LIFE IN GREENLAND. 431 



Aiisiralian region^ and connected^ as respects its order^ xoith triassic 

 times, and possihlij even as regards its family also, tliough certainly 

 [as regards the latter) loitk the time of the post-tertiary geological 

 dejyosits.'''' 



We have seen what are clidelphous and what are monadelphous 

 mammals; what are the respective values of the terms "order," 

 " family," and " genus," and also in what respect the kangaroo differs 

 from the other families of the marsupial order. We have also become 

 acquainted with the distribution of organic life now and with the 

 inter-relations of different geological strata, as far as those phenomena 

 of space and of time concern our immediate subject. 



By becoming acquainted with these matters, and by no other way, 

 is it possible to give an intelligent answer to the question, " What is 

 a kangaroo ? " Popular Science Mevieio. 



LIFE IX GEEENLAND. 



THE Danish settlements in Greenland date from the year 1V21, 

 when a colony was established at Godthaab, in latitude 64 

 north. The country had been visited and colonies settled there as 

 early as the tenth century by Icelanders ; but these Icelandic colonies 

 were utterly destroyed, probably by the pestilence known as the 

 " black-death " in the fourteenth century, or early in the fifteenth. 

 The present Danish settlements are all situated on the west coast, 

 and contain about 10,000 inhabitants, all Esquimaux with the excej^tion 

 of a few hundred, who are Danes. The region of Disco Bay may be 

 regarded as the type of the entire western coast of Greenland. The 

 aspects of Nature and the conditions of human life, as presented in 

 this region, are graphically portrayed by Dr. Robert Brown, F. R. G. S., 

 in the Geographical Magazine, and in the following pages we purpose 

 to epitomize, for the benefit of our readers, the account given by this 

 very competent observer. Dr. Brown, we would add, is probably the 

 highest living authority on all scientific questions connected with 

 Greenland ; he has written a number of memoirs upon the geology, 

 meteorology, etc., of the country, which are held in the very highest 

 esteem by men of science. 



Disco Bay is situated between the parallels of about 68 and T0 

 north latitude. On the west lies Disco Island, and on the east Green- 

 land. Nowhere are the cliffs high, and the southern shore is in gen- 

 eral flat and uninteresting. About Christianshaab (latitude 69), and 

 farther to the north, the shores are backed by bare rocky hills of 

 about 1,000 or 1,200 feet rounded knolls of gneiss, ice-shaven and 

 worn. Between these higher grounds run birch and willow-covered 



