38 ON GREENLAND AT DUCK-FLIGHT. 



CHAPTER V. 



ON GREENLAND AT DUCK-FLIGHT. 



GREENLAND consists of a brown ridge of moor 

 a strip from the mainland running into the 

 sea, which is gradually eating away the desolate 

 marsh. It seems always as bleak and as 

 abandoned as the region of polar ice. All 

 attempts to drain Greenland have failed utterly ; 

 it can only boast of two houses or cabins, and 

 these are unoccupied in severe stormy weather 

 by the miserable creatures who squat in them 

 during the summer months. It has the re- 

 putation of a haunted district : unhallowed 

 lights are seen there at unhallowed hours; 

 dismal cries are heard out of the dark from 

 Greenland on the anniversaries of shipwreck 

 disasters which have occurred at its uttermost 

 point. The fiery ghosts might be explained 

 by the fact that the locality is favourable for 

 the eccentric illuminations of Will-o'-the- 

 Wisp ; and when the equinoctial gales do 

 blow, the perturbed shrieking and clanging of 

 the gulls and gannets might pass for the 



