232 Swedish North-Polar Eapedition. 
We had hoped here, in some degree at least, to reinforce our 
already considerably diminished stock of coal, but we soon 
found that that would necessarily cause too great a delay. In 
act, whereas, more to the south, the tertiary formation oc- 
cupies the greater part of the extensive peninsula hetween Ice- 
fjord and Bell Sound, and there in many places forms moun- 
tains above a thousand feet high, at King’s Bay, on the 
and their accessibility (they lie only a few hundred feet from 
the shore of one of the best harbors in Spitzbergen), become 
of but little value, especially as the frost, which begins at a 
very short distance under the surface, renders the breaking of 
them extremely difficult ; in fact, in consequence of the extreme 
toughness of the ice-drenched coal, almost impossible without 
regular mining. It is even to be expected that the whole of 
what still remains of the miocene formation of this spot will, 
Greenland. Our intention was to penetrate thither along the 
ong- 
itude of Greenwich we were met by impassable masses of drift- 
sunk to 6° (centigr.), with thick ice, fogs, and snow-storms. 
The ocean was sometimes covered with a thin coating of new 
ice, and the old ice northward was quite impassable, so t . 
we were obliged to seek a passage out in a southeasterly direc 
tion. After another vain attempt to reach Depét Point, > 
edewijne Bay, the Sofia anchored, on the 29th, in Liebde 
ay. 
