THE GREENLANDERS. 179 



mentioned other interesting traits of these people, which they 

 have observed in their own way. The natives, like the land- 

 scape, appeal differently to every imagination. The unique 

 and qiiaint little characters, and the bewildering, strong, 

 relentless scenes, incite the mind, but throw it back upon 

 itself. They inspire the imagination, without satisfying its 

 curiosity. Every intruder into Greenland solitudes, and every 

 student of the people and the animals, has found the life and 

 the air charged with interest, and every inquiring mind has 

 been filled with an endless mirage of fascinating perspectives. 

 There is here a clear view of primeval nature, seen through 

 the crystal lens of rarefied air. We have a clear understand- 

 ing of prehistoric life, born of an easier study of simple nature, 

 in its wildest elements. The method and the time may be 

 forgotten, but the inspiration and the place will ever remain 

 in our memory. 



It is to be hoped that the future will bring new arts, an 

 extermination of diseases, and a better adaptability to the 

 stormy conditions, to these unfortunate people. They cannot 

 long remain isolated from civilization, because they are 

 perched on the shores of the world's most interesting land- 

 scape, which will always be an increasing point of interest. 

 The coastal fringe of Greenland, with its people and its life, 

 is the most sublime and magnificent cyclorama of nature ; its 

 superb mountains, towering terraced cliffs, chaotic abysses, 

 great sheets of spotless snow, endless stretches of glacial ice, 

 and numberless silvery threads of winding waters have no 

 equal. It is a region of incandescence in summer and glow- 

 ing blackness in winter. It fills the soul of man with awful 

 despair and violent delights, extremes which, like the coastal 

 mountains, are separated by great gaps. 



