DANISH HOSPITALITY. 95 



As about two hundred rounds were fired, and yet three of the seals got away, their bravado 

 was partially excusable. One of those killed was perfectly riddled with shot. This animal 

 takes a great deal of killing- unless hit exactly in the brain. Soon the ship was moored 

 to the floe,, and the officers and men were out to secure their game. On this floating island 

 of ice they found a little lake of water, and having been on short allowance for some days, 

 they hailed it with delight. They took a long drink first of all, then a run over the 

 island and a good roll in the snow, as pleased as schoolboys out for a holiday. After this 

 the ship was watered, amid a great amount of fun and frolic, everybody being so glad to 

 stretch their legs. At Ivigtut the officers went on shore to visit the few Danes of the 

 colony while the vessel was being coaled, and an amusing account is given of the hospitality 

 extended to them. The chronicler mentions very particularly an insinuating drink called 

 "banko," which was ordinarily mingled with layers of sherry, and sometimes claret and 

 sherry. It had a mild, pleasant taste, quite disproportionate to the powerful effects it 

 produced. The governor had entertained the officers of the Tigress when she came here 

 in search of the crew of the Polaris, Captain Hall's vessel, and they had also drunk 

 banko punch till some of them had been observed to stir it up with their cigars for tea- 

 spoons, and then to express astonishment at the cigars appearing damp! It is at this 

 settlement that the kryolite mines are worked by a Danish company. The mineral is used 

 for a variety of purposes, but principally for making soda, and in the United States for 

 preparing aluminium. McClintock's little steam yacht, the Fox, so celebrated in Arctic 

 histoiy in connection with the Franklin search, is now in the employ of this Company. 



The Greenland coasts at this season are described as beautiful in the extreme, a broken,, 

 serrated line of high, rugged mountains rising abruptly out of the water to a height of 

 3,000 feet. Over these the sun and atmosphere combine to produce the most fantastic 

 effects of colour, while ever and anon glimpses of that mighty sea of ice which has 

 overwhelmed Greenland are to be caught. Captain Young, in his progress up the coasts 

 was met by several kyacks skin canoes whose occupants had travelled, or rather voyaged, 

 fifteen miles at sea merely to barter their fish for tobacco, biscuit, or coffee. " Imagine a 

 man getting into a canoe and paddling across the English Channel from Dover to Boulogne 

 or Calais in order to sell half-a-dozen trout ! " They were thoroughly drenched with the 

 water dashing over them, but had very little in the kyacks, so closely does the skin jacket 

 they wear fit the round hole in the top of the canoe. They were rewarded with a glass 

 of rum, and sold about fifty-five pounds of delicious fish for half a pound of tobacco and 

 a couple of dozen small sea biscuits. 



At Disco they were again warmly welcomed by the Danes; and if MacGahan has 

 not been carried away by the enthusiasm of the moment, the young ladies must indeed 

 be something delightful. He avers that their small hands and feet would make an English 

 or American girl die with envy, and that they dance like sylphs. Of one he says, gushingly, 

 " It was a pure delight to watch her little feet flitting over the ground like butterflies, 

 or humming-birds, or rosebuds, or anything else that is delicate and sweet and delightful. 

 It was not dancing at all : it was flying ; it was floating through the air on a wave of 

 rhythm, without even so much as touching ground." What more could be said after this ? 

 He states, however, that they were all very well behaved. They allowed the men not even 



