56 A SUMMER IN GREENLAND 
tion not previously met with. We were awakened by 
a tune played in slow time and repeated many times 
‘diminuendo’ until further sleep was impossible. 
The scene reproduced in Fig. 24 is in striking 
contrast to that at the same locality a few days 
previously when our boat was at the mercy of the 
gale. Across the Vaigat is the mountainous coast 
of the Nigssuaq Peninsula: the successive flat 
summits on the left exhibit the characteristic form 
of the volcanic rocks which cover the underlying 
sedimentary strata, distinguished by their yellow 
or bright red colour, even at a distance of ten 
miles or more, from the brown lavas above. The 
motor-boat on the left had just arrived from God- 
havn, whence it had been sent by Mr Porsild who 
feared that the ‘Clio borealis’ (the motor-boat in 
which we were travelling) had met with a mishap. 
As we left Godhavn, our friend Ludwig Geisler 
gave us a salute of two rifle shots; a few hours later 
we met the two kayakers whom we had sent with 
a request for help. 
It is the duty of Eskimo women to skin and cut 
up the seals, and this is performed with wonderful 
dexterity by the aid of a simple knife with a semi- 
circular blade attached to a broad wooden handle. 
It is said that a woman dressed in her best can cut 
up a seal without receiving a single splash of blood. 
The chief recreation is dancing. I recall one 
evening at Holsteinsborg on the mainland coast 
when we danced in the open until midnight to 
the accompaniment of a concertina played with 
great skill by a Greenlander. 
