58 A SUMMER IN GREENLAND 
the smaller Settlements. A red band round the 
top-knot is the badge of a maid; blue denotes a 
married woman; black a widow, and green an 
unmarried woman who is a mother. 
For fuel the natives use some of the plants that’ 
grow near the Settlements, and piles of these are 
often seen dotted over the hill-sides to dry in the 
sun. Coal in some districts is abundant and easily 
obtained: thin seams were often exposed among the 
beds of shale and sandstone by the shore or in the 
valleys where we collected fossils. Some of the 
seams are of fairly good quality. The coal is avail- 
able for anyone who takes the trouble to get it. 
There is at present one government coal-mine on 
the north coast of the Nigssuaq Peninsula (Map 
B, C. M.) from which local schooners and occa- 
sionally the Copenhagen ships obtain supplies. A 
visit to this coal-mine under the guidance of the 
Swedish manager was an interesting experience. 
The coal, which crops out on the face of a cliff by 
the beach, is worked from slightly inclined galleries 
penetrating a few hundred yards inland: a short 
distance from the entrance all the rock-faces, in- 
cluding the coal itself, are covered with glistening 
white crystals of ice. The temperature is a few 
degrees below the freezing-point all the year round. 
In the winter when the Vaigat is frozen the coal 
is carried on sledges drawn by dogs. The dogs 
belonging to the coal-mine were some of the 
largest among the many hundreds we saw in 
Greenland. The abundance of dogs at the Settle- 
ments in North Greenland, that is, all the west 
