INVESTIGATION OF TEMPERATURE CHANGES. 239 



The climatic phenomena of the Arctic region will come up for consideration, 

 to a certain extent, in the next chapter, when it will be made apparent that 

 the secular variations of the ^solar climate have not yet been studied out, if 

 such do really exist, although a very large amount of meteorological work 

 has been done in that region since Arago's work was written. It will also 

 be shown that the heated ocean currents in the jjolar seas, as originators of 

 secular climatic change, are purely a creation of the imaginative brain oi' 

 that author. Neither the history of the discovery of Greenland nor that 

 of its subsequent decline and rediscovery has been correctly given by him. It 

 does appear to be true, however, that the main fact of the constantly increas- 

 ing difficulty of supporting life along the shores of Greenland has manifested 

 itself in the decay of the colonies founded there, the abandonment of parts 

 of the coast formerly dwelt upon by a comparatively thriving population, 

 and an increase in the rate of mortality among the Eskimos, who were the 

 original inhabitants, and which appears likely to bring about the couiplete 

 extermination of the race at no very distant period. 



That which seems, beyond a doubt, to have been going on in Greenland 

 finds a parallel in the condition of things exhibited at the present day in 

 Iceland. The fight there against the elementary forces seems to have 

 reached its climax. Long ago the people of that once so favored island 

 yielded the high place which they had at one time occupied in the ranks of 



gliiig, struggling, and rapiiily diminishing Eskimo families. The more soutlierly settlement on the west coast 

 was called the eastern one (Osterb\-gd) ; the more northerly was designated as the western (Westerbygd). This 

 may easilj- be accounted for by the fact that the coast of Greenland here trends somewhat northwesterly, so that 

 Julianehaab is really some six degrees of longitude to the east of Godthaab. The intervening space between the 

 two principal settlements was comparatively thinly inhabited ; still, remains of old dwellings are found all the way 

 along the coast. Communication was kept up between Scandinavia and Greenland until about the middle of the 

 fifteenth century, when it gradually slackened and finally ceased altogether, and the route to Greenland "passed into 

 oblivion," to use the language of Rink, from whose work on Danish Greeidand the facts here stated are drawn 

 in part. The rediseoveiy of the country by John Davis took place toward the end of the sixteenth century (in 

 15S5), and at that time the Scandinavian colonists had all disappeared and the only inhabitants of the country 

 were the Eskimos. The name " Eastern," as applied to the settlements near Julianehaab, gave the idea, wliicli 

 for a long time held its ground, that this colony was to the east of Cape Farewell, and several expeditions were 

 despatched for its rediscovery, no less than eight having been sent out from Denniark alone, it being sui)posed that 

 the descendants of the early colonists would be found still living in that region. The last expeditions fitted out 

 for that purpose were those despatched by an English mercantile firm in 1863 and 1864. They all were unsuccess- 

 ful, and it has now been definitely settled that the lost colonies were not on the eastern side of Greenland at all, but 

 that they were situated as described above. To Mr. K. H. Major belongs the credit of having finally settled this 

 point, and cleared up the difficulties connected with the account of the voyages of the Zeuo brothers to this region. 

 (See "Voyages of Xicolo and Antonio Zeno," in the I'nblicaticnis of the Hakluyt Society, volume for 1873.) The 

 above statement of undoubted facts may be compared and contrasted with the arcount given by Arago of the re- 

 discovery of Greenland referred to in the text above. 



