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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
The following pages are a record of a visit to Greenland, made in the summer of 1869, with a small party of friends, in the steam-yacht of Mr. William Bradford, whose widely celebrated pictures of Arctic scenery have received such deserved commendation; for, whether we consider the difficulties of the subject which that artist has undertaken, or the unusual exposures and hazards he has encountered, his success has been commensurate with his zeal, talent, and unflagging energy. Since Mr. Bradford
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CHAPTER I. ICE AND BREAKERS.
CHAPTER I. ICE AND BREAKERS.
On a gloomy night in the month of July, 1585, the ship Sunshine , of fifty tons, “fitted out,” as the old chronicles inform us, “by divers opulent merchants of London, for the discovery of a north-west passage, came, in a thick and heavy mist, to a place where there was a mighty roaring as of waves dashing on a rocky shore.” The captain of this ship was brave old John Davis, who, when he had discovered his perilous situation, put off in a boat, and thereby discovered that his ship was “embayed i
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CHAPTER II. FREE FROM DANGER.
CHAPTER II. FREE FROM DANGER.
I was a passenger on board the Panther , and shared with my companions the emotions which the Land of Desolation first inspired. Under ordinary circumstances, there can be no more comfortable situation on board a ship than that of passenger. You are not expected to know any thing, and, if wise, you will not want to know any thing. You are content to trust to the captain, who is presumed to be quite competent to look to the safety of his ship, and therefore to your own. So far as human ingenuity
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CHAPTER III. A HOPEFUL TOWN IN A HOPELESS PLACE.
CHAPTER III. A HOPEFUL TOWN IN A HOPELESS PLACE.
This “Land of Desolation,” to which we had come, is the Greenland of history and of the present time. All the southern part of it, as far up as the sixty-first degree of latitude, is called the “District of Julianashaab,” and the town of Julianashaab is its capital. This town is one of the most flourishing in the whole country. It is, perhaps, the most pleasantly situated of all of them, and, standing in a region full of historic and legendary interest, it presents a good type of Greenland life,
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CHAPTER IV. ERIC THE RED.
CHAPTER IV. ERIC THE RED.
The fiord on the border of which stands the colony of Julianashaab is now known as the fiord of Igalliko, meaning, “the fiord of the deserted homes:” the deserted homes being the desolate and long-abandoned ruins of the Norse buildings which are scattered along its picturesque banks. Its ancient name was Ericsfiord, so named by Red Eric, in commemoration of his discovery, and for the perpetuation of his fame—a sad commentary, truly, upon the instability of human designs, that a name meant to rec
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CHAPTER V. “THE ARCTIC SIX.”
CHAPTER V. “THE ARCTIC SIX.”
Eric named his first settlement Brattahlid. The next he called Gardar; another, the Norse name of which has been lost, now bears the Esquimaux name of Krakortok, which means, “the place of the white rocks.” The rocks are of the same metamorphic character as elsewhere in that neighborhood, and only differ from them in having, by one of Nature’s freaks, been made of lighter hue than those of the region round about. The fiord forks a short distance above Julianashaab, the southern branch leading to
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CHAPTER VI. UP THE FIORD IN AN OOMIAK.
CHAPTER VI. UP THE FIORD IN AN OOMIAK.
The morning came fresh and sparkling as the eyes of our fair oarswomen, who, singing to the music of their splashing oars, came stealing over the still waters, bearing the good pastor in his arctic gondola, while we were yet at breakfast. Their arrival alongside made a sensation. Such a boat, propelled in such a fashion, was a sight new to sailors’ eyes; and it did not seem easy for our people to reconcile such uses and occupations for womankind with a sailor’s ideas of gallantry; for a sailor i
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CHAPTER VII. THE RUINS OF ERICSFIORD.
CHAPTER VII. THE RUINS OF ERICSFIORD.
We were not long now in reaching our destination, which was the foot of the extensive green slope on the north side of the fiord. Above this slope, and from a quarter to half a mile from the bank, the cliffs rise perpendicularly to an altitude of fifteen hundred feet. To our right, as we approached, rose a lofty range of hills, which separates the two branches of the fiord. Beyond these once flourished the colonies of Brattahlid and Gardar. Behind and to the left of us lies the island of Aukpeit
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CHAPTER VIII. THE NORTHMEN IN GREENLAND.
CHAPTER VIII. THE NORTHMEN IN GREENLAND.
These Northmen were certainly a very wonderful people, and they did very wonderful things; but of all their enterprises the most singular would seem to be their coming to Greenland, where they were without the lines of conquest which were so attractive to their brothers and ancestors; for they were kindred of the Northman Rollo, son of Rögnvald, jarl of Maere, and king of the Orkneys, who ravaged the banks of the Seine, and played buffoon with the King of France; the same with those Danes who, i
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CHAPTER IX. THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA.
CHAPTER IX. THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA.
To complete the account of the Northmen who dwelt upon the banks of Ericsfiord, it is necessary to trace some of their voyages to the West. Lief, the son of Eric, was a man of restless disposition. Not content with Greenland, he had visited Europe, and had there studied in the very practical school which the Northmen took good care always to have in operation—the art of war. Dissatisfied with paganism, he accepted the Christian faith, as we have seen, and carried it to his own country. Afterward
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CHAPTER X. THE LAST MAN.
CHAPTER X. THE LAST MAN.
The final destruction of the Northmen in Greenland is a matter of melancholy interest. Exactly when it came about we can not know. We have seen that the bishop’s see was abandoned in 1409. Prior to that time, however, we have accounts of the desperate straits to which the people were reduced. In 1383 we find the following curious entry in the Icelandic annals: “A ship came from Greenland to Norway which had lain in the former country six years, and certain men returned by this vessel who had esc
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CHAPTER XI. A DISCONSOLATE LOVER.
CHAPTER XI. A DISCONSOLATE LOVER.
To resume the thread of our narrative. Taking it up where it was dropped some chapters back, I must first recall the day and the situation. Our lunch was spread under the ample shelter of a tent, which screened us from the rays of the sun, and formed a no bad substitute for the protecting trees under which our picnics are enjoyed in other lands. There seemed to be but one drawback to complete enjoyment. The noonday heat rose above 70°, and started great quantities of small flies and mosquitoes.
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CHAPTER XII. THE CHURCH AT JULIANASHAAB.
CHAPTER XII. THE CHURCH AT JULIANASHAAB.
The day following our return from Krakortok being Sunday, I gladly availed myself of Mr. Anthon’s invitation to attend service at his little church. Julianashaab is not at any time a particularly lively place, but there is sufficient activity during six days of the week to make the silence of the seventh very marked. Solemnly silent it was to me, as I landed on the beach, and then, beside the stream which flows through the town, made my way towards the temple dedicated to God among the majestic
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CHAPTER XIII. A GREENLAND PARLIAMENT.
CHAPTER XIII. A GREENLAND PARLIAMENT.
The condition of the Esquimaux has not only improved spiritually since they arrived in Greenland, but they have improved in their temporal affairs as well. Formerly they led a purely nomadic life, and dressed solely in the skins of wild beasts; now they live in permanent communities, and have adopted the habits and, in some measure, the costume of civilized men. Unlike many savage peoples, the introduction of the forms of civilization among them has not been attended with any corresponding misch
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CHAPTER XIV. A GREENLAND BALL.
CHAPTER XIV. A GREENLAND BALL.
Monday was occupied by our party in a very agreeable and profitable manner—by the photographers especially, who, early in the day, took possession of one of the governor’s rooms, and photographed the whole town and nearly every body in it. The following day was fixed upon for our departure; but the only pilot in the place was otherwise employed, and we were forced to wait until he was ready for us. In short, he was bringing in another vessel, and one of infinitely more importance to Julianashaab
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CHAPTER I. ICE AND SNOW.
CHAPTER I. ICE AND SNOW.
In the previous chapters we have traced the history of the Norman-Greenlanders from their first appearance to their decay. We have witnessed their early struggles, have observed them in their prosperity, and have stood beside the ruined edifices erected by their hands, and read there a mournful story of a fallen race. Upon the causes of their fall we have, however, barely speculated. Among them all, none possess an interest to equal that one mighty cause which has been silently working there for
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CHAPTER II. GLACIERS AND ICEBERGS.
CHAPTER II. GLACIERS AND ICEBERGS.
Before proceeding with our narrative we will dwell a little upon the great phenomena of nature to which the previous chapter called attention. We have seen that the great sea of ice which covers Greenland, and makes it the Land of Desolation that it is, is formed from snow-flakes. That formation takes place only in certain conditions of temperature, which of course vary with the degrees of latitude. The formation of glaciers has been for a long time a fruitful source of speculation among men of
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CHAPTER III. THE SOLITARY HOUSE OF PETER MOTZFELDT.
CHAPTER III. THE SOLITARY HOUSE OF PETER MOTZFELDT.
It is time now that I should recur again to the Panther , which we left steaming out of Ericsfiord. When the revellers from the Julianashaab ball appeared after breakfast we were well away at sea. Most of them had either forgotten or had never been aware of the intention of the captain to sail so early in the day. When, however, they discovered where the steamer’s head was pointed, they were well pleased with the sudden change, and found a lively satisfaction in the prospect of new fields for ad
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CHAPTER IV. THE GLACIER.
CHAPTER IV. THE GLACIER.
How shall I describe the scene which steadily opened to us as we steamed rapidly up the fiord. Imagine it! The fiord is two miles wide; the valley beyond is of corresponding width, and the glacier fills it perfectly. How thick it is, of course, can not be told, but hundreds of feet it must be everywhere; it is probably from one to two thousand feet in many places. The banks of the fiord continued to be the banks of the glacier for about ten miles, gradually vanishing to a wedge-like point, and m
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CHAPTER V. CROSSING THE GLACIER.
CHAPTER V. CROSSING THE GLACIER.
The night did not prove promising for the safety of the Panther . At intervals alarming sounds proceeded from the glacier, and now and then a quick sharp crack, followed by a heavy thud, would tell us that a mass had split from it and fallen to the sea, which in the morning was covered with small fragments that had been thus disengaged; and masses, some of them of considerable size, were drifting past the vessel with the current. At an early hour I set out to cross the fiord, accompanied by the
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CHAPTER VI. SPECULATIONS.
CHAPTER VI. SPECULATIONS.
I trust that I have made plain, even to the least scientific of my readers, the nature of the glacier which we are visiting, as well as the general principles of glacier formation and movement. Why ice, a solid, firm substance, should move in obedience to the same laws which govern the movements of fluids; why, for instance, a glacier should, like a river, move more rapidly at its centre than near its banks, is a question which the wisest philosophers have sufficiently discussed without my attem
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CHAPTER VII. MEASUREMENT OF GLACIERS.
CHAPTER VII. MEASUREMENT OF GLACIERS.
As we have seen, the glacier does not accommodate itself to the bed in which it rests very readily. The substance, though possessing a sort of ductility, is not sufficiently plastic to mould itself with much rapidity. A sudden squall will snap a twig, or uproot a tree which a gale would only bend. In like manner, the pressure upon the ice becomes in places too great, and, unable to bear it, the ice snaps. Professor Tyndall has said—and this is borne out by my own experience—“By pressure ice can
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CHAPTER VIII. THE BIRTH OF AN ICEBERG.
CHAPTER VIII. THE BIRTH OF AN ICEBERG.
I can imagine no more grand and imposing spectacle than the birth of an iceberg; and we have now, I think, gone far enough in the examination of glaciers and their movements to contemplate such a spectacle, which, whatever it may seem to the reader, was to me most thrilling. It did not happen in connection with the Panther , and may at first, therefore, seem to be a little out of place; but as it serves my purpose, I make free to use it, by way of illustration. The scene was in a fiord ten times
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CHAPTER IX. A NARROW ESCAPE.
CHAPTER IX. A NARROW ESCAPE.
The birth of the iceberg described in the preceding chapter will better enable the reader to comprehend a much more fearful event which happened in the fiord of Sermitsialik. During the absence of the captain and myself from the vessel the artists had not been idle. They had landed near the glacier, and with brush and camera had begun their work. The day was warm, the mercury rising to 68° in the shade, and the sun, coming around to the south, blazed upon the cold, icy wall. This must have produ
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CHAPTER X. ICEBERGS CRITICALLY EXAMINED.
CHAPTER X. ICEBERGS CRITICALLY EXAMINED.
We named our new harbor “Panther Bay,” and, while resting there until another day comes to invite us to new work and new adventures, let us, more critically than we have had opportunity to do before, examine into the character of these icebergs of the Arctic Sea. It is, perhaps, not surprising that so few people should really understand what an iceberg is, seeing how few people go where they come from. The icebergs of the Northern hemisphere have but one birthplace: they all come from Greenland—
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CHAPTER XI. MAN VERSUS MOSQUITOES.
CHAPTER XI. MAN VERSUS MOSQUITOES.
On the morning after we had anchored in Panther Bay I went ashore to stake off a base-line, preliminary to a survey of the glacier and surrounding region, in which operation I was kindly assisted by two of my shipmates and Peter Motzfeldt. We had a clear level space of half a mile for our work; but the operation was attended with some difficulty on account of the willow and birch bushes, which were about four feet high—too high to clamber through readily, and too thick to allow of crawling. But
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CHAPTER XII. A PICNIC ON THE GLACIER.
CHAPTER XII. A PICNIC ON THE GLACIER.
Two oomiaks loaded with women, and half a dozen men in kayaks, had followed us up from Kraksimeut; and they pitched their camp upon the shore as near our vessel as they could. An old seal-skin tent gave them shelter; the andromeda-leaves furnished fuel, and, in consideration for some trifling service, the stores of the Panther supplied them with food. They were not in any respect an attractive party, and, even with the best intentions in the world to play the amiable, I doubt if the Prince ever
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CHAPTER XIII. BOUND FOR THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.
CHAPTER XIII. BOUND FOR THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.
Having our pilot, Peter Motzfeldt, on board, we were obliged to put into Kraksimeut. After passing a few hours there, we made a direct course for the open sea. Motzfeldt, in the generosity of his heart, insisted upon it that we should rob him; but even the professional habits of our trader would not suffer a gift without a quid pro quo; and I trust that this worthy inhabitant of the solitary house on the dreary island may not have been damaged by our visit. Passing along near the coast, we had a
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CHAPTER I. ACROSS THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.
CHAPTER I. ACROSS THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.
When we came to cross the Arctic Circle, instead of having the midnight sun, we had no sun at all; for one of those villainous fogs, so prevalent during the summer in the Arctic regions, set upon us and hung about us, hiding every thing for several days. It rolled over us like a great wave, submerging us in damp and darkness. The wind was southerly, and the air was charged with moisture, which was precipitated by the cold water and icebergs over which it passed. I verily believe there never was
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CHAPTER II. BEYOND CIVILIZATION.
CHAPTER II. BEYOND CIVILIZATION.
Upernavik District extends from about latitude 70° to latitude 74°, and enjoys the pre-eminent distinction of being the most northern spot of all the earth where civilized industry is carried on. The settlements comprised within this most northern of the Greenland Districts are, Upernavik (which is the capital), Proven, South Proven, Karsuk (the home of Esac), Aukpadlartok, Kresarsoak, Kryatok, and Tessuisak. Of these, the latter is the most northern, and is, moreover, the most northern spot of
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CHAPTER III. ICE-NAVIGATION.
CHAPTER III. ICE-NAVIGATION.
While the chain is clicking in the hawse-hole, let us take a quiet view of the situation. There is no need, however, to describe with much minuteness the “Melville Bay pack” which lay before us. The ice freshly broken up in any large river is a sufficient illustration, provided the imagination will stretch the river to three hundred miles in width, and magnify the drifting fields of ice in proportion. In the early part of the season this ice is very hard, and many feet in thickness; but by Augus
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CHAPTER IV. HUNTING BY STEAM.
CHAPTER IV. HUNTING BY STEAM.
At length there came the cry of “Bears! bears!” which had been so long eagerly desired. With the first alarm the people swarmed up from below, and the deck was alive in an instant, every body shouting “Where?” And “Where? where?” rang through the ship loud enough, as one would think, to have frightened all the bears of Melville Bay into fits. But there were the bears, sure enough; and they appeared to be the very ones we were looking for. Clearly they had seen the Panther long before we had disc
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CHAPTER V. AMONG THE ICE-FIELDS OF MELVILLE BAY.
CHAPTER V. AMONG THE ICE-FIELDS OF MELVILLE BAY.
I was much disappointed that we could not prolong our stay in the vicinity of the Devil’s Thumb. But our situation there was indeed a hazardous one. The ice was crowding about us all the time, and, driven by a three-knot current that whirled it round in the wildest manner, it was not surprising that the captain should declare the Thumb to be no proper place for the Panther . Accordingly, after doing the best we could hydrographically, topographically, and artistically, we crawled out while the c
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CHAPTER VI. THE LAST WHITE MAN.
CHAPTER VI. THE LAST WHITE MAN.
As this was to be our last tie-up in Melville Bay, and as every body was well satisfied that Melville Bay had been thoroughly “done,” there was now some impatience to hear the order given to “cast off.” But the order did not come even with the close of the day, and there we were clearly to remain until the morrow. Meanwhile a light wind set in from the south-east, and, coming directly from the Greenland glaciers, it brought the temperature down below the freezing-point; and when at length “seven
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CHAPTER VII. THE FIORD OF AUKPADLARTOK.
CHAPTER VII. THE FIORD OF AUKPADLARTOK.
On our way to Upernavik we wheeled into the fiord of Aukpadlartok, to which I have hitherto made allusion, and I verily believe there never was such another wilderness of desolation—such an interminable array of islands of ice and islands of rock; and when at last we saw another house like Jensen’s, pitched like his upon just such another point of land, and reflected that these houses are dotted here and there in this dreary waste at intervals of forty and fifty miles, and that their inmates hol
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CHAPTER VIII. UPERNAVIK.
CHAPTER VIII. UPERNAVIK.
I had set my heart upon making a thorough survey of the fiord of Aukpadlartok. As recorded in a previous chapter, I had previously been there and penetrated to within five miles of the glacier. It was, therefore, with much regret that I found the water wholly impassable to a boat. Even the air was so thick that I could not see the front of the glacier, so that I failed to note any changes which might have taken place in the interval of eight years since I had visited it before. Philip told me, h
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CHAPTER IX. DISCO ISLAND.
CHAPTER IX. DISCO ISLAND.
Disco Island is one of the most notable localities in Greenland. There is a legend that a mighty sorcerer, or angeikut, dragged the island there from the south; and even to the present time they point out a remarkable hole in the rock, on its north side, through which the evil genius of the island rove his rope. The island is upwards of a hundred miles long, is everywhere very lofty, and presents the most superb lines of cliffs of trap rock that I have ever seen. On the south side of the island,
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CHAPTER X. JACOBSHAVN.
CHAPTER X. JACOBSHAVN.
The view of the southern shore of Disco Island as we crossed the bay was truly magnificent. The gnarled shore, full of clefts and caverns, was white with the foam of the sea; the great tall cliffs were red with the glowing sun; the distant hills were bathed in purple, and long streaks of bright yellow sandstone, marking the coal-measures, broke in here and there to complete a picture which will be remembered long. The icebergs, too, were more than ordinarily beautiful. There are few places along
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CHAPTER XI. A WEEK IN GODHAVN.
CHAPTER XI. A WEEK IN GODHAVN.
We returned to Godhavn on the 10th of September, and for a week thereafter travelled about the Island of Disco as we found opportunity and inclination. To the geologist, as previously intimated, Disco presents a most interesting field of study, and the professor was accordingly busy all the while, pursuing his researches with characteristic enthusiasm. The artists were constantly at work with camera and pencil. In this, the metropolis of Greenland, it was not difficult for the pleasure-seekers t
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