32 DANIEL Bruun. 
which otherwise lie outside (beyond) the coast. The ice in the fiords 
forms а bridge during the winter between the coasts and makes communi- 
cation easier. Doubtless, the Norsemen have used sledges on the ice. 
When one has passed through the long, narrow, deeply incised 
fiords, one reaches land, and there vegetation first breaks forth, attaining 
in the innermost part of the fiords a comparatively high degree of luxuri- 
ance which is not inferior to that in Iceland. It was specially here that 
the Norsemen established themselves to rear cattle. There was no 
question of cereal culture in this inhospitable climate. With regards 
to agrieulture it had to be based entirely on pasture, and they had to 
concentrate themselves to the breeding of cattle, in the same fashion as 
in their own country. 
Most of the farms lay, as mentioned, in the innermost part of the fiords, 
most frequently near the shore; but several are found up country, which 
is the case in the undulating, not especially raised ground, abounding 
in water, between Tunugdliarfikfiord (Ericsfiord) and Sermilikfiord 
(Isafiord 1. e.: Icefiord), also in the region between /galikofiord (Einars- 
fiord) and Agdluitsor (Siglufiord); the Norsemen called this part of the 
country “ Vatnahverfi’ on account of its having many lakes. In the west- 
ern settlement, places were to be found in the innermost region of Godt- 
haabsfiord and Ameralikfiord (Lysufiord?) in which many farms were 
built on the shores of the fiords. 
One can generally say that where there was a possibility of laying 
out a farm, in these parts, one ıs sure to find ruins of them. Big fenced 
homefields (Tun) which are covered with ruins of dwellings, stables 
and folds, ete. are still to be seen in many places; we shall hear more 
of these later on. 
Whilst one finds good pastures near some of the groups of ruins 
one is astonished at how little vegetation there is near others. If one 
meanwhile ascends the mountains one finds on the terraces and in the 
small valleys also on the highland table-lands fairly good pasturage 
where the cattle have found food and from where the Norsemen have 
been able to take hay home for winter-feeding. 
At the head of the big fiords, where ıt is warm, one finds that 
the birch copice thrives well, as well as other Greenland bushes such 
as the grey willow, the green-alder the American roan, and the juniper 
berry. On the whole there is more of the willow copice than the birch; 
that which characterized them was Kvan (Angelica) a favourite food of 
the Norsemen. Green-sward and herbs cover the copice-ground; and it 
can be extraordinarily beautiful in a Greenland wood; also heaths, with 
their monotonous, dark brown tones, resembling quite our heaths, are 
most attractive in the summer when the flowers are in bloom. But up 
in the mountain-fields there are only the hardiest high northern plants, 
and the regions farthest north are evidently without vegetation. Vege- 
tation on the other hand can be exceedingly fertile along the rivers and 
