58 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



whale rope, butter, fish, and crackers enough for his whole popu- 

 lation (numbering 700 souls) for two years. Every thing was of 

 the most substantial character, and stored in such a large quanti- 

 ty in case the vessel which is annually sent to the colonists from 

 Denmark should be lost. There was also a large supply of deer- 

 skins, sealskins, water-proof clothing, etc. In a loft over the store 

 I saw some sioord-blades, used for cutting blubber/ Eesolving 

 swords into plowshares is an old idea, but swords into blubber- 

 cutters is something decidedly new. 



While at the store a customer arrived — an Esquimaux. He 

 wanted some sugar and coffee. This was served to him, and he 

 paid for it by a Greenland bill of twenty -four skillings, equal to 

 fourteen cents American. 



We next visited the blacksmith's shop — a building that looks 

 quite equal to a fine village dwelling-house. Inside was the ma- 

 chine-shop, with long rows of whale gear, harpoons, lances, etc., 

 and three whale guns. Here I saw a cast-iron stove, which the 

 governor said was the kind used by the natives. This stove was 

 filed all over and polished ; the stove-pipe, twenty feet long, also 

 of cast iron. Its price was equivalent to $15 federal money. 

 The blacksmith was a fine-looking, intelligent mechanic. 



Our next visit was to the school-house. To enter it we had to 

 stoop much. "He stoops to conquer," was an idea that entered 

 my mind as I thought of the teacher who bends his head on en- 

 tering that temple of knowledge. The teacher's business is to 

 bend. "As the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." Intelligence 

 and virtue will yet conquer ignorance and vice. Who would 

 not stoop that such a cause — the cause of knowledge — might pro- 

 gress ? 



On returning to the governor's house, we went into an upper 

 room which overlooks Davis's Straits and the many islands 

 around the entrance of the harbor. Here is the "apothecary's 

 shop," the contents of which the governor himself dispenses as 

 required among the sick natives. Shelves of stationery were also 

 round the room ; and in a closet a quantity of eider-down, from 

 which, in 1850, both Dr. Kane and Commodore De Haven had 

 some for their beds. The keys of the government buildings — 

 many of ponderous size — were also kept in a closet here. 



After examining the several places of note, we sat down to an 

 excellent supper of duck, salmon, trout, eider-duck's eggs, butter, 

 American cheese, some very rich goat's milk, white flour breads 



