THE SUKKERTOPPEN. 
33 
On the 20th an unknown schooner came within the 
same dome of mist with, ourselves. We had not seen 
a sail since leaving Newfoundland, and the sight 
pleased us. We showed our colors, hut the little craft 
declined a reciprocation. 
On the same day, j utting up above the misty hori- 
zon, we sighted the mountainous coast of Greenland. 
It was a hold antiphrasis that gave such a vernal title 
to this birth-place of icebergs. Old Crantz, the quaint- 
est, and, in many things, the most exact of the mis- 
sionary authorities, says that it got the name from the 
Norsemen, because it was greener than Iceland — a poor 
compliment, certainly, to the land of the Geysers ! 
We first made the coast near Sukkertoppen, a re- 
markable peak, called so, perhaps, because its form is 
not unlike that of a sugar-loaf, perhaps because its 
top is whitened with the snow. Mountains that mark 
their unbroken profile on the distant sky are very apt 
to suggest these fanciful remembrances to the naviga- 
tor ; and it is probably this which makes their names 
so frequently characteristic. 
This peak is a noted landmark, and gives its name 
to the entire district it overlooks. Our own observa- 
tions confirm those of Graah and Ross, which place it 
in latitude 6d° 22' north, longitude 53° 05' west. It 
may he seen under ordinary circumstances many miles 
out to sea. 
We were favored in our view of the Sukkertoppen. 
We had approached it through an atmosphere of fog ; 
and when the morning of the 23d gave us a clear sky, 
we found ourselves close upon the beach, so close that 
we could see the white surf mingling with the snow 
streaks. A more rugged and inhospitable region never 
met my eye. Its unyielding expression differed from 
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