rounded by lofty mountainpeaks now almost snowless sculptured into 

 the most phantastic shapes, some resembling old ruins, some fortifi- 

 cations. Now and again we caught a glimpse beyond them of the 

 bluish white crest of some glacier in the interior*. 



Judging from the topographic curves of the map it seems pro- 

 bable that the Drango of the Eriksstefna is identic with the island 

 that forms the western shore of the sound between the Ikek and the 

 Iluafjord where the mountainpeak Umiagsiut, 2790 feet in height, 

 rises steeply from the shore. 



In Jonssons map Solvadal is found on the Iluafjord. There too 

 is the Tofafjord while Herjolfsnas with the abbey is found where the 

 present Igikait and Fredriksdal are situated. 



The fjords of the Osterbygd north of Cape Farewell are also enu- 

 merated, though in reversed order (from west to east), in the record by 

 Ivar Bardsson. I here quote his own words as they are rendered 

 by F. Jonsson. 



Having mentioned Herjolfsnas and the trading-center Sand the 

 description proceeds: 



»Item the Gaster Dorpe of 6>«oneland lyeth 6ast from 

 Hernoldsnars boohe, but near it and is called Skagen ford and 

 ts a great Tillage, 



Item, from Skagen ford 6ast, lyeth H Raven called Beare 

 ford: it is not dwelt in. In the mouth thereof lyeth a Riffe, 

 so that great ships cannot harbour in it. Item there is a 

 great abundance of whales: and there is a great fishing for 

 the hilling of them there: but not without the Bishops con- 

 sent, which keep the same for the benefit of the Cathedral 

 Church. In the haven is a great Swaltb: and when the Cide 

 doth runne out, all the Sdbales do runne into the sayd Swaltb. 



Item, 6ast of Beare ford, lyeth another fiaven called Hlla- 

 bong Sound and it is at the mouth narrow, but further in, 

 very wide: Che length whereof is such, that the end thereof 

 is not yet known. Cbere runneth no Streame. It lyeth full 

 of little lies, fowle and Oxen are there common: and it is 

 playne Land on both sides, growne over with green Grass. 



Item 6ast from the Icie ]Mountagne, lyeth an Raven called 

 fenderbothen; so named, beeause in Saint Olafes time there 

 was Ship cast away, as the speacb bath beene in Groneland; 

 in which ship was drowned one of Saint Olafes men, with 

 others: and those that were saved did burie those that were 

 drowned, and on their 6raves did set great stone Crosses, 

 which we see at this day. 



Item, somewhat more Cast toward the Icie ]Mountagne, 

 lyeth a high Land called Corse Rougbt, upon which they bunt 

 white bears, but not without the Bishops leave, for it be- 

 longed to the Cathedral church, and from thence more easterly, 

 men see nothing but Ice and Snow, both by Land and <Hater». 



The Fenderbothen haven on the Eastcoast has not yet been 

 identified. The place appears to have been much frequented in the 

 10th century but only as a haven of refuge where shipwrecked crews 

 were brought ashore and the bodies of those who lost their lifes on 

 the dangerous east coast were recovered and buried in consecrated 

 ground. In the Saga of Lik-Lodin it is told »how Lik-Lodin (Corpse- 

 Lodin) got his by-name because he often in summer ransacked the 

 northern wilderness and brought to church the dead men he there found 

 in caves and mountain-clefts » to which they had come from the ice or 

 from shipwreckes, but with them were usually carved runes telling of 

 their adventures and sufferings » . In another Saga about Lik-Lodin it is 

 told that he brought the bodies of Finn Fegin and his crew from 

 »FinnbbuSir east of the glaciers in Greenland ». In Nansen's ver- 

 sion pag. 217 from which this note is taken, this is said to have occur- 

 ed some time before the downfall of Harald Hardrade in 1066. Si- 

 milar accounts are told from the 12th century of ship-wrecks on the 

 east-coast near Hvitserk (Einar Sokkason 1129, Ingimund 1189). 

 Probably Fenderbothen (Finnbudir) was what we should call an 

 out-post lying north of the eastern inlets of Allumlengri and Spal- 

 sund near mount Hvitserk. From the Saga about Asmund Kastan- 

 razi who visited Finnbudir in 1189 on his voyage to Iceland, we 

 see that the haven was used by merchant-men as late as the end of 

 the 12th century. It is difficult to understand how, with this testi- 

 mony from bygone days, anyone who by experience knows the pre- 

 sent inaccessibility of the entire east-coast, can declare that »The 

 climate and iceconditions in Greenland are the same now as of old. » 



The local description by Ivar Bardsson completes the ancient 

 sailing direction and gives a clear though somewhat incomplete notion 

 as to the extension eastwards of the Osterbygd and of some of its in- 

 lets, f.inst. the Allumlengri and the Bearefjord. The results of Holm's 

 expedition in 1881 have settled beyond doubt that the latter is iden- 

 tic with the sound Itivdliak. Holm says: »On the eastcoast of the big 

 island east of Ilua there is a dwellingplace called Igdlorsuatsikit. 

 There is a sound to the north from this place very narrow and border- 

 ed by precipitous mountain-sides of phantastic shapes. The north- 

 ern inlet to this sound is cut off by a barrier of bluntedged stones, 



1 Platysimatichtys hippoglossoides. 



2 Somniosus micro cephalus. 



3 A. S. Jensen Fiskeriundersogelser i Gronland 1903 & 1909 (Atlanten N:o 82). 



the Itivdliak, and falls dry at low-tide ». This then is the Bearefjord of 

 Ivar Bardsson with the reef that prevented big vessels to enter except- 

 ed at spring-tide. Since this reef according to Holm still falls dry at 

 low-tide, we may conclude that the elevation of the south-coast of 

 Greenland has not altered perceptibly in the last 5 centuries. Geo- 

 graphically the sounds have not altered since the time of the Vi- 

 kings, but in their hydrographic state there is a change as the fish- 

 ery conditions indicate. 



According to A. Jensen the Hellefisk 1 , the HavkaF. 

 and a special kind of cod, the fjord-cod, are found in nearly every fjord 

 in South-Greenland. The migratory salmon, the halibut and sea- 

 cod (Gadus Calliaris) again are only occasional visitors to certain shoa- 

 les off the Greenland coast and to those fjords into which the warm 

 water of the deeper layers in Davis Sound can penetrate 3 . In the oth- 

 er fjords the cold water of the polar current prevails in the deep layer. 



Lot eo-jf. 



Ajriilso'kfj'ord (Granlajid.] Lung Wto'W 



J?LS tiens rrhtrujjicr 



Amitsok fjord. 



In 1883 A. Hamberg investigated the hydrographic state of the 

 Amitsok fjord, in August, the result of which is seen in this section. 

 Our boreal fishes cannot exist in fjords of this hydrographic type. 

 Knowing that in old times a great cod-fishing was carried on in the 

 Osterbygd and even at Gunbjornskar, we must conclude that the 

 ice-conditions were more favourable then. 



I shall now consider the effect of the ice conditions on the cli- 

 mate of Greenland. Since the advance of the drift-ice round Gape 

 Farewell to the west coast of Greenland the former colonies Vester- 

 bygden and Osterbygclen are wedged in between two ice-areas, the 

 see-ice and the inland-ice. This fact alone is sufficient to account for 

 the deterioration of the climate of Greenland. Those who with Nan- 

 en hold, that no change has occurred since the age of the Vikings will 

 iscredit the description in the ancient records of the fertility and 

 ultivation of the land. Thus Ivar Bardssons statement that. 



»Item in 6roneland runneth great Streams; and there is 

 much Snow and Ice: But it is not so cold as it is in Iceland 

 or Norway. 



Item, there grow on the high Rills JNuts and Hcornes, 

 fruit of trees, which are as apples and good to eate. Cbere 

 growetb also the best wheate, that can growe in the whole 

 Land.» (is regarded by Nansen as sheer nonsense concocted from 

 old legends about Winland.) 



We must remember that the Osterbygd of Greenland is in the 

 same lat., as the Hardanger and the Sognefj or cl of Norway and that in 

 the interior of these fjords there are farms situated immediately below 

 the greatest glacier in Europe, the JostedalsbraB. Yet they ripen ex- 

 cellent fruit, apples, cherries etc. Even now the fertility of the Oster- 

 bygd surprises those who visit Greenland as Nordenskiold among 

 others affirms. Before the ice blocked the coast the climate of these 

 fjords must have resembled that of the Norwegian fjords. We must, 

 however, not conclude that the similarity of climate would extend to 

 the vegetal and animal life, for this is a question of migrationandimpor- 

 tation from other parts of the earth and in this respect Greenland has 

 been at a disadvantage, because of its isolated position. A thou- 

 sand years ago all our common forest-trees except the pine had 

 reached the west-coast of Norway but only the birch had become natur- 

 alised in Greenland (and Iceland). There is no ground for supposing the 

 norsemen to have cultivated forest but there is every reason to ex- 

 pect the monks to have imported fruit-trees and cultivated gardens 

 as they did everywhere they went. There is no incredibility in the 

 statement by Ivar Bardsson, that under the high mountains trees grew, 

 which bore big apples good to eat. When we are told of the early 

 inhabitants of Iceland, that they lived in winter of the fruit of trees 

 they had cultivated in summer, we must remember that these early in- 

 habitants were monks and anachorets who from their homes in Ireland 

 were well acfuainted with gardening. Also the climate of Iceland in 

 the 7th century may have been much more temperate when the 

 frequent blocking of the coast by drift-ice had not yet commenced. 

 Still fruit-growing in Iceland must always have been more difficult 

 than in Greenland because of the more exposed position of the former 

 island. 



As to the cultivation of grain, regard must be taken to local 

 conditions such as night-frost, etc. Probably Greenland was never 

 well adapted for corn-growing though in certain places, as stated by 



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