318 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Aug. 



was constructed by Peary when on his way northward 

 in 1891. And here "a Httle man in a ragged flannel 

 shirt" (Doctor Kane) steered his battered boat out to 

 meet the relief -ship. 



Within a few yards distant from our anchored ship 

 lay upon the rocks the historic and dismantled Fox, the 

 first to solve the problem of the fate of Sir John Franklin 

 and his 129 men. She steamed proudly into the harbor 

 sixty years ago, with colors flying, under the command 

 of the gallant McClintock. Crippled with old age, bat- 

 tered and worn and abandoned, she was towed into the 

 harbor and to her last resting-place a year before our 

 arrival. Her service had been long and honorable. 

 She deserved a better fate. 



A striking dissimilarity exists between the natives of 

 Godhavn and those of the far North. Inferior in general 

 appearance, inferior physically, they are living witnesses, 

 in spite of the excellent care of the Danish authorities, 

 to the inevitable and regrettable result of contact with 

 the white races. For two hundred years they have been 

 associated with the Danes. The body has lengthened, 

 the face has narrowed, the hair and eyes have lightened, 

 the ruddy cheeks are gone. All are white, drawn, and 

 apparently tubercular. Their igloos and tents have been 

 abandoned for small, tight wooden shacks, every crack 

 and crevice of which is kept religiously closed in order 

 to conserve the hard-earned supply of peat gathered from 

 the hills for consumption in their small iron stoves. 



My observations extend only to this one settlement. 

 I understood from Inspector Lindow that a much hardier 

 and more energetic people are found on the Whale Fish 

 Islands, a few miles to the south. 



Our trip south began at 1.30 on August 17th, and was 



