NOTES FROM AN ARCTIC JOURNAL. 373 
instead of being mere huts of stone and earth, approached by a 
subterranean passage, many have wooden fronts, glass windows, 
and excellent sleeping accommodation inside. J was much pleased 
with the general cleanliness and hospitality of the Greenlanders. 
The great admixture of European blood amongst the inhabitants 
of Godhavn at once attracts attention; I was struck to see light- 
haired, blue-eyed boys, of thoroughly Danish expression, paddling 
in the native kajaks, and dressed after the manner of the country, 
and talking the Eskimo language. These are the progeny or 
descendants of the Danish employés who have married Greenland 
women. Some of the young unmarried women were, I thought, 
remarkably pretty, and their dress extremely becoming. The 
married women, engrossed with household cares, as a rule, soon 
lose all interest in their dress, and become slovenly and careworn: 
they soon age and get wrinkled. The fashion of wearing the hair 
lightly drawn together in a top-knot is very injurious; it causes 
the hair to fall off in patches on the side of the head, and the 
expression of the face is altered. The Greenlanders are strictly 
moral, and their behaviour bears favourable comparison with far 
more favoured races. Syphilis was unknown in Greenland, until 
introduced of late years into the district of Frederikshaab, 
following ihe increased intercourse with foreigners, consequent on 
the working of the cryolite mine at Ivigtut. 
On the opposite side of the harbour to the settlement of 
Godhavn a very accessible valley, called the Lyngmarken, leads 
the traveller up to the base of the basalt precipices, which there 
rest upon the gneiss; a more difficult path from thence conducts a 
person to the highlands of Disco Island. Accompanied by a friend 
we made the ascent one morning. The entire valley of the Lyng- 
marken being bare of snow, we walked through a copse of willow 
reaching above our knees. Lapland and Snow Buntings, with a 
single Ptarmigan, Lagopus rupestris, were the only birds we met 
with. The alpine plants were blooming in all their freshness; it 
was curious to notice that the blossoming of these plants appeared 
to keep pace with the retreat of the snow, and just as soon as the 
snow dissolved the flowers appeared. When we reached the 
junction of the gneiss and trap beds we took advantage of a 
torrent-course to aid our ascent. At an elevation of about 
1000 feet the mountain torrent commences to cut out a vast 
cirque in the soft traps, The mountain side has been scooped out 
