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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



knows it. Even now he has great vol- 

 umes of manuscript ready for publica- 

 tion. To the series of studies which the 

 government of Denmark plans to issue 

 in 1921 to celebrate the two hundredth 

 anniversary of the Danish occupancy of 

 Greenland, Herr Porsild will be one of 

 the most prominent and extensive con- 

 tributors. 



While I was staying at his station he 

 worked every day, and regularly far 

 into the night, on two comprehensive 

 reports which he was then preparing 

 for the anniversary series. One of them 

 M^as a "Phytogeography of Green- 

 land" and a study of the origin of the 

 Greenland flora, and the other, a com- 

 plete history of Greenland which he was 

 preparing in collaboration with Pastor 

 Osterman of Jakobshavn. This latter 

 work necessitates a study of all the old 

 records and documents in the archives 

 of the Eoyal Danish Greenland Com- 

 pany and those of the Danish Govern- 

 ment. 



Generally Herr Porsild is busy at 

 field work throughout the summer, 

 traveling along the coast in his motor 

 boat. Both northward and southward 

 he still has large unknown fields to en- 

 gage his attention, many problems for 

 which to find the solutions. In winter 

 he is often kept to the station for weeks 

 at a time by storm or bad ice, but when- 

 ever sledging is possible he is loath to 

 stay indoors. 



His particular hobby is road making. 

 From the wharf where the ships unload 

 their cargoes and take on the blubber 

 and skin, to his scientific station, is a 

 distance of almost, or quite, a kilome- 

 ter, the way leading over rock ledges, 

 little bogs, and around little embay- 

 ments. All this distance he has built a 

 roadway, a genuine Eoman highway, of 

 rock and sand filling. He has built it 

 up over the bogs, and blasted it through 

 the rock ledges, until now it is smooth 

 and level as a boulevard. 



Like all Danes he is intensely patri- 

 otic, and although he is not so provin- 



cial as to consider Denmark the only 

 God's coimtry on the globe, he would 

 be reluctant to make his home in any 

 land except where waves his beloved 

 "Dannebrog," the venerated national 

 flag of the Danish people. On all spe- 

 cial occasions, on all holidays, and 

 whenever a ship comes into port, the 

 rose-red flag with its white cross must 

 be raised on the tall flagpole above the 

 station. And in nearly every room of 

 the station, as in all the Danish homes 

 in Greenland, stands a conventional 

 little metal flagstaff with a miniature 

 "Dannebrog," constant reminder of the 

 homeland. 



For Germany Herr Porsild can have 

 but little sympathy. Exiled from his 

 home in Schleswig not many years after 

 the Germans seized the province, he 

 cherishes a deep grievance against the 

 conquerors. But he says little about 

 the matter; not so, however, his assist- 

 ant, Herr Nielsen, or the governor, 

 Herr Olsen. Both of these men have 

 been hussars in the cavalry regiment of 

 Captain J. P. Koch, Danish army of- 

 ficer, famous because of his Arctic 

 explorations, to whom the word "Ger- 

 man" is said to be a red fiag. 



Among the Eskimos of the coast, 

 Herr Porsild is considered a remarkably 

 good man. He can converse with them 

 in their own language, and never fails 

 to help them whenever the circum- 

 stances justify aid, and his means and 

 facilities permit. In times of accident 

 or illness he is their emergency physi- 

 cian and surgeon. A few years ago 

 when the dread "cadaver infection" 

 seized the natives of the village, he did 

 all he could to stop its ravages, without 

 thought of his own danger. After suc- 

 cessfully evading infection for several 

 days, he finally contracted the disease. 

 One of his hands showed that it had 

 attacked him there; like a Spartan he 

 stripped off all the skin on the back of 

 his hand, and saved himself. 



It is by such ministrations and ex- 

 periences as these, and by his sound, 



