FERTILE PLAINS.— NUMEROUS REINDEER. 



285 



me like an oasis in the great desert. For nearly one year I had 

 sighted nothing but rocks, rocks, rocks, here, there, and every 

 where, piled into mountains of such varied and horrible shapes 

 that they seemed as if created to strike (error into the heart of 

 man ; and now to fall thus unexpectedly upon a plain covered 

 with grass, yielding so friendly and " down"-like to my aching 

 feet, particularly under the circumstances described, was enough 

 for me to express my great joy and admiration. 



It is said that the name Greenland was given to that land by 

 the Norwegians and Icelanders because it looked greener than 

 Iceland. I could, therefore, on my trip across that grassy plain, 

 fully appreciate their feelings on beholding a greener land than 

 their own. Yet many a one going directly from the United 

 States and visiting Greenland would from the bottom of his soul * 

 exclaim, 



" This Greenland ! Then, indeed, have I come into a Paradise, 

 but into that of which Milton speaks : 



" ' o'er the back side of the world far off, 



Into a limbo large and broad, since called 

 The Paradise of Fools.' 1 " 



With reference to the plain I crossed over, Tookoolito after- 

 ward informed me that in 1860 a company of Innuits, herself and 

 Ebierbing of the number, spent three weeks in passing over the 

 land amid the mountains, and on other plains of great extent 

 westward of Cornelius Grinnell Bay. Their trip was made for 

 a reindeer hunt. On their way, and running northwest from the 

 plain near what I have called Alden Mountain, was another plain, 

 extending in every direction as far as the eye could reach. This 

 convinced me that in general arctic navigators know but little 

 about the interior of the northern country. Earely any thing but 

 the coasts are seen and explored. On the trip I am now referring 

 to I saw more level ground than since I left the United States. 

 Nothing in Greenland that I saw could compare with it. 



Tookoolito also informed me that reindeer visit those plains in 

 great numbers. On their excursion they killed as many as they 

 wanted ; and so numerous were the deer that they might be com- 

 pared to flocks of sheep. Much of the meat they had obtained 

 during the hunt was left behind. The fawns were chased down 

 by the Innuits and caught ; as she said, " their feet being dry, they 

 could not run well. When the feet of tuktoo are wet, they can 

 go much faster over the mountain rocks." 



