210 О. HELMs. 
green grass and heather-grown areas; but just this eagerness to mention 
them shows better than anything else how sparse the vegetation is on 
the whole. In contrast to this there are frequent reports of glaciers 
which extend right out to the coast, of the wild, jagged, shattered 
mountains, of the steep, barren coast-land, the field-ice which settles 
along the coast, the calf-ice that fills the fjords, and the new winter ice 
which already appears in August. How little attractive the conditions 
can be, even at the time that is otherwise looked upon as summer, 
may be imagined when one reads GARDE’S description of his journey 
from Tingmiarmiut, in lat. 62%/, N. back to Nanortalik on the west 
coast, a journey that was made in August-September. 
_ Between 651/,° and 661/,° N. lies the district of Angmagsalik itself. 
From there almost to Scoresby Sound, about lat. 70° N. the coast runs 
in a north-east direction. It is a barren, only slightly indented stretch, 
with no protecting belt of islands, with steep, wild mountains out 
towards the sea, with the glaciers of the inland ice extending right 
down to the shore, in many places with only sparse vegetation. A few 
quotations will perhaps best show what the conditions are. Кмор 
PouLsen, who took part in Amprup’s expedition in 1899, has travelled 
the coast in the best part of the summer, the month of July, and gives 
the following description: “North of Angmagsalik district is a short 
stretch [with the islands Jerno (Iron Island), Steno (Stone Island) 
and Depoto (Depot Island)], where the country is only slightly indented 
and animal life on the whole scanty. To the north of this area is a deeply 
indented coast, with deep fjords and a number of islands (with Ingolfs 
Mountain and the fjord Kangerdlugsuatsiak), on the whole reminiscent 
of the Angmagsalik area; animal life is scarcely so abundant as there, 
but resembles it greatly; from here northwards, almost to 67°, is a wild 
coast-land with high, jagged mountains which fall vertically down into 
the sea, in some places with tremendous glaciers out to the sea. Still, here 
and there were green spots on the cliff walls, and at any rate the points 
were bare of snow, even if there were yet (at the end of July) enormous 
snowdrifts on the mountains. But on the stretch from 67° to the end 
of the journey in 67° 21’ N. the appearance of the country was wintry 
in every respect. Almost everywhere the inland ice reached down to 
the coast, in many places the snow lay a yard deep right down on the 
points; the islands were often covered with snow, and the winter ice 
lay unbroken out in the fjords; a small green spot was a rarity.” 
And if one reads the description Amdrup wrote of the trip he made 
in the summer from July 22nd to August 18th, 1900, from Cape Dalton 
near Scoresby Sound to the most northerly point which Poulsen mentions, 
the impression does not become brighter. Barren, desolate and steep 
mountainous country, with glaciers down to the sea, gulfs and small 
