106 A SUMMER VOYAGE TO THE ARCTIC 



opening in the deck in which he sits, and rights himself with a 

 dexterous use of his douhle-bladed paddle. In addition to the 

 rifle, which is now generally used, his main weapon is a harpoon 

 having a detachable point which remains in the seal after it is 

 struck. Attached to this point b3' a long line is an air-bag, which 

 floats on the surface, and enables the ka3^aker to follow the seal 

 in its struggles. In Avinter the northern Greenlander depends 

 on his dogs and sled for transportation. The Eskimo dogs are 

 his only domestic animals, and every village is filled with tliem. 

 On smooth ice great distances can be traversed in a single day, 

 speeds of 16 miles an hour being attained. In Umanak fiord the 

 sledging lasts more than half the year, the season in 1896 not 

 ending until July. 



The Eskimos are a childlike, gentle race. They are honest 

 and remarkably free from brawls and disputes. Jails and con- 

 stables are entirely lacking in Danish Greenland. The very 

 simple local affairs are regulated by district councils, composed 

 of the leading natives and the Danish officials, who meet twice a 

 year. The language is most peculiar and difficult for a stranger 

 to master. It is composed almost entirely of nouns and verbs, 

 and by suffixes and affixes to these the other parts of speech are 

 formed. It is possible to express the meaning of a long English 

 sentence in a single word, but some of these are forty letters in 

 length. The investigations of Rink have shown that the more 

 familiar words are common to all the Eskimo peoples, thus prov- 

 ing their common origin. He estimates that there are about 

 30,000 Eskimos, of whom one-third live in Danish Greenland, 

 one-third in Alaska, and the remainder in northeastern Siberia, 

 the northern portions of North America, and a few in Greenland 

 beyond the Danish dominions. 



From Umanak several trips were made in small boats to the 

 great glaciers at the head of the fiord. The largest of thesfe is the 

 Karajak. The face of this glacier, from which the bergs break 

 off into salt water, has a width of about four miles, a height 

 above the water of over 250 feet, and in the center moves with a 

 velocity of from 20 to 35 feet per day. A single iceberg breaking 

 off from this glacier has been estimated to contain 24 million 

 cubic yards of ice. At the price usually paid for ice for domestic 

 purposes in the United States, the ice in such a berg as this 

 would be worth over $100,000,000. At another glacier, the Itivd- 

 liarsuk, we saw a great mass, 300 feet long, break from the face ; 

 the crashing and thundering noise that resulted, the surging of 



