372 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [parti 
On the 2 ist, in spite of strict economy, the fuel ran 
out, but the supply left at the depot was afterwards 
found. Both Koch and his companion, the artist 
Bertelsen, suffered seriously from living on musk ox 
meat. On the 27th of May they quite unexpectedly 
met Erichsen and Hagen. Erichsen's party had shot 
21 musk oxen, which had caused a good deal of delay. 
They had explored Danmark's Fjord, and Hagen had 
made excellent sketches of this inlet. The inland ice 
was bounded by cliffs of great height, and apparently 
inaccessible. On the 28th Erichsen drove west into what 
was called Independence Sound, while Koch began the 
return journey, seeing that the depots were in order 
for Erichsen as he passed them. On June 23rd Koch's 
party reached the ship after an absence of 88 days, the 
distance covered being 1200 miles measured by odometer. 
This approaches the achievements of M'Clintock and 
Mecham, but with the difference that while the English 
did all the work themselves, the Danes had the work 
done for them by dogs and dog drivers. Tobias, the 
Eskimo, however, had made the finest dog-sledge journey 
on record. 
But tragedy was at hand; Erichsen, Hagen, and 
Bronlund did not return. Relief expeditions were sent 
out in the autumn but found no signs of them. The 
second winter passed in sorrow and anxiety: it was 
felt that they must have perished. 
Several sledge journeys were undertaken during the 
winter to lay out depots, and also with geographical 
and other scientific objects. The most important, con- 
sisting of four men, Bertelsen (in command), Wegener, 
Weinschank, and Lindhard, was conducted in the good 
old British way by men dragging their own sledge. They 
started on the ist March with a load of 180 lb. per man. 
On the 9th they commenced the ascent of the inland ice, 
which they found rough, with a surface like that of an 
undulating sea. On the 13th they determined to take 
the tent and sledge no further, and Wegener and Wein- 
schank went on to the great "nunatak" or snow-free land 
seen in the distance. They found that the inland ice 
ended in a vertical wall 90 feet high, but they succeeded 
in finding a place to descend, and thus landed on this 
