MARION 



EXPEDITION TO DAVIS STRAIT AND BAFFIN BA\' 



13 



for the colonial a<ient of the district i)resente(l the officers of the 

 Maiion with a paper ba^- full of fine lar<ie radishes that he had 

 I'aised. There were no (h)<»s ;d)()Ut the town because the fiords do not 

 freeze up solidly in winter, and tlie rocky hills bordering the fiords 

 are not <iood for sled<i:e travel. Due to the absence of the fierce 

 Eskimo do<rs, it is possible to keep <roats and ducks at Godthaab, and 

 a number of these creatures were seen wandering about the town. 



Besides some local commerce with near-by villages by means of 

 coasting craft, a number of fine Danish Government steamers make 

 calls at Godthaab each year. The latter vessels carry official passen- 

 gers and freight to and frcmi Copenhagen, serving, we were told, all 

 of the principal Greenland ports. 



Our first stop in Greenland brought home to us the fact that the 

 land is a closed country, open only to certain Danish officials and to 



THE WATER FRONT OF (iODTlIAAI5 



Figure 8. — The principal industry of this Danish colonial viUage is fishing. The build- 

 ing in front of which six people are standing is the home and office of the local colo- 

 nial agent. Godthaab, being the capital of South Greenland, has also a number of 

 other Government houses, but they are located farther back from the sea. 



scientists Avho are vouched for by their own governments and ap- 

 proved of by the Danes. The natives live like wards of the Govern- 

 ment on an enormous naturalH^ isolated reservation. Our pleasant 

 experiences at Godthaab, as Avell as at other places in Greenland, 

 made us regret that the country is not open to at least the more 

 adventurous and hardier class of tourists. Each year a certain num- 

 ber of such people could undoubtedly be induced to visit and examine 

 the more accessible villages, ice fiords, mountains, and other wonders 

 of the historic land that was first colonized from the north of Europe 

 five centuries before Columbus discovered the Xew World. 



All liberty was up at noon. Right after dinner the Marion shifted 

 anchorage to where a small stream from near-by mountains rushed 

 down into the fiord. The afternoon was spent watering ship and 

 dumping into the fuel tanks the last of the deck load of barreled 



