DECLINE OF GREENLAND SETTLEMENTS 



collected crowberries, angelica, and other vegetables; but 

 even during the short summer this cannot have been sufficient 

 to counterbalance the want of flour. It is therefore probable 

 that their powers of reproduction underwent a marked 

 decrease, and they became a people of small fecundity. The 

 Eskimo have had thousands of years for adapting them- 

 selves through natural selection to their monotonous flesh-diet, 

 since those among them who were best fitted for it had the 

 better chance of producing offspring; there is certainly a 

 great difference between individuals in this respect; some of 

 us are by nature more vegetarian, while others are more 

 carnivorous. It is therefore natural that the present-day 

 Eskimo should be better suited for this diet; but it is 

 none the less striking that the rate of productiveness among them 

 is also low. 



As, then, the Greenlanders' communications with Norway 

 fell off more and more, their imports of corn and flour finally 

 ceased altogether. Their cattle keeping must then have 

 declined as well, since they would have little opportunity 

 of renewing their stock or getting other kinds of supplies, when 

 bad years intervened and the greater part of the stock had 

 to be slaughtered or died of hunger. Consequently the people 

 became still more dependent on sealing; and thereby the 

 cattle must have been neglected. In this way their diet 

 would become even less varied, since milk would be lacking, 

 and their reproduction would be further restricted. Add 

 to this that their average proficiency in sealing, at first in 

 any case, was doubtless not to be compared with that of 

 the Eskimo, and that they were without salt for preserving 

 their catch, which therefore had to be dried or frozen. They 

 were thus not able to lay up a large provision, and were 

 always more and more dependent on occasional catches. It 

 is easy to understand that their power of resistance was not 

 great, when bad seasons for sealing occurred, or when they were 

 ravaged by disease, and it is not surprising if the 

 population decreased. 



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