A LAND OF SUNSHINE 23 
“It is reported,’ says the father, ‘that the monster 
called Merman is found in the seas of Greenland 
...another prodigy called Mermaid has also been 
seen there.” In this connexion reference may be 
made to a description of a Merman quoted by Mr 
Whymper in an article on his travels in Greenland 
(Alpine Fournal, vol. v, 1870) which, he states, 
‘clearly refers to a kayaker.” An Eskimo in a 
kayak, his body clothed in skins, might well 
produce the impression of some strange or mythical 
apparition. 
Fancy with fact is just one fact the more. 
The father adds: ‘Only a small part of the land 
thaws out, while all the rest remains under the ice 
...all the mountain ranges and all the valleys are 
covered with ice...the land has beautiful sunshine 
and is said to have rather a pleasant climate.’ The 
son replied, as many people who have not been to 
Greenland would also reply, ‘ it is hard for me to 
understand how such a land can have a good 
climate.’ 
Greenland in the summer is truly a land of sun- 
shine, and for many weeks the sunshine is con- 
tinuous; the temperature in the warm season 
seldom falls below the freezing-point. The rainfall 
in the south is relatively high, about six times as 
much as in the north: in the district where our 
work lay the average annual rainfall is about nine 
inches. Theaccompanying chart, simplified from one 
published in the recent official book on Greenland’, 
gives in a convenient form certain meteorological 
1 Grgnland (Copenhagen, 1921), vol. 1, p. 162. 
