58 A SUMMER IN GREENLAND 



the smaller Settlements. A red band round the 

 top-knot is the badge of a maid; blue denotes a 

 married woman; black a widow, and green an 

 unmarried woman who is a mother. 



For fuel the natives use some of the plants that 

 grow near the Settlements, and piles of these are 

 often seen dotted over the hill-sides to dry in the 

 sun. Coal in some districts is abundant and easily 

 obtained: thin seams were often exposed among the 

 beds of shale and sandstone by the shore or in the 

 valleys where we collected fossils. Some of the 

 seams are of fairly good quality. The coal is avail- 

 able for anyone who takes the trouble to get it. 

 There is at present one government coal-mine on 

 the north coast of the Nugssuaq Peninsula (Map 

 Bj C. M.) from which local schooners and occa- 

 sionally the Copenhagen ships obtain supplies. A 

 visit to this coal-mine under the guidance of the 

 Swedish manager was an interesting experience. 

 The coal, which crops out on the face of a cliff by 

 the beach, is worked from slightly inclined galleries 

 penetrating a few hundred yards inland: a short 

 distance from the entrance all the rock-faces, in- 

 cluding the coal itself, are covered with glistening 

 white crystals of ice. The temperature is a few 

 degrees below the freezing-point all the year round. 

 In the winter when the Vaigat is frozen the coal 

 is carried on sledges drawn by dogs. The dogs 

 belonging to the coal-mine were some of the 

 largest among the many hundreds we saw in 

 Greenland. The abundance of dogs at the Settle- 

 ments in North Greenland, that is, all the west 



