GREENLAND. 



385 



even their traditions said not a word of the old Xorse settlers who had once 

 inhabited the land. The ruins of some churches, and other buildings scattered 

 here and there along the west coast, alone attested their existence, and formed 

 a link between the past and the present. Thus if Greenland still had inhabit- 

 ants of Scandinavian origin, they must necessarily be confined to the eastern 

 coast beyond Cape Farewell. But Egede was as little able as his predecessors 

 to penetrate through the ice-belt which, both by land and sea, completely sepa- 

 rated it from the rest of the world. 



For many years after his death it remained unknown and inaccessible ; and 

 Lowenorn, who was sent out in 1786-87 to renew the attempts of Heineson 

 and Lindenow, had no better success. No doubt many a whaler may have ad- 

 mired its distant mountain peaks glowing in the evening sun, or may have been 

 driven by the storm against its shores, but the Scoresbys were the first to de- 

 termine accurately the position of part of its well-fenced coast. In the year 

 1817, Captain Scoresby the elder, deviating from the usual course of the whalers, 

 steered through the western ice, and reached the east coast of Greenland be- 

 yond 70°. He could easily have landed; the coast which had so frequently 

 baffled the attempts of previous navigators lay invitingly before him, but he 

 could not sacrifice his duty as the commander of a whaler to curiosity or re- 

 nown. And thus, without having set his foot on shore, he sailed back into the 

 open sea. On a later visit, however, he landed in the sound which bears his 

 name. In the year 1822 Scoresby the younger succeeded in more closely ex- 

 amining the land. Leaving the usual track of the whalers, he had steered to 

 the west, and threaded his way through the drift-ice until, between 70° 33' and 

 71° 12' N. lat., the coast of Greenland lay before him. 'No coast that he had 

 ever seen before had so majestic a character. The mountains, on which he be- 

 stowed the name of Roscoe, consisted of numberless jagged stones or pyramids, 

 rising in individual peaks to a height of 3000 feet, and a chaos of sharp needles 

 covered their rough declivities. 



On July 24 he landed on a i-ocky promontory, which he named Cape Lister 

 (70° 30'), and, climbing its summit, continued his excursion along its back, which 

 was between three and four hundred feet high. Here and there between the 

 stones, which were either naked or thinly clothed with lichens, bloomed A?idro- 

 meda tetragona, a Saxifraga oppositifoUa^ a Papaver nudicanle, or a Ranun- 

 culus nivalis. At Cape Swainson he again descended to the shore, which here 

 formed a flat strand about 600 feet broad. Some deserted Esquimaux huts soon 

 arrested his attention. Charred drif l-wood and a quantity of ashes lay scattered 

 about the hearths, and proved that these dwellings had not been long forsaken. 

 Scarcely a bird was to be seen on land, but countless auks and divers animated 

 the waters. A great number of winged insects — butterflies, bees, mosquitoes 

 — ^flew or buzzed about, particularly on the hillocks between the stones. On 

 July 25 he once more landed on Cape Hope, where he again found traces of in- 

 habitants. Bones of hares and fragments of reindeer horns lay scattered about 

 on the ground. The skull of a dog was planted on a small mound of earth, 

 for it is a belief of the Greenland Esquimaux that the dog, who finds his way 

 everywhere, must necessarily be the best guide of the innocent children to the 



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