90 ANCHORED AT H0LSTEINB0RG. Chap. VII. 



CHAPTER VII. 



A holiday in Greenland — A lady blue with cold — The loves of Green- 

 landers — Close shaving — Meet the whalers — Information of 

 whalers — Disco — Danish Hospitality — Sail from Disco — Coaling 

 — Kindness of the whalers — Danish establishments in Greenland. 



Wednesday night, April 2W1. — At anchor off the settlement 

 of Holsteinborg, and moored close in to its very rocks ! 

 How black they look, and what a welcome feeling of security 

 they convey to us, so recently escaped from a long con- 

 tinuance of icy peril ! ! We have been visited by the Danish 

 residents — the chief trader or governor, the priest, and two 

 others : their latest European intelligence is not more recent 

 than our own, but the Danish ship is hourly expected ; she 

 usually leaves Copenhagen about the middle of March. 



The winter here has been just the reverse of our experi- 

 ence ; it has been severe in point of temperature, but with 

 very little wind; the land lies buried in snow, and as yet 

 there is no thaw ; it is too early for the cod-fishery, and not 

 a single reindeer has been killed throughout the winter ! 

 Eider-ducks, looms, and dovekies are abundant, as well as 

 hares and ptarmigan. 



29//^ — A bright and lovely day. Our poor, half-famished 

 dogs have been landed near the carcasses of four whales, so 

 they must be supremely happy. I visited the Governor 

 to-day, and found his little wooden house as scrupulously 

 clean and neat as the houses of the Danish residents in 

 Greenland invariably are. The only ornaments about the 

 room were portraits of his unfortunate wife and two children : 

 they embarked at Copenhagen last year to rejoin him, and 



