I have been desired by the promoters of the North Atlantic Telegraph to
give you a short description of the Fiords of South Greenland, and to
point out the advantages they offer to the landing of the cable on that
coast.
Any one who has travelled in Norway will have an idea of the leading
characteristics of fiords in general, but as many of the Society have
probably not had that opportunity, I will endeavour to describe, as
well as I can, the general appearances of fiords in Greenland.
The land of Greenland is very elevated, the average height of its
mountains being not less, perhaps, than 1500 feet, and in some places
exceeding 6000 feet, above the level of the sea. It appears that at
the time of the elevation of the west coast of Greenland, a chain of
mountains of about 50 miles in breadth, running about north and south,
was acted on in a wave-like manner, _i. e._ leaving depressions nearly
equal to the elevations and more or less at right angles with the
direction of the chain. These depressions or long valleys into which
the sea runs constitute the fiords:--they vary in breadth from one to
eight miles, and run up into the interior from ten to sixty or more
miles.
The scenery in these fiords is magnificent, perhaps unequalled. The
lofty mountains--rugged, precipitous, and barren--with patches of ice,
(projections from the great interior glaciers), and snow unmelted by
the summer’s sun; with valleys half filled up by enormous angular
blocks of stone detached from the sides of the steep mountains by the
alternate frost and thaws; the solitude, and the almost total absence
of life, animal and vegetable, make up a picture of indescribable
desolation.
In other places the more rounded and sloping mountains are covered
with green and yellow moss. Grass, heath, and wild flowers grow in
the valleys; whilst in some still more favoured and sheltered dales,
miniature forests of Arctic willow six feet in height are pointed out
by the Esquimaux as proofs of the extraordinary excellence of the
climate of Greenland and fertility of the soil. Of the latter material
there is not, however, in many places sufficient to bury the dead, and
they are compelled to place the body on the surface and form a grave by
building up stones around it.
These fiords with grassy dales offer the most pleasant places of abode
in Greenland; in fact, it is only to the more fertile parts of the
fiords that the name of Greenland is at all appropriate. But these
parts of the fiords form a striking contrast to the outer coast of
Greenland.
The Danish settlements are mostly at the entrance of the fiords,
for the convenience of seal hunting and of shipping; but the old
Scandinavians who settled in Greenland in the ninth century brought
cattle with them, and therefore established themselves at the interior
ends of the fiords and bays, where grass was to be found. The ruins of
their habitations, constructed of very large blocks of stone, are still
to be seen at all the more fertile places. Judging from the number of
ruins and the accounts in the Icelandic Sagas, their number must at one
time have reached about 10,000. But the Scandinavians of Greenland have
perished; cattle no longer graze in the valleys as then; and some heaps
of stones are all that remain to show the enterprise of those early
western pioneers.
The Icelandic Sagas contain descriptions of most of the fiords of
South Greenland, and of the chief settlers in them. Perhaps the most
notable in this respect is the Fiord of Igalikko. This fiord ends in
two forks or arms;--in the northern stand the ruins of Brattelid, the
first town in Greenland, built by the first settler, Eric the Red, in
986; in the other was built the town of Garde, the residence of the
Bishop of Greenland. These two towns vied with each other in the claim
for precedence--Brattelid claiming it on the ground of its being the
first erected, and the residence of Eric the Red and his descendants;
whilst Garde asserted its superior worthiness in being the residence of
the bishop. After much wordy quarreling and sundry duels, Garde appears
to have triumphed, and was henceforth considered as the capital of
Greenland.
But Garde now shares the ruin and desolation of Brattelid, with nothing
else to recommend it to our further notice. Not so however with its
rival Brattelid. In the time of Eric the Red, Anno Domini 1000, there
sailed from the fiord of Igalikko and from the town of Brattelid an
expedition of discovery. These enterprising Scandinavians were not
contented with having discovered the vast territory of Greenland; this
appears to have only stimulated their thirst for further discoveries,
and it may perhaps also be that after two or three years’ residence
in Greenland, they found it was not the El Dorado they had dreamed
of; however, the expedition sailed to the west and south, and finally
discovered the continent of America. They found good prairie land which
they called Markland, and sailing on they came to land bearing wild
grapes in great abundance, this they called Vinland. They wintered
in America, left some settlers (who after some time succumbed to the
natives), carved their runics on the rocks, and taking in cargoes of
timber and supplies of wild grapes sailed the next summer and safely
returned to Brattelid.
Thus the credit of discovering America is certainly due to the
Scandinavians of Greenland. And Columbus when he visited Iceland some
years previous to his celebrated voyage, no doubt read the accounts
of the discovery in the Icelandic Sagas. But as these accounts were
suffered to remain almost unknown to the world, and as the navigators
of northern Europe had in his time forgotten the route discovered
by their more energetic forefathers not only to America but also to
Greenland, (which was then called the “Lost Land,”) all honor is
certainly due to Columbus for the re-discovery of America.
When Eric the Red first settled in the fiord of Igalikko, the Christian
religion had not reached Iceland or Norway. Thor with his hammer
reigned supreme. But Thor and his worshippers have sunk into oblivion,
bequeathing us his hammer, the symbol of industry. The fiords of
Greenland are about to witness a new era of enterprise and engineering
skill, ere long the North Atlantic Telegraph Cable will repose at the
bottom of one of its fiords, again uniting with Europe the countries of
Iceland, Greenland, and America.
* * * * *
In the neighbourhood of high land the water is generally of great
depth, and the fiords of Greenland form no exception to the rule; in
fact, it is only near the lower and more sloping land that vessels
can lay at anchor, and this only in small coves so near to the land
that it is the general practice to make fast to the shore by hawsers.
Outside of this the water deepens rapidly, and in the middle of many of
the fiords there is some 500 fathoms water; I should say that of the
deeper fiords 300 fathoms will be found to be the average depth. In
some places where the rocks are nearly perpendicular, a fishing-line of
100 fathoms fails to reach the bottom within a few yards of the shore.
Looking at the map of Julianshaab’s district, you will see that some of
the fiords terminate at the continental ice, whilst others do not reach
it; the former fiords have glaciers, the latter have not.
These glaciers are the outlets of the continental ice, which has a
motion from the interior towards the sea coasts, and as the deep
valleys or fiords are the only outlets, the ice is forced into them
until, by projecting from the land into the sea, or fiord, portions
give way and break off, owing to not being sufficiently supported by
being adequately immersed, or owing to the rifts and chasms which exist
in the glacier. The larger of these portions, when thus detached from
the glacier, constitute icebergs.
The glaciers in the fiords of the southern parts of the west coast
of Greenland are not very large, and consequently their icebergs are
never of great dimensions. I do not think any iceberg produced by the
glaciers of the fiords within 100 miles north or south of Julianshaab
would ground in 60 fathoms.
The glaciers bring down with them boulders, sand and much fine clay,
the result of attrition; the boulders are always rounded, owing to
the severe abrasion they have undergone by being transported over the
rocks below, whilst under the enormous pressure of the vast thickness
of continental ice. This glacial clay floats suspended in the water,
several miles from the glacier, rendering it turbid or milky, and
depositing itself gradually throughout the whole length of the fiord.
So vast has been the quantity, and so long the period of time during
which this transport of clay has proceeded, that some fiords have been
so completely filled up by it that they are only navigable in boats of
light draught and at high water.
From this choking up of the fiord the glacier has ended in being
unable to longer launch its icebergs; it has therefore found a new
outlet through some other valley, where it will repeat the process of
gradually filling up the fiord.
As nearly all the fiords have, or have had, glaciers in them bringing
down the clayey deposits I have mentioned, the bottom must be of soft
material. If the cable be taken into a fiord having a glacier, I
think the clay which will be gradually deposited over it will be of
great service in protecting it from injury by marine animals or other
damaging agents.
The existence of these fiords is extremely advantageous to the carrying
of the telegraph cable to Greenland, and there bringing it on shore.
Were it not for these, some difficulties might have been met with in
finding a suitable place for the landing, owing to the ice streams on
the outside coast; but in several of these fiords, Tessermiut, for
example, the water is of such depth as to preclude the possibility
of icebergs grounding upon the cable, and the almost perpendicular
mountains forming parts of the lateral coasts of the fiords, and the
deep water at their bases, offer excellent situations for leading up
the cable from the middle of the fiord to the shore, without exposing
it in the slightest degree to the grounding of icebergs upon it.
In conclusion, I beg to state, that from the results of seven years’
observation in Greenland, I am of opinion that neither the ice nor the
configuration of the coast, will offer any impediment to the successful
laying and landing of the telegraph cable in Greenland.
THE ELECTRIC CIRCUITS OF THE PROPOSED NORTH ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH; BY
COLONEL TAL. P. SHAFFNER, LL.D., F.R.G.S., OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA.
The LORD ASHBURTON.--We have now come to the end of these papers
which more particularly come within our province as geographers.
There seems to me to be something wanting still. Physical geography
is only interesting in so far as the results detailed are associated
in some manner either with human feelings, human sympathies, or human
interests. Now, the great purpose which has given attraction to the
details which we have just listened to, is that of ascertaining whether
the physical conditions of these northern regions are suited for the
carrying out of the great enterprise which both Continents have at
heart. Therefore, it seems to me you will hear with great interest how
these details dovetail, as it were, into the necessities required by
the establishment of the electric telegraph. The particular features of
this scheme will be put before you by Colonel Shaffner, and I trust you
will take the same interest in it that I am sure I myself shall.