GREENLAND
The history of Greenland really begins about the year 986 A. D., when
Eric the Red, a chieftain who had been banished from Iceland, landed on
the island with some of his followers and made it his permanent
residence. At different times these hardy and daring seamen made
expeditions to the eastern coast of North America, and sailed as far
south as Chesapeake Bay. They attempted to found a colony on the east
coast at a point thought to be on the coast of New Jersey but, after
contending with the savages for some time, deemed it best to abandon the
project and to return to their Greenland home. The location at which
they attempted their colony is by no means certain.
[Illustration: Stone igloos on the bleak coast of Greenland]
All this island, a half million square miles in area, except a small
part of the southern coast line and a larger area in the north, is
covered by an immense glacier. And this field of ice, like a huge piece
of plastic wax, is constantly moving from the interior down toward the
sea. As it approaches the ocean it divides into branches which flow down
the numerous fiords and valleys into the sea. As the fronts of the
branch glaciers are pushed out into the water their ends are broken off
by the buoyancy of the water. These glacial-born masses then float away
as icebergs, carrying with them on their southward journeys the rock
waste--moraine detritus it is called--gathered by the parent glaciers.
When these floating leviathans are off the coast of Newfoundland, they
encounter the waters of the Gulf Stream, melt, and scatter their debris
of stony matter over a large area of the ocean bed. This process, having
gone on for thousands of years, has shoaled the ocean in certain parts,
forming the so-called Banks of Newfoundland.
A gelatinous slime filled with minute animal life forms on the bottom of
the ocean in the arctic; the cold currents flowing south carry some of
it along with them, and much of it is lodged on the stony bottoms of
these banks. Fish, especially the cod, are fond of this gelatinous
substance, and throng thither at certain seasons of the year in
countless numbers to feed upon it.
One ignorant of the currents of the ocean might be puzzled at times in
observing that an iceberg floats southward at the same time that pieces
of wood are floating northward, both apparently acted upon by the same
current. This may be explained by recalling that warm water is lighter
than cold and hence is found as the upper layer when a cold and a warm
current are flowing in different directions, one upon the other. It
should be borne in mind that seven-eighths of the floating iceberg is
under water, leaving but one-eighth above the surface. The Gulf Stream
drift spreads out as it travels northward, and, being much shallower
than the arctic currents, carries floating objects northward on the
surface, while the deeper and more powerful arctic currents force the
huge masses of ice southward.
When the warm air over the Gulf Stream comes in contact with the
floating ice it is chilled, and the moisture which it holds is condensed
into fog. The fogs in turn, which are off the Newfoundland coast, being
in the line of steamship communication between Europe and America, are a
constant menace to navigation. The near presence of ice is usually
detected by a greater chilliness in the air. In order to avoid
collisions with one another, and also with icebergs, a ship constantly
sounds its sirens and fog horns as warnings while in the fog belt. The
signal of another steamship is a warning of the one; the answering echo
announces the nearness of the other.
[Illustration: A large iceberg]
The high interior of Greenland, about ten thousand feet in altitude, is
thought to result largely from the accumulation of ages of snow and ice,
only a part of which melts or moves oceanward to form glaciers. No other
part of the world is such an absolute desert as the greater part of this
island. Animal and vegetable life are wholly absent.
The colony which was planted in Greenland by Eric the Red, and
subsequently augmented by other Norsemen, continued to prosper for four
hundred years. At the end of that period there were about two hundred
villages, twelve parishes, and two monasteries. These, however,
disappeared. The hostility of the Eskimos in part accounts for their
extinction, but an encroachment of ice from the north, which encompassed
the southern part of the island, is thought to have been also a factor.
The fact that foreign trade with Greenland was forbidden by the mother
country may account in part for the gradual disappearance of the colony.
At all events, intercourse with Europe seems to have been cut off. This
condition continued for upward of two centuries, and when intercourse
with the mother country was again possible there was no Greenland
colony. Perhaps the finding of "white" Eskimo in Victoria Land may
explain this disappearance.
[Illustration: A group of Eskimos in south Greenland]
Subsequently the island was again colonized, but concerning the
disappearance of the former inhabitants history is silent. The mute
testimony of a few ruined buildings and relics is all that has been
found to give the least shadow of information as to the final struggle
of the wretched colonists. We only know that they mysteriously
disappeared. But the great glacial cap is slowly receding and ages hence
more ground will be laid bare.
The present inhabitants number about ten thousand, most of whom are
Eskimos. They are lacking in thrift and live chiefly by hunting and
fishing. Among the wild animals living here are the arctic fox, the
arctic hare, the musk ox, the seal, the polar bear, the ermine, and the
walrus.
The principal resources of the island are sealskins, eider-down, oil, and
cryolite.
Cryolite is a mineral from which common soda is easily extracted, and
also from which the light silver-like aluminum was formerly prepared.
The mines near the village of Ivigtut furnish practically the world's
supply of this mineral. Formerly it was carried to Philadelphia, but in
recent years not much is used. The fisheries are a monopoly of Denmark,
and each station is visited from one to three or four times a year.