (In the night we had — 34° C). To-day we made 

 a halt to rest the dogs. Tobias, Bertelsen and I went out; I shot 

 a hare and 3 ptarmigans i. We saw the excrement ot musk-oxen, 

 most likely from the summer-time. 



April 12th. We had only covered a very small distance, when 

 we found tracks of bears, a she-bear with two cubs. We wanted them 

 badly, so Tobias and I emptied our sledges, followed the tracks and 

 shot them. The old bear crept into the breeding hole of a large seal; 

 we waited some time for it to come out, as we were certain that it 

 would reappear. 



April 13th. 



April 14th. In the afternoon we started again. 



April 15th. Today (or after midnight) we came to a large foreland 

 covered with ice ^. We wanted to proceed a little further but came 

 across some bad screw-ice which forced us to stop. The ice we crossed 

 to-day was of the same character as the ice we had some days ago, 

 i. e. hard but with soft places where there was no water under the 

 snow. Contrary to our expectations the coastal line bends towards 

 the east while we were of opinion that it should turn west. Since we 

 left the ship, we have covered three degrees of latitude (i. e. a distance 

 equal to from Jacobshavn to Upernivik). We covered (to-day) 32 

 kilometers. We have now been away 19 days. 



April 16th. Towards the evening we started again but to mir 

 great annoyance we hardly made any progress (because we had to 

 wait for Bistrup whose sledge had broken down). We shot a bear 

 and two cubs. When it had been skinned and the dogs had greedily 

 consumed their part, there came another bear from the north, which 

 we also got hold of. The sun sets no more in the evening. 



April 17th. The mallemuks have come. Frost-fog. Driving 

 in and out among the screw-ice, which often caused damage to the 

 sledges, we stopped at last on the northern side of a large naze at 8 

 a. m.^. As the ice on which we were driving had not been quite still 

 during the winter time it was full of screwings. We wanted to get 

 up on land to investigate a sedimentary or sandstone hill seen there. 

 Before we reached it we made a halt, two of the sledges breaking down, 

 and it was not difficult in any case to reach the hill on foot. 



* They crossed the land till the)' reached the westernmost of the two small 

 fjords cutting into Lamberts Land from the north, and went across the fjord to 

 the land in the west. See p. 114. 



^ The eastern side of Hovgaards Island. 



' Cape H. i\. Andersen. 



