CHAPTER VI 



AN ARCTIC OASIS 



IN a little arctic oasis lives the meager and scat- 

 tered handful of the Eskimo population — a 

 little oasis along the frowning western coast of 

 Northern Greenland between Melville Bay and Kane 

 Basin. This region is three thousand miles north of New 

 York City, as a steamer goes; it lies about half way be- 

 tween the Arctic Circle and the Pole, within the confines 

 of the great night. Here, taking the mean latitude, 

 for one hundred and ten days in summer the sun never 

 sets; for one hundred and ten days in winter the sun 

 never rises, and no ray of light save from the icy stars 

 and the dead moon falls on the frozen landscape. 



There is a savage grandeur in this coast, carved 

 by eternal conflict with storms and glaciers, bergs 

 and grinding ice-fields; but behind the frowning outer 

 mask nestle in summer many grass-carpeted, flower- 

 sprinkled, sun-kissed nooks. Millions of little auks 

 breed along this shore. Between the towering cliffs 

 are glaciers which launch at intervals their fleets of 

 bergs upon the sea; before these cliffs lies the blue 

 water dotted with masses of glistening ice of all shapes 

 and sizes; behind the cliffs is the great Greenland ice 

 cap, silent, eternal, immeasurable — the abode, say 

 the Eskimos, of evil spirits and the souls of the 

 unhappy dead. 



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