12 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS 



hunting, frolicking and feasting in their joyous fashion, until the sun's 

 warmth has broken up the ice. Then they travel southward, still over 

 the ice, some to the settlements of Inglefield Gulf and others even as far 

 as Cape York. 



Tin: West Wall. 



The First or Northern Panel — Reindeer Hunting in Summer. 



The paintings on the west wall represent Eskimo life during the 

 long Arctic day. 



In the middle foreground of the northern panel a hunter, crouching 

 at the top of a rocky prominence, is in the act of drawing his bow of 

 bone and sinew upon a white reindeer, 1 which has espied too late some- 

 thing to excite its curiosity. In the middle distance at the extreme right, 

 is the continuation of the large iceberg of the central panel of the north 

 wall. Icebergs in the Arctic regions are frequently from 150 to 300 feet 

 in height, measure five to seven times this distance below the surface of 

 the sea, and sometimes have a length of three miles. Beyond the ice- 

 berg in the distance is a glacier flowing down from the great ice "Sahara " 

 in the interior of Greenland, while to the left is a dark rocky portion of 

 the submerged land. 



In the immediate foreground are purple flowers (Epilobium lafi- 

 foliiim) which nestle in pockets in the rocks. The middle foreground is 

 covered by stunted grass and mosses, especially by reindeer moss on 

 which the deer are feeding. Many flowers bloom in Greenland and other 

 polar lands during the short summer, notably members of the mustard 

 family, and of the pink, rose, saxifrage and grass families. There is one 

 speries of sedge known; willows and birches are found, although grow- 

 ing only two to three inches in height; while daisies, buttercups, yellow 

 poppies, harebells, dandelions, gentians and primroses cover the ground 

 in many places. 



Another source of bright color in these northern latitudes lies in two 

 species of alga\ one red and the other green. They are microscopic 

 plants that grow on the ice or snow, but they may occur in such profusion 

 as to impart their color to the ground. It is the presence of these algae 



'A white caribou (Rangifer pearyi Allen) discovered by Peary i:i L902 in Elles- 

 mere I. ami near Lake Hazen, latitude 82° X. 



