Rocks and Muskoxen

Abstract

Our first journey started well, for we were given a lift across the lake by boat, but after the ride we had to walk. Walking with a heavy pack is unpleasant at the best of times, and the sun was still hot enough to make the five-mile trek across the glaring sands of the "dustbowl"-as we called Skovdalen-extremely unpleasant. My companion and assistant this autumn was George Fletcher, one of the "new boys", whose first arctic journey this was to be. His introduction to Greenland travel was a march across a desert; but the ice came soon enough, and on the second day we walked fifteen miles up Admiralty Gletscher to the Trefork Sø depot. Here we pitched a permanent tent, our base for daily excursions to the various cliffs and outcrops which I wished to examine. We consolidated our results of the first year in reasonable conditions; and, after completing a fair amount of work, returned slowly towards base visiting selected outcrops on the way.