406 PROF. NORDENSKIOLD, EXPEDITION TO GREENLAND. 



only visit it in summer to hunt and fish, usually in an " umiak," 

 which is carried over the neck of land. It is seldom that they 

 row from the mouth to the end of the fjord. They are afraid of 

 the violent currents which the tide produces in the long narrow 

 estuary, and which, as the Greenlanders several times, with 

 horror in their countenances, informed us, when we wished to 

 take advantage of the favourable but violent current to get on 

 faster, had once swallowed up two " umiaks," with all the men, 

 women, and children on board. There must now, however, be 

 but very little to be got by hunting there ; at, least, during the 

 whole of our journey we saw no Reindeer. But there are persons 

 still living who remember the time when thousands of Reindeer 

 were killed in these parts for the sake of the skins only. This 

 abundance of game enticed a few families to settle there also during 

 winter^ and one meets in several places traces of old houses. The 

 shores of the fjord are occupied by gneiss hills separated from 

 each other by valleys, in which Grass and Lichen grow plentifully, 

 thus affording copious pasture for such Reindeer as may occa- 

 sionally stray thither. This is an event which has now become 

 rare ; but many maintain that the good times may return, for, 

 according to their account, the Reindeer make periodical migrations, 

 sometimes appearing at a particular place in vast numbers, and 

 then suddenly disappearing, and there are many persons who 

 connect this account with that of an inland tract free from ice, or 

 even with the story of wild inhabitants with European features in 

 the interior of the country. To us the visit to this fjord was 

 of interest, partly because we hoped thus to become acquainted 

 with the true, unmixed Greenlander scarcely in contact witli 

 civilization, and partly for botanical reasons. We hoped in fact 

 here, far from the moist fogs of the ocean, to find a far richer 

 vegetation than on the outer coast. A very small tree was said 

 to have been transplanted hence to the clergyman's garden at 

 Egedesminde. This anticipation of the botanist was, however, not 

 confirmed, at least not to the amount expected. The flora was 

 indeed richer and the Willow-bush larger than at Egedesminde, 

 but not so rich nor so large as in the more northerly but 

 fertile basalt-region of Disko, which is traversed by subterranean 

 streams of warm water. The Insect fauna, on the other hand, 

 appears to be somewhat richer here than on the coast ; at least we 

 collected the best harvest of Insects that we had during the whole 

 summer on the 17th of July, on a little island in Tessiursarsoak, 

 and the time we spent at the foot of the inland ice was, although 

 in other respects extremely pleasant, embittered to a degree — of 

 which those who have not experienced it cannot form an idea — by 

 countless swarms of Gnats. The Greenland Gnat is like ours, but 

 its bite is far more venomous, though at first not particularly 

 painful. One is therefore usually too incautious at first, and 

 exposes oneself to twenty or thirty gnat-bites in the face at once. 

 A few hours later one's face becomes unrecognizable with the 

 lumps and swellings caused by the bites, and this is followed by 

 pain and fever, especially at night, which hinder sleep, and are 

 almost enough to drive one mad. 



Tlie inland ice, in former time.^, evidently covered the whole of 



