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NATURALIST'S GUIDE TO THE AMERICAS 



summer seas as to color the water. 

 They furnish food to the myriads of 

 bird-life, fish, and sea-animals. 



THE DANISH ARCTIC SCIENTIFIC STATION 

 AND THE PORSILD NATURE RESERVE 



Morten P. Porsild, Danish geographer 

 and naturalist, with more than usual 

 vision and determination, has secured 

 governmental support for a scientific 

 station and base for exploration, at 

 Godhavn on Disko Island. This sta- 

 tion, of which he is director, is well 

 equipped with library, laboratory, and 

 study supplies, the most advantageously 

 located base for Arctic research in the 

 world. Here investigators from all 

 lands are welcome ; here young explorers 

 are trained in the Arctic technique; and 

 here Science finds its well-guarded 

 Arctic frontier. 



Porsild has also established a preserve 

 which includes the areas watered by the 

 warm springs of Disko Island, where an 

 exceptionally rich and varied flora and 

 an unusual invertebrate fauna are 

 preserved from destruction. This pre- 

 serve, like the warm spring area itself, is 

 unique. It is the northernmost station 

 of many plants, like some of the orchis 

 family, and a number of invertebrates, 

 among them two species of earthworms. 



ROUTES OF TRAVEL 



Greenland is maintained by the 

 Danish Government as a trade monopoly 

 for the Danish Royal Trading Company, 

 and stern restrictions are imposed upon 

 visitors to the country, discouraging 

 travel to the land. 



The mid-west Greenland coast is 

 readily accessible by means of the 

 Danish vessels that ply back and forth 

 from Copenhagen in the summer 

 months — from May to October. Less 

 frequently, vessels visit the north- 

 western coast, and the southern coasts. 

 Occasionally, a vessel from America 

 goes to Greenland for a cargo of cryolite, 

 to fish in the southern waters, or to take 

 an expedition to the Far North. 



The monopoly maintained by the 

 Danish government and the restrictions 



imposed upon travelers are wise, and 

 beneficial to the Eskimo, who are cared 

 for in a most paternal and unselfish 

 manner by the Danish authorities; as 

 a consequence, the Eskimo population 

 of Danish Greenland has doubled in the 

 last century. The Danes, by virtue of 

 their kindly administration of the affairs 

 of these primitive people, deserve an 

 undisputed right to the land. 



3. THE AMERICAN ARCTIC 

 ARCHIPELAGO 



By W. Elmer Ekblaw 



introduction 



The American Arctic Archipelago 

 comprises that island group or polynia 

 lying to the northward of the American 

 continent, of which it forms a part in 

 that it lies on the same portion of the 

 earth's continental shelf. It does not 

 include Greenland. Possible islands 

 northwestward in the Arctic Ocean, as 

 yet undiscovered, may be included. 

 North and South it extends from the 

 south end of Baffin Land in latitude 

 62° N. to the north end of EUesmere 

 Land in latitude 82° N., a latitudinal 

 extent of 20°, or 1400 mi. It is widest 

 in the south where it extends from the 

 sixtieth to the one hundred twenty- 

 fifth meridian, west longitude. It forms 

 a rough triangle with its east side almost 

 due north and south from the northeast 

 point of EUesmere Land to the southeast 

 corner of Baffin Land, and its apex at the 

 westernmost cape of Banks Land. 



GEOLOGY 



The geology of the entire archipelago 

 is only imperfectly known, and merely a 

 general statement of the areal distribu- 

 tion of the outcropping formations may 

 be made. 



The southeastern portion of the 

 triangle, and most of the eastern coasts 

 throughout, are pre-Cambrian, with 

 scattered patches of sedimentaries, 

 mostly Silurian. The Silurian lime- 

 stones, in many places fossiliferous, 

 are dominant over the southern portion 

 of the western corner, principally on 



