THE POLAR WORLD. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



GREENLAND. 



A mysterious Region. — Ancient Scandinavian Colonists. — Their Decline and Fall. — Hans Egede. — His 

 Trials and Success.— Foundation of Godthaab. — Herrenhuth Missionaries. — Lindenow. — The Scores- 

 bys. — Clavering. — The Danish Settlements in Greenland. — The Greenland Esquimaux. — Seal-catch- 

 ing. — The White Dolphin. — The Narwhal. — Shark-fishery. — Fiskernasset. — Birds. — Reindeer-hunt- 

 ing. — Indigenous Plants. — Drift-wood. — Mineral Kingdom, — Mode of Life of the Greenland Esqui- 

 maux. — The Danes in Greenland. — Beautiful Scenery. — Ice Caves. 



IN many respects Greenland is one of the most remarkable countries of the 

 Arctic zone. The whole of the northern coast of continental America 

 from Cape Lisburne to Belle Isle Straits is known ; the borders of Siberia front- 

 ing the icy ocean have been thoroughly explored by water and by land ; the 

 distance of Spitzbergen and l*^ova Zembla from the pole has long since been 

 determined ; but how far Greenland may reach to the north we know not — 

 though nearly a thousand years have passed since the Icelander Giinnbjorn 

 (970 A.D.) first saw its high mountain coast, and in spite of all the attempts 

 made since that time to circumnavigate it. The interior of the island — or con- 

 tinent as it may perhaps more justly be called, for it has a surface of at least 

 750,000 square miles, and is probably larger than Australia — ^is also unknown ; 

 for of this vast extent of territory only the narrow shores of the coast-line 

 seemed to be inhabitable, or even accessible to man. On penetrating into the 

 deeper fjords, all the valleys are found blocked with glaciers, which, on climb- 

 ing the heights, are seen to pass into a monotonous plateau of ice, or neve, which 

 seems to cover and conceal the whole interior. Thus, from its physical config- 

 uration, Greenland may well be called a mysterious region ; and, strange to say, 

 the history of the decline and fall of its first colonists is as little known as its 

 geography. 



We have seen in a previous chapter that Iceland, so peaceful in the present 

 day, was peopled in the ninth century Avith a highly turbulent race of jarls and 

 vikings. One of these worthies, called Erik Rauda, or the Red, having twice 

 dyed his hands with blood, was banished by the Althing (982) for a term of 

 years, and resolved to pass the time of his compulsory absence in exploring the 

 land discovered by Giinnbjorn. After spending three years on its western 

 coasts, he returned to Iceland, and made so favorable a report of the new coun- 

 try, which — knowing the advantages of a good name — he called Greenland, that 

 in 986 he induced a large body of colonists to sail with him and settle there. 

 Other emigrants followed, and in a few years all the habitable places of South- 

 ern Greenland were occupied. 



The colony, which soon after its foundation adopted the Christian religion, 

 was divided into two districts, or " bygds " (from the Icelandic " byggia," to 



