1885.J 



289 IRinlr. 



other part of the globe. The chase gradually increased chiefly on account 

 of the more common use of the rifle. It reached its cuhninating point in 

 the years 1845 to 1849, -when the number of deer killed might be rated at 

 25,000 annually. We may suppose that during those years one-half of the 

 flesh was abandoned on the rocks, while a great many deers were killed 

 only for the sake of the hide and the tongue. 



Our travelers, in order to penetrate as far as possible towards the inland, 

 followed an inlet that represented the most interesting type of a Green- 

 land fjord. It is named Nagsutok {i. e., rich in reindeer horns), measures in 

 a somewhat curved line eighty miles in length and forms an almost regu- 

 lar channel two miles broad and from 1000 to 1500 feet deep. At the 

 head of it no inland ice was met with, but a brook or river whose muddy 

 water proved its origin from glacier ice. The country thereabout had a 

 very attractive appearance. The slopes of the mountain sides and the 

 lowland in front of them were clad in luxuriant green. A brook pouring 

 down from the highland and winding through the plains was bordered by 

 a thicket of willows measuring the height of a man, and showing stems of 

 an arm's thickness. Having followed the river first by boat, and after- 

 wards on foot about twenty miles, they were suddenly arrested by the 

 inland-ice that reared its walls above the pleasant valley. The surftice of 

 the ice rose somewhat abruptly so as to surpass at a short distance the 

 height of all the land in front of it. A considerable brook issued from the 

 foot of the ice wall, bursting forth from the depth of a cave fifty feet high 

 and broad, the sides of its interior being beautifully tinted with blue. 



Finally between the two northernmost stations, JJmanak and Upernivik, or 

 from 71^ to 72^° N. lat. a peninsula projects, measuring about 1800 square 

 miles. It presents the longest wholly uninhabited part of the coast-line, 

 and was therefore like the former tract but imperfectly known. Two fjords 

 running behind it from the south and from the north have been made use 

 of by the natives as roads to meet from both sides during the hunting sea- 

 son. But during the present generation nobody was known to have 

 passed the seaward coast of the peninsula in summer, either by kayak or by 

 boat. However, in the month of February, when the sea is covered with 

 solid ice, this way is passed with sledges, which regularly once a year, by 

 conveying a mail, maintain a scanty intercourse between those remote set- 

 tlements. Meeting now and then an ice bear is the only amusement which 

 the postilions have to relieve the monotony of this wearisome passage. In 

 1879, Steenstrup, in order to survey the unknown tracts of the peninsula, 

 resolved to try this road in summer time. The shore for many miles pre- 

 sented steep rocks without landing places and girt by numerous ice- 

 bergs which frequently capsized and broke asunder threatening the 

 passers-by with destruction. Furthermore, a dense fog often prevented 

 their looking out for landing places. Notwithstanding these inconven- 

 iences Steenstrup found a party of natives willing to undertake the task, 

 and he speaks in high terms about the carefulness, the courage and assid- 

 uity, with which they performed it even during a severe sickness that 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXII. 120. 2K. PRINTED APRIL 25, 188S. 



