The Ottawa free trader., 1878-02-16

MI Clements Markham last night, at the
London Institution, gave a lecture on Green
land. His history of the early discoveries in
cluded the voyage of Eric the Red and Gu
rious expedition Of clergymen in the thirteenth
century from the Bishopric of Gardar, in the
south of Greenland, toward the unknown
north The NOrSemen built churches and
villages on the rare green stripe up the fiords,
but the sava~cs destroyed them and for three
centuries Greenland was closed. Hall was the
first Englishman who laid his bones on the
shore of Greenland. In 1921 Hars Egede the
apostle Of the Esquimax, landed in Greenland.
1t has been found impossible to penetrate for
any distance into the vast interior. The ma
tives believe 1t to be inhabited by enormous
and malignant beings 1t is 100000 square
miles in extent, the whole being IL mass of ice
A Danish Professor in 1920 made his way fol
thirty miles inland, and described the scene he
saw. There is nothing but white world sup
porting blue vault. From far below ones
feet there comes up a moaning noise, the voice
Of rivers flowing far beneath. Occasionally
there are loud reports rom me opening of Il
cleft, II vast mass of water pierccs its way in
the ice down to the underlying granite itself,
for thousands of feet At thirty miles from
the coast the height above the sea was 2,2O0
feet, and the ice was still rising. A wonderful
sight is that of the colossal rivers, deep and
broad, which flow between tall blue banks
and pour at the end Of their course down Il
cleft with Il mighty cascade, which is CON
spcuous from distance by the c.oud of mist
which always hangs above it. On the strips
of the land near the coast the Greenland fora,
though scanty, is very pleasant to the eye
Vegetation covers the ground in thick masses
forming turf in the level places, while it fills
the chinks and crannies of the rocks and
Crccps over the surface Of the stone giving
bright appearance to the land in summer
The prettiest thing of all is the club moss,
with its graceful little white bell flowers like
miniature lilies of the valley. With it are
generally the dwarf willow and birch and the
whortlebcrry, with its red berry and glossy
little leaves. As far as Cisco, but not farther
north, there are beds Of ladys mantle and an
gclica and masses of holly fern, the erect red
blossom of the pedicularls bright little red
and white saXitrages, the dandelon potentilas
and rnnunculus the Arctic poppy, the sweet.
swell ing ledum paluster and the showy, pur-
pie blossoms Of the epiobium alpinum. The
stud. of the Greenland botany Interesting in
isri. derives special importance from the hy-
pot ,es to which its remarkable character has
Civ. rise. Sir j. Hooker suggests that the
Scan .navian flora, which is one of the oldest
in tNr globe, extended during the warm period
pref ''tlnU llc pldCldi over inc WnDlc ROAR
req MS, including Greenland and Arctic
America. On the arrival of the glacial period,
the flora was driven southwark to the cxtrcm.
ity of the Greenland Peninsula in its longi-
tudeS, and to ATTITUDES of the Allegheny and
White Mountains in their longitudes The
effect in Greenland would be to leave there
only the more active forms of vegetation, the
rest being as it were, driven into the sea On
the decline of the glacial period, Greenland
could be repeopled with plants only by the
northward migration of the scandinavian
species IniAmcrca, the Scandinavian plants
would ascend the Alleghanies, and many plants
which had been driven out of Greenland, but
preserved in southern attitudes of North
America, would reappcar in Parry Islands and
Labrador Mr. Markham dwelt upon spccu-
lations like these, and upon facts connected
with the mineralogy, meteorology, cthnology,
Of Greenland, to show the value of Arctic cy.
ploratiOn fer its contributions to science, as
well rs for the encouragement of that MARITIME
to which our country owes so much
Of its greatness and rcnown.-LDHdoE Times. !