The Icelandic Colonization of Greenland. 33 
pools, and it is a glorious sight to see such a landscape in the magni- 
ficence of summer. 
In the rivers are salmon, in the fiords birds and fish, on the coasts, 
seals, — and in the mountaıns foxes, white hares and sometimes rein- 
deer; to which can be added polar-bears and walrusses, the teeth of 
which were a valuable article of export, and white hawks which were 
also exported for hunting. Eggs and feathers were taken from the breed- 
ing-places, — to which, the domestie animals in the time of the Norse- 
men were added, horses, cows, sheep and goats all of which were imported. 
And now, after having given a general view of the conditions of 
nature such as they are, we will give an extract from the “King’s Mir- 
ror” from which it appears that the Norsemen had very good accounts 
of these conditions in the middle ages, although here and there a mis- 
take has slipped in: 
“The father: You are desirous to know, what one searches in that 
country, or why one goes there, when there are so many dangers. One 
is tempted to do it through three qualities of human nature. Firstly 
the competitive spirit and the longing for celebrity, for the nature of 
many people force them to go there, however great the danger may be 
so that they can become celebrated. Secondly, the love of knowledge, 
human nature is disposed to investigate, so as to see, the things that 
have been told about, whether they really are as related, or not. Thirdly 
the earning of money, for riches are sought by everyone, where there 
is a profit to be gained, although, great dangers threaten them. But in 
Greenland, as you can understand, everything is expensive there, having 
to be brought from other countries, as that country lies so far away 
from other countries it is seldom that people go there, and everything 
that they use to improve the country must be imported, such as iron and 
timber of which they build houses. Over there one gets the following 
goods in exchange for ones wares: buckskin, oxenskin, sealskin, and the 
ropes, we have discussed, which one cuts out of a fish, called walrus, 
and which are called rind ropes, also their teeth. 
Concerning that which you mentioned as to whether the country had 
any grain or not, my opinion is that the country produces very little. But 
there are men, the highest and mightiest who for the sake of experience 
try to sow, but the greatest number of people in that country do not 
know what bread is, and have never seen it. There are many hares and 
wolves and a great many reindeer. People believe that these animals 
are not bred on islands, unless they are brought there. They believe and 
know with certainty that no human being has taken them over there, 
but that they ran there by themselves from the other continents. There 
are also bears in that country, which are white, and one is of the opinion 
that they are bred there, for their nature is quite different from the black 
bears, who live in the woods, and hunt horses, oxen and other dome- 
stic animals as food, whilst the white bear in Greenland lives mostly in 
LVII. 3 
