GREENLAND. 



THIS extensive country, though it has been said to belong pro- 

 perly neither to America nor Europe, must certainly be referred to 

 the former continent, whether it be an island, or united to the main 

 land to the north of Davis's Straits, by which it is bounded on the 

 west. To the south it terminates in a point called Cape Farewell, in 

 north lat. 59° 38', west long. 42° 40'; on the south-east it is washed 

 by the Atlantic ; and on the east it is bounded by the icy sea, and the 

 strait which separates it from Iceland, from which it is distant about 

 20 J miles ; to the north its limits are unascertained. 



The climate of this country is extremely severe, the greater part of 

 U being almost continually covered with ice and snow. Among the 

 vegetables of this cold country are sorrel, angelica, wild tansey, and 

 scurvy gi-ass. Europeans have sown barley and oats, which have 

 grown as high as in warmer climates, but have seldom advanced so 

 far as to ear, and never, even in the warmest places, come to maturi- 

 ty. The trees are some small junipers, willows, and birch. The 

 animals are white hares, foxes, rein-deer, and white bears, which are 

 fierce and mischievous. The only tame animals are a species of dogs 

 resembling wolves. The shores are frequented by the walrus, and 

 several kinds of seals ; and the seas contain various species of whales, 

 some of which are white, and others black ; of the black sort, the 

 grand bay whale is in most esteem, on account of his bulk, and the 

 great quantity of fat or blubber he affords. He is usually between 

 sixty and eighty feet in length: his tongue is about eighteen feet 

 long, inclosed in long pieces of what is called whalebone, which are 

 covered with a kind of hair like horse hair ; and on each side of his 

 tongue are 250 pieces of this whalebone ; the bones of his body are 

 as hard as those of an ox, and of no use. A number of ships are em- 

 ployed annually in the whale fishery in the seas of Greenland. When 

 a whale appears, they man their boats, of which each ship has four or 

 five, carrying &ix or eight men ; and when they come near the fish, 

 the harpooner, who stands at the head of the boat, strikes him with his 

 harpoon, or barbed dart. The creature, finding himself wounded, 

 dives swiftly down into the deep, and would carry the boat along with, 

 him, if they did not give him line fast enough. Such is the velocity 

 of his motion, that to prevent the wood of the boat taking fire by the 

 violent rubbing of the rope against the side of it, one of the men is 

 constantly employed in wetting it. After the whale has run some hun- 

 dred fathoms, he is forced to come «p again for air, when he spouts 

 out the water with such a terrible noise, that some have compared it 

 to the firing of cannon. As soon as he appears on the surface, the' 

 harpooner fixes another harpoon in him, when he plunges again into 

 the deep as before : and, when he again comes up they pierce him With 

 spears in the vital parts, till he spouts out streams of blood instead of 

 water, beating the waves with his tail and fins till the sea is covered 

 with foam. The boats continue to follow him some leagues, till he has 

 lost his strength, and when he is dying he turns himself upon his back, 

 and is drawn on shore, or to the ship, if the land be at a great distance: 

 e they cut him in pieces, end by boiling the blubber, extract the 

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