THE INTERIOR OF GREENLAND. 5 



eastern coast. For upwards of 200 years thousands of English, 

 Dutch, Danish, German, Norwegian, American, or French ships 

 have visited it, hunted the whale and the seal in its waters, or every 

 summer battled with their giant quarry in the more distant seas 

 which wash its shores ; and finally, it is now nearly a century 

 and a half ago since the Danish Government first established 

 trading-posts on the western coasts from near Cape Farewell to 

 almost 74° N. latitude, where reside from year to year educated 

 and intelligent Danish officers with the whole resources of the 

 trading monopoly at their disposal. Yet, as far as any definite 

 knowledge of the interior goes, we know almost as little to-day as 

 we did when Erikr Eauthri returned home again to Sneefjeld- 

 jokelsfjord, boasting of the new country he had discovered. 1 



True, we know that it is covered with an immense glacier expan- 

 sion. But whether this glacier expansion is unbroken from north 

 to south or from east to west we can only reason from analogy, and 

 are not able to speak with the authority and confidence which actual 

 observation gives. Before we hastily vent our indignation in the 

 stereotyped phrase of " it being discreditable to the enterprise of 

 the age " that this should be, let us glance for a moment at the 

 causes of this. Though so near Europe, Greenland is yet in reality 

 far off, communication with it being rare and slow, while once 

 there, there is little to attract the attention of an explorer, who is 

 apt to think his time more profitably and pleasantly spent in more 

 fruitful and hospitable regions. Accordingly, while the mysteries 

 of Africa are explored at every risk of life and health, and the 

 eucalyptus-thickets of Australia never lack Englishmen and Ger- 

 mans willing to risk a grave among them, and the gorgeous wonders 

 of Amazonian vegetation attract men to wander in awe-struck 

 admiration amongst it, the icy interior of familiar Greenland lies 

 solitary, mysterious, and unknown. The Danish residents in 

 Greenland are too occupied with their duties, and, unless under 

 special encouragement from the Government, can scarcely be ex- 

 pected to undertake what has found no attractions for professional 

 geographers and explorers. When I said that it is knoivn that the 

 interior is an ice-waste covered with a huge mcr de glace, I ought 

 to have qualified this statement by saying that this is only a matter 



1 " It was a green land, a fair country, greener than Iceland," loudly in ale- 

 house an<l market-place proclaimed this Lusty, boisterous, roystering drinker of 

 nl and mead. The bet is, that, in his own .small way, this same banished sun of 

 the banished son of Jadar, the Norwegian jarl, was a " promoter" of a joint-stock 

 company for colonization, and knew as well as anybody within the city of London 

 or elsewhere what was in a name. " For," quoth he, " if the land have a good 

 name, if will cause many to come thither." 



