238 DISCUSSION OF THE DESICCATION QUESTION. 



and the argument thus derived in favor of an earlier setting in of winter in 

 Central Europe is not without weight. 



If the ideas which have been advanced in the preceding pages are based 

 on correct principles, we should expect to find the most striking evidence 

 of deterioration of climate in extreme northern countries where, as already 

 suggested, the limit of man's endurance has been reached and perhaps over- 

 passed. Arago himself declares that Greenland " offers the most striking 

 example which can be cited of a deterioration of northern climates." The 

 evidence which he brings forward in support of this statement is, however, 

 extremely meagre, hardly occupying more than a few lines. It is to the 

 effect that the Icelanders who first visited its coasts were struck with its 

 verdure, and for that reason gave it the name of Greenland. Numerous 

 colonies were established there, which throve, multiplied, and carried on a 

 lively commerce with Norway, imtil about the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century, at which time communication with that region ceased, and the very 

 existence of ancient Greenland began to be looked upon as a myth. In 

 181G, however, the whale-fishers, having noticed that two hundred square 

 leagues of ice had disappeared, steered westward and rediscovered the coun- 

 trj'. The climatic changes of the polar regions are thus described and 

 accounted for by Arago in the paragraph which completes what he has to 

 say about the variations of climate in Greenland : " Scientific expeditions 

 sent since that time toward the North Pole have furnished us with precise 

 information in regard to the breaking up of the ice of the polar seas. Cur- 

 rents of warm water which traverse [sillonnent] the Arctic ocean and strug- 

 gle with the permanent cold of the north pole explain the secular modifica- 

 tions presented by the climates of the most northerly regions."* 



While it is believed that the proofs of a deterioration in the climate of 

 Greenland during historic times are ample, the views of Arago, as cited 

 above, in regard to the nature and causes of this change are of the vaguest 

 possible character, and so far as history is concerned entirely incorrect.! 



* 1. c, p. 243. 



+ The colonization of Greenland was begun by the Icelanders about the year 986. Their settlements were in 

 two groups, called the Eastern and the Western, the former being in the environs of Julianehaab, in latitude 60°- 

 61°, the latter near Godtliaab, latitude 64°. The region thus colonized became what may with truth be called a 

 centre of commercial activ-ity and of geographical exploration. From it those voyages were made which resulted in 

 the discovery and settlement of a considerable portion of the coast of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and New Eng- 

 land. The ruined remains of the habitations of the colonists are found along the shores of Greenland, between 

 Julianehaab and Godtha.ab, in more than a hundred places, that region being now occupied only by a few strag- 



