NORTHWARD BOUND 1 3 



and feast upon the beauties of the view. Disko Bay, blue as 

 sapphire, thickly studded with icebergs of all sizes and beauti- 

 fully colored by the sun's rays, lay at our feet, with the little 

 settlement of Godhavn on one side and the brown cliffs tower- 

 ing over it. As far as the eye could reach, the sea was dotted 

 with icebergs, which looked like a fleet of sail-boats. The scene 

 was simply indescribable. We reached the summit, at an 

 elevation of 2400 feet, and built a cairn, in which we placed a 

 tin box containing a piece of paper with our names written 

 upon it, and some American coins. From the summit of 

 these cliffs we stepped upon the ice-cap, which seemed to roll 

 right down to their tops. The temperature was 91° F. in the 

 sun, and 56° in the shade. As we descended a blue mist 

 seemed to hang over that part of the cliffs that lay in shadow, 

 and the contrast with the white bergs gleaming in the sapphire 

 waters below was very striking. We returned to the foot of 

 the cliff after eight o'clock. On Sunday we made another ex- 

 pedition, to the Blaese Dael, or " windy valley," where a 

 beautiful double waterfall comes tumbling through the hard 

 rock, into which it has graven a deep channel. We gathered 

 more flowers, and collected some seaweed ; the mosquitos, 

 of which we had had a foretaste the day before, were ex- 

 tremely troublesome, and recalled to memory the shores of 

 New Jersey. When we reached the first Eskimo hut, a 

 number of the piccaninnies^ came to me and presented me 



1 The Eskimos frequently designate their children as piccaninnies, a word doubtless 

 introduced by the whalers. 



