THE WHITE WORLD 



the course of conversation, we discovered that she was the 

 famous Augustina^ who, twenty-five years before, with the 

 unfortunate party from the wrecked Polaris of Hall's ex- 

 pedition, had drifted on the floe ice for a whole winter. She 

 was the mother of the child born on that drifting ice, who 

 is now living on Disco Island, under the name of Charlie 

 Polaris. We were much interested in Augustina, and in 

 her account of her trip to the United States, where she 

 had been taken when rescued from the ice floe by Captain 

 Bartlett, an uncle of our own captain. 



Before we came away, we had two snow storms, but the 

 flakes melted as soon as they touched the rocks. Also the 

 nights were growing dark, so that we no longer had to 

 darken the windows so that I could sleep. People at home 

 seem to think the weather in Greenland just the same all 

 the year round, and when they saw a picture of me sitting 

 on the rocks and crocheting, they couldn't understand how 

 I could do it. I do not know whether I should enjoy a 

 winter there or not, but little Marie seemed to have weath- 

 ered it remarkably well. Dear little snow baby! How we 

 all loved her, no wonder the Eskimo women came from all 

 around to see her and give her presents. 



One thing gave me quite a surprise. That was to find 

 a small church at Godhaven. Here we attended service on 

 Sunday, and must have shocked the natives, as we sat 

 together, not having noticed upon entering that the women 

 were on one side and the men on the other. The school- 

 master was preacher as well, and as near as we could make 

 out, the service was much like the Lutheran. Space will 

 not suffice to tell all I would like to about the different 

 Eskimos and our intercourse with them. Others have 

 told of the country and the dogs whose howling at night 

 is like so many wolves. The two dogs who lived next to 

 us were soon fast friends of mine, courting my company 

 for benefits received. At first they were afraid, though not 

 so much as I, but soon would come to the door and poke 

 their noses in to wait for food. 



I never saw anything more amusing than a little incident 

 that happened one day, showing how the natives feel about 

 throwing away anything eatable. About twenty of the 

 women and children were out on the rocks drinking coffee 



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