34 DANIEL BRUUN. 
the sea and on the ice, catching seals and whales on which it feeds. It 
is as great an expert in swimming as a seal or a whale. 
But you asked whether the country was free from ice or not, or whether 
it was covered with ice like the sea, so know for a certainty that only 
a small part of the country is free from ice, all the rest being covered with 
it, so that it is not known how big the country is, because all the mount- 
ain ranges and valleys are hidden by ice, wherein no opening is to be 
found. — — — People have tried to go up country, onto the highest 
mountains in the different parts, to look round and try to find a part 
of the country that was free from ice and inhabitable, but such has never 
been found, except the regions inhabited at present which are of short 
extention along the coast itself. In the inhabited part of the country 
there is much marble of different colours, both red, blue and green. 
There are a number of hawks, which in other countries would be con- 
sidered valuable, namely white hawks, which are in greater abundance 
than any thing else in the country although the inhabitants have по 
idea how to use them. 
The son: You reminded me a little earlier in your discourse that 
there was no agriculture in that country, therefore I now ask what did 
the people live on, who lived there, how thickly was it populated, what 
sort of food they had, and whether they had accepted Christianity or not. 
The father: There are only few people in the country on account of 
there being so little ice-free land, that is inhabitable, but they are Chris- 
tians having both churches and priests and if it had lain nearer to 
other countries it would have been called the third part of a bishopric; 
now they have their own bishop as it cannot be otherwise owing to the 
great distance between them and other people. 
But you wish to know what people lived on, in that country, there 
bemg no agriculture, people did not live on bread alone; it is said that 
there is good pasturage in Greenland, and there are good big breeding 
farms, as there are numbers of horned cattle and sheep, so much butter 
and cheese is made; people live on such products, besides meat and all 
sorts of hunting, such as venison, whales, seals and bears; in this manner 
people maintain themselves in that country. — — —” 
“You said of the weather that you could not understand that, that 
country was said to have good weather, now I will relate to you how con- 
ditions are in this country. At times when storms begin, it takes 
place with greater severity than at most places, both the violence of the 
storms and the intensity of frost and snow, but the bad weather only 
lasts a short time with long intervals, although the country is so cold. 
This is caused by the nature of the icebergs from which there perpetu- 
ally streams cold air which drives all storm-clouds from its presence, and 
which keeps the air clear over head. But its nearest neighbours must 
suffer for this, because all countries lying in its neigbourhood get vehe- 
LE] 
ment storms from there. 
