Wisconsin herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1846-1849, 1846-05-02
Greenland.

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Iteresting inquiries relative TO the origi-
nal settlement Of Greenland, and the
character Of its soil and climate. 1t
was supposed originally to have been
connected with our continent, but it
has been distinctly ascertaned that it
| is separated from the American CONT
nent by wide channel called Davis
straits, and extends beyond 70" OF lati-
tude.
The most extraordinary fact about
Greenland is the wonderful change of
climate it has undergone. Barren soils
have been reclaimed by emigration and
industry, and cold climates changed
into warmer ATTITUDES by clearing the
woods and letting in the rays of the
sun; but we have no instance on re-
cord of settlements originally in warm
climates, and fruitful soils becoming in
centuries cold, bleak and barren; and
yet such has been the case in Green
land. The country, although now
consisting of little else than barren
rocks, mountains covered with snow
and ice, and valleys filled with gla-
tiers; although its coast, now lined
with foes of ice, and chequered with
icebergs of immense size, was once
easily accessible, and its soil was fruit
full, and we'll repaid the cultivator OF
the earth.
This country was discovered by the
Scandinavians, towards the close ofthe
tenth century, and settlement was eff
fected on the eastern coast in the year
9s2, by company OF Adventures from
Iceland, under the command of Eric
the Red. Emigrants flocked thither
from Iceland and Norway, and the
germs of European enterprise and civ
ilization appeared on different parts of
the coast. A colony was established
in Greenland, and it babe fair to go on
and prosper. That the climate must
have been mild and the soil fruitful we
gather from the fact that in 400 there
were no. less than 100 villages, l2
parishes and two monasteries, and for
400 years there was constant and pro-
fitablc mercantile intercourse with the
Danish provinces and Europe, but in
i4o6 everything changed--a wall or
ice barrier rose along the coast, and
no landing could be affected, and up to
the seventeenth century the whole
coast was blocked by unsurmountablc
barriers of ice--vegetation was de-
stroyed, and all vestiges of its former
inhabitants are gone-parts of houses,
churches, &C., remain, but the inhabi-
tants have all persisted by cold. One
of our contemporaries in referring to
the gloomy subject, says; at would re-
quirc no very vivid Imagination to
imagine the appalling sense Of destruc-
ton, which bleached the features and
chilled the hearts Of those unhappy
colonTsts when they began TO realize
their forlorn condition, when the Geld
rapidly increasing and their harbors be-
came permanently blocked with lee
bergs, and the genial rays of the sun
were obscured by fogs-when the win.
ters became for the first time intensity
rigid, cherries and dreary; when the
summers were also cold, and the soil
unproductive--whcn mountains were
no longer crowned with forests, but
covered with snow and ice through
out the year, and valleys filed with
glaziers-when the wontcd inhabi-
tantS of the woods and waters were de-
stroyed or exiled by the severity of
the weather, aud the places supplied
perhaps by monsters of huge and
irighiful character.