commonly call him, from a long small horn that grows out of his snout;
but his right name is nar-whale. It is a pretty large fish, eighteen or
twenty feet long, and yields good fat: his skin is black and smooth
without hair; he has one fin on each side, at the beginning of his
belly: his head is pointed, and out of his snout on the left side
proceeds the horn, which is round, turned, with a sharp taper point; the
greatest length of it is fourteen or fifteen feet, and thick as your
arm. The root of it goes very deep into the head, to strengthen it for
supporting so heavy a burthen. The horn is of a fine, white, and compact
matter, wherefore it weighs much: the third part of it, beginning from
the root, is commonly hollow; and there are some very solid at the root,
and above it grows more and more hollow. On the right side of the head
there lies another shorter horn hidden, which does not grow out of the
skin, and it cannot be conceived for what end the All-wise Creator has
ordained it: he has, like other whales, two pipes or spouts which
terminate in one, through which he breathes and fetches air, when he
comes up out of the sea with his head. Here I must observe to you, that
when the whale comes up to fetch air, it is not water he throws out at
the spouts, as the common notion runs; but his breath, which resembles
water forced out of a great spout. As for the rest of the unicorn or
nar-whale’s body, it is perfectly of the same shape as that of other
whales.
Concerning this animal’s horn, which has given occasion to so many
disputes, whether it be a horn properly so called, or a tooth, my reader
must allow me a little digression, to make these gentlemen disputants
aware of their mistake, who pretend it to be a tooth and not a horn,
being placed on one side of the snout, and not on the top of the
forehead, where other animals wear their horns. (See Wormius’s Museum,
l. iii. ch. 14.) But it appears clearly to all beholders, that it
neither has the shape of a tooth, such as other sea animals are endowed
with, nor has its root in the jaws, the ordinary place of teeth, but
grows out of the snout. And besides, the absurdity is much greater to
hold and maintain, that animals wear teeth on the snout or head, like
horns: or dare anybody deny, that the whale’s spouts are his nostrils,
through which he fetches breath, because they are on the top of his
head; or question, that the clap-mysses’ (a large kind of seal) eyes are
such, because they are placed in the hindermost part of the head? Ought
we not rather to think, that an All-wise Creator has placed this horn
horizontally, to the end that it may not be of any hinderance to the
course and swimming of this animal in the water, which would happen if
it rose vertically? Furthermore, this horn serves many other ends, as to
stir up his food from the bottom of the sea, as he is said to feed upon
small sea-weeds, and likewise therewith to bore holes in the ice, in
order to fetch fresh air. The inference these gentlemen are pleased to
draw from the generality of fishes and sea animals having no such paws
or claws as land animals have, is as lame, and of as little force. And
it is much less absurd to hold, that sea animals have something common
with those of the land, as it is confessed, that many of them have a
great resemblance together in figure and shape, viz. sea-calves,
sea-dogs, sea-wolves, and sea-horses, together with mermen and mermaids,
as it is pretended. Who is ignorant of the winged or flying fishes; and
of others with long nebs or bills like birds; also of birds with four
feet like beasts, and why then may there not be sea-unicorns as well as
land unicorns; if any such there be in _rerum natura_? for it is a
difficult matter to determine what kind of animal the Scripture
understands, when it speaks of the unicorn, as in Psalm xxix. ver. 6,
and in other places; whether it be such a one as Plinius and other
writers describe, giving him the body of a horse, with a stag’s head,
and a horn on his snout; or whether it ought not with better reason be
applied to a certain animal in Africa, called rhinoceros, whose snout is
horned in that fashion. If one had patience to consider the vast
disagreement that reigns between these writers, one would conclude that
this animal is peculiar to the climate where the fabulous bird phœnix
builds its nest; that is to say in Utopia, or nowhere. For some describe
this animal as an amphibious one, that lives by turns upon land and in
the water; some will have him to be in the likeness of an ore white
spotted, with horse feet; others make a three years’ colt of him, with a
stag’s head, and a horn in the front one ell long; and others again tell
you it is like a morse or sea-horse, with divided or cloven feet, and a
horn in the front. There are authors, who attribute to him a horn ten
feet long, others six, and others again but the length of three inches.
(See Pliny, Munsterus, Marc. Paulus, Philostratus, Heliodorus, and
several others, whose relations are of the same authority with mine, as
that of the Greenlanders, concerning a fierce, ravenous wild beast,
which they call Amavok; which all pretend to know, but no person ever
yet was found, that could say he had seen it.)
Nises or porpoises, otherwise sea hogs, are also placed in the class of
whales, though of a much smaller size, and are met with in all seas. His
head resembles that of a butts-head-whale: his mouth is armed with sharp
teeth: he has spouts or pipes like a whale. He has a fin upon the middle
of his back, which towards the tail is bended like a half-moon. Under
the belly there are two side fins, overgrown with flesh and covered with
a black skin. His tail is broad like that of a whale. He has small round
eyes; his skin is of a shining black, and the belly white. His length is
five to eight feet, at most. His fat makes fine oil, and the flesh is by
the Greenlander reckoned a great dainty.
_Of other Sea Animals._
The sea horse or morse has the shape of a seal, though much larger and
stronger. He has five claws on each of his feet, as the seal: his head
rounder and larger. His skin is an inch thick, especially about the
neck, very rough, rugged and wrinkled, covered with a short, brown, and
sometimes reddish, or mouse-coloured hair. Out of his upper jaw there
grow two large teeth or tusks, bended downwards over the under jaw, of
the length of half a yard, and sometimes of a whole yard and more. These
tusks are esteemed as much as elephants’ teeth; they are compact and
solid, but hollow towards the root. His mouth is not unlike that of a
bull, covered above and beneath with strong bristles as big as a straw:
his nostrils are placed above his mouth, as those of the seal: his eyes
are fiery red, which he can turn on all sides, not being able to turn
his head, by reason of the shortness and thickness of his neck. The tail
resembles a seal’s tail, being thick and short: his fat is like hog’s
lard. He lies commonly upon the ice shoals, and can live a good while on
shore, till hunger drives him back into the seas; his nourishment being
both herbs and fishes: he snores very loud, when he sleeps; and when he
is provoked to anger, he roars like a mad bull. It is a very bold and
fierce creature, and they assist each other, when attacked, to the
last. He is continually at war with the white bear, to whom he often
proves too hard with his mighty tusks, and often kills him, or at least
does not give over till they both expire.
The seals are of different sorts and sizes, though in their shape they
all agree, excepting the clap-myss, so called from a sort of a cap he
has on his head, with which he covers it when he fears a stroke. The
paws of a seal have five claws, joined together with a thick skin, like
that of a goose or a water fowl: his head resembles a dog’s with cropped
ears, from whence he has got the name of sea dog: his snout is bearded
like that of a cat: his eyes are large and clear with hair about them:
the skin is covered with a short hair of divers colours, and spotted;
some white and black, others yellowish, others again reddish, and some
of a mouse colour: his teeth are very sharp and pointed. Although he
seems lamish behind, yet he makes nothing of getting up upon the ice
hills, where he loves to sleep and to bask himself in the sun. The
largest seals are from five to eight feet in length; their fat yields
better train-oil than that of any other fish. This is the most common of
all the sea animals in Greenland; and contributes the most to the
subsisting and maintaining of the inhabitants, who feed upon the flesh
of it, and clothe themselves with the skin, which likewise serves them
for the covering of their boats and tents: the fat is their fuel, which
they burn in their lamps, and also boil their victuals with.
As for other sea monsters and wonderful animals, we find in Tormoder’s
History of Greenland, mention made of three sorts of monsters, where he
quotes a book, called “Speculum Regale Iclandicum;” or, the Royal Island
Looking-Glass, from whence he borrows what he relates[29]. But none of
them have been seen by us, or any of our time, that ever I could hear,
save that most dreadful monster, that showed itself upon the surface of
the water in the year 1734, off our new colony in 64°. This monster was
of so huge a size, that coming out of the water, its head reached as
high as the mast-head; its body was as bulky as the ship, and three or
four times as long. It had a long pointed snout, and spouted like a
whale fish; great broad paws, and the body seemed covered with shell
work, its skin very rugged and uneven. The under part of its body was
shaped like an enormous huge serpent, and when it dived again under
water, it plunged backwards into the sea, and so raised its tail aloft,
which seemed a whole ship’s length distant from the bulkiest part of the
body.
_Of other Fishes._
Of fishes properly so called, the Greenland sea has abundance and of
great diversity, of which the largest is called Hay, whose flesh is much
like that of the halibut, and is cured in the same manner; being cut
into long slices, and hung up to be dried in the sun and in the air, as
they cure them in the Northern parts of Norway; but the Greenlanders do
not much care for it; its flesh being of a much coarser grain than that
of the halibut. This fish has two fins on the back, and six under the
belly; the two foremost are the longest, and have the shape of a tongue:
the other two middlemost are somewhat broader than the rest, and the
hindermost couple near the tail are alike broad before and behind, but
shorter than the middlemost: his tail resembles that of the sword fish.
There are no bones in him, but gristles only. He has a long snout, under
which the mouth is placed like that of the sword fish: he has three rows
of sharp pointed teeth; his skin is hard and prickly, of a greyish hue;
his length is two or three fathom; he has a great liver, of which they
make train oil, the biggest of which makes two or three lasts. It is a
fish of prey, bites large pieces out of the whale’s body, and is very
greedy after man’s flesh: he cannot be caught with lines made of hemp,
for with his sharp teeth he snaps it off; but with iron chains. And the
larger sort are taken with harpoons, as we do the whales. The rest of
fishes that haunt the Greenland seas are the halibut, torbut, codfish,
haddock, scate, small salmon, or sea-trout of different kinds and sizes
(the large salmon not being so frequent in Greenland); and these are
very fat and good; they are found in all inlets, and mouths of rivers.
Cat-fish is the most common food of Greenlanders, insomuch, that when
all other things fail, the cat-fish must hold out, of which there are
abundance, both winter and summer. In the spring, towards the month of
April, they catch a sort of fish called rogncals, or stone biter; and in
May another fish, called lyds or stints: both sorts are very savoury;
they frequent the bays and inlets in great shoals. There are also
whitings in abundance; but herrings are not to be seen. Moreover there
is a kind of fish, which neither myself nor any of my company had ever
seen before: this fish is not unlike a bream, only it is prickly with
sharp points all over, with a small tail. There are different sizes: the
Greenlanders say they are well tasted.
Among the testaceous animals in Greenland the chief are the muscles, of
which there are great quantities; they are large and delicate. In some
waters I have found of those larger sorts, in which the Norwegians find
pearls. These have also pearls, but very small ones, not bigger than the
head of a pin. I shall say nothing of the other sea insects, as crabs,
shrimps, &c. though they be not rare here; yet lobsters, crawfish, and
oysters, I never met with. According to information had of Greenlanders,
on the Southern coasts they sometimes catch tortoises in their nets; for
they tell you, that they are covered with a thick shell, have claws and
a short tail; and moreover that they find eggs in them, like birds’
eggs.
_Of Greenland Sea Birds._
Amongst the sea fowls the principal are those they call eider-fowl, and
ducks; of which there are such numbers, that sometimes sailing along,
you find the whole sea covered with them; and when they take their
flight, you would think there was no end of them, especially in winter
time, when in large flocks, to the number of many thousands, they hover
about our colony, morning and evening; in the evening standing in for
the bay, and in the morning turning out to sea again. They fly so near
the shore, that you may from thence shoot them at pleasure. In the
spring they retire towards the sea; for upon the island that lies
adjacent to the coast they lay their eggs, and hatch their young ones,
which arrive in June and July.
The natives watch them in this season to rob them of their eggs and
their young ones. The fine down feathers, which is the best part of this
bird, so much valued by others, the natives make nothing of, leaving
them in the nests.
There are three sorts of ducks. The first have a broad bill, like our
tame duck, with a fine speckled plumage. These build their nests upon
the islands as the eider fowls do. The second sort is of a lesser size,
their bills long and pointed; they keep most in the bays and in fresh
waters, where they nest among the reeds. The third sort are called wood
ducks, resembling very much those of the first sort, though somewhat
larger in size; the breast is black, the rest of the body grey. These do
not propagate in the common way of generation by coupling like other
birds, but (which is very surprising) from a slimy matter in the sea,
which adheres to old pieces of wood driving in the sea, of which first
is generated a kind of muscles, and again in these is bred a little
worm, which in length of time is formed into a bird, that comes out of
the muscle shell, as other birds come out of egg shells[30]. Besides
these there is another sea bird, which the Norway men call alkes, which
in the winter season contribute much to the maintenance of the
Greenlanders. Sometimes there are such numbers of them, that they drive
them in large flocks to the shore, where they catch them with their
hands. They are not so large as a duck, nor is their flesh so well
tasted, being more trainy, or oily. The lesser sort of alkes, which also
abound here, are more eatable than the large ones. Besides this vast
number of sea fowls, there is yet one of a smaller size, by the natives
called tungoviarseck, which, for the sake of its beautiful feathers,
ought not to be forgot: it has the size and shape of a lark.
Wild geese or grey geese keep to the Northward of Greenland; they are of
shape like other geese, somewhat smaller, with grey feathers. They take
their flight from other Southern climates over to Greenland every
spring, to breed their young ones; which, when grown and able to fly,
they carry along with them and return to the more Southern and milder
climates, where they pass the winter season.
In short, I have myself found in Greenland all the several sorts of sea
fowls which we have in Norway; as all kinds of mews large and small,
which build their nests in the clifts of the highest rocks, beyond the
reach of any one; and some upon the little islands, as the bird called
terne and the like; whose eggs they gather in great abundance among the
stones: the lundes, or Greenland parrot, so called on account of its
beautiful plumage and broad speckled bill: the lumbs, the sea-emms, a
fowl of a large size, and very small wings, for which reason he cannot
fly: besides snipes, and a great number of others; some too common to be
enumerated and described here, and others, of which I know not the
name.
CHAP. VII.
[Illustration]
_Treats of the ordinary Occupations, as Hunting and Fishing: of the
Tools and Instruments necessary for these Employments: of the House
Implements and Utensils, &c., of the Greenlanders._
As every nation has its peculiar way of living and of getting their
livelihood, suiting their genius and temper to the nature and produce of
the country they inhabit; so the Greenlanders likewise have theirs,
peculiar to themselves and their country. And though their way and
customs may seem to others mean and silly, yet they are such as very
well serve their turn, and which we can find no fault with. Their
ordinary employments are fishing and hunting: on shore they hunt the
rein deer, and at sea they pursue the whales, morses, seals, and other
sea animals, as also sea fowls and fishes. The manner of hunting the
rein deer has been treated of above in the fifth chapter; but there we
took no notice of their bows and arrows, which they make use of in the
killing those deer. Their bow is of an ordinary make, commonly made of
fir tree, which in Norway is called tenal, and on the back strengthened
with strings made of sinews of animals, twisted like thread: the bow
string is made of a good strong strap of seal skin, or of several sinews
twisted together; the bow is a good fathom long. The head of the arrow
is armed with iron, or a sharp pointed bone, with one or more hooks,
that it may keep hold, when shot into a deer’s body. The arrows they
shoot birds with are at the head covered with one or more pieces of bone
blunt at the end, that they may kill the fowl without tearing the
flesh. The sea fowls are not shot with arrows, but with darts, headed
with bones or iron, which they throw very dexterously, and with so
steady a hand at a great distance, that nobody can hit surer with a gun.
They are more frequently employed at sea than on shore; and I confess
they surpass therein most other nations; for their way of taking whales,
seals, and other sea animals is by far the most skilful and most easy
and handy.
When they go whale catching, they put on their best gear or apparel, as
if they were going to a wedding feast, fancying that if they did not
come cleanly and neatly dressed, the whale, who cannot bear slovenly and
dirty habits, would shun them and fly from them. This is the manner of
their expedition: about fifty persons, men and women, set out together
in one of the large boats, called kone boat; the women carry along with
them their sewing tackles, consisting of needles and thread, to sew and
mend their husbands’ spring coats, or jackets, if they should be torn or
pierced through, as also to mend the boat, in case it should receive
any damage; the men go in search of the whale, and when they have found
him they strike him with their harpoons, to which are fastened lines or
straps two or three fathoms long, made of seal skin, at the end of which
they tie a bag of a whole seal skin, filled with air, like a bladder; to
the end that the whale, when he finds himself wounded, and runs away
with the harpoon, may the sooner be tired, the air bag hindering him
from keeping long under water. When he grows tired and loses strength,
they attack him again with their spears and lances, till he is killed,
and then they put on their spring coats, made of dressed seal skin, all
of one piece, with boots, gloves, and caps, sewed and laced so tight
together that no water can penetrate them. In this garb they jump into
the sea, and begin to slice the fat of him all round the body, even
under the water; for in these coats they cannot sink, as they are always
full of air; so that they can, like the seal, stand upright in the sea:
nay they are sometimes so daring, that they will get upon the whale’s
back while there is yet life in him, to make an end of him and cut away
his fat.
They go much the same way to work in killing of seals, except that the
harpoon is lesser, to which is fastened a line of seal skin six or seven
fathoms long, at the end of which is a bladder or bag made of a small
seal skin filled with air to keep the seal, when he is wounded, from
diving under the water, and being lost again. In the Northern parts,
where the sea is all frozen over in the winter, they use other means in
catching of seals. They first look out for holes, which the seals
themselves make with their claws, about the bigness of a halfpenny, that
they may fetch their breath; after they have found any hole, they seat
themselves near it upon a chair made for this purpose; and as soon as
they perceive the seal come up to the hole and put his snout into it for
some air, they immediately strike him with a small harpoon, which they
have ready in their hand, to which harpoon is fastened a strap a fathom
long, which they hold with the other hand. After he is struck, and
cannot escape, they cut the hole so large, that they may get him up
through it; and as soon as they have got his head above the ice, they
can kill him with one blow of the fist.
A third way of catching seals is this: they make a great hole in the
ice, or, in the spring, they find out holes made by the seals, through
which they get upon the ice to lie and bask themselves in the sun. Near
to these holes they place a low bench, upon which they lie down upon
their belly, having first made a small hole near the large one, through
which they let softly down a perch, sixteen or twenty yards long, headed
with a harpoon, a strap being fastened to it, which one holds in his
hand, while another (for there must be two employed in this sort of
capture) who lies upon the bench with his face downwards, watches the
coming of the seal, which when he perceives, he cries “Kæ;” whereupon
he, who holds the pole, pushes and strikes the seal.
The fourth way is this: in the spring, when the seals lie upon the ice
near holes, which they themselves make to get up and down, the
Greenlanders, clothed with seal skins, and a long perch in their hand,
creep along upon the ice, moving their head forwards and backwards, and
snorting like a seal, till they come so near him, that they can reach
him with the perch and strike him. A fifth manner of catching seals is,
when in the spring the current makes large holes in the ice, the seals
flock thither in great shoals; there the natives watch their opportunity
to strike them with their harpoons, and haul them upon the ice. There is
yet a sixth way of catching seals, when the ice is not covered with
snow, but clear and transparent; then the catchers lay under their feet
foxes or dogs’ tails, or a piece of a bear’s hide, to stand upon and
watch the animal, and when by his blowing and snorting they find what
course he takes, they softly follow him and strike him.
In fishing they make use of hooks and angles of iron or bones. Their
lines are made of whalebones cut very small and thin, and at the end
tacked together; and with such lines they will draw one hundred fishes
to one which our people can catch with their hemp lines. But to catch
halibut they use strong lines made of seal skin, or thick hemp lines.
Their way of fishing the small salmon or sea trout is this: at low water
they build small enclosures with stone, near the river’s mouth, or any
other place where the salmon runs along; and when it begins to flow, and
the tide comes in, the salmon retreats to the river, and in high water
passes over the enclosure, and remains in the river till the water again
falls; then the salmon wants to go to sea again; but the fishermen
way-lay him at the enclosure and stop his passage. And soon after, when
the water is quite fallen and it is low ebb, the salmon remains upon dry
land, and may be caught with hands. And where they are left in holes,
they take them with an instrument made for this purpose, viz. a perch
headed with two sharp hooked bones, or with one or two iron hooks.
The rogn fish, or roe fish, so named from the great quantity of roe that
is found in it, as he is commonly found in shallow water and upon the
sands, so he is caught like the salmon with the before-mentioned
instrument. There is such abundance of these fishes, that, as they
cannot consume them all fresh, they are obliged to dry them on the
rocks, and keep them for winter provision. When roe fish catching is
over, which happens in the month of May, then the Greenlanders retire
into the bays and creeks, where the lod or stint fishing then takes
place. There are such numberless shoals of them near the shore, that
they catch them in a kind of sieves fastened upon long poles, and throw
them upon the shore; they open and dry them upon the rocks, keeping them
for their winter stock. This fish is not agreeable, nor reckoned
wholesome, when eaten fresh; besides they have a nauseous smell, but
when dried they may pass. The natives eat them with a bit of fat, or
soused in train oil: and so of all other sorts of fishes, what the
Greenlanders cannot consume fresh they dry upon the rocks in the sun,
or in the wind, and lay them up for the winter.