112 HOLIDAY IN GREENLAND. Chap. VII. 



premely happy. I visited the Governor to-day, 

 and found his Kttle wooden house as scrupu- 

 lously clean and neat as the houses of the Danish 

 residents in Greenland invariably are. The only 

 ornaments about the room were portraits of his 

 unfortunate wife and two children : they em- 

 barked at Copenhagen last year to rejoin him, 

 and the ill-fated vessel has never since been 

 heard of. Poor Governor Elberg is in ill 

 health, and talks of returning home — by liome 

 he means Denmark, the land of his birth, and 

 where once he had a home. 



30^/i. — This is a grand Danish holiday; the 

 inhabitants are all dressed in their Sunday 

 clothes — at least, all who have got a change of 

 garments — and there is both morning and even- 

 ing service in the small wooden church. As 

 the Governor could not be persuaded to unlock 

 the door of the dance-house, our men returned 

 on board early ; yesterday evening they were 

 all on shore, and, with the Esquimaux, were 

 squeezed into this one large room : to be 

 squeezed in a crowd of human beings is positive 

 enjoyment after a winter's isolation such as 

 ours has been. Old Harvey constituted himself 

 master of the ceremonies, and with his flute 

 led the orchestra ; it consisted of one other 

 flute and a fiddle : he managed to perch himself 



