The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1886-06-10
LIFE In GREENLAND.
some FACTS ABOUT THE REGION
OF ROCKS AND SNOW.

What Veteran Tourist and Explorer
Says of the Country-Fine Scenery,
scant Vegetation and Clouds OF a1usqui-
toes-Bleak and Lonely Heights.
aSo you want to know something about
Greenland said a veteran tourist and ex-
plorer. awe been there PROFOUND your
conundrums. is it easy getting thereT
Why, as easy as it is to get from here to
Coney island. Ice? Yes, you meet some,
and so you do when you go to England,
but the fast steamers ran right ahead all
the same. I went up in July, and naYiga-
tion was easy enough then, though only
touched at the settlements on the west
coast. But 7 have been quite well
up. J. was within sixty miles
Of where they found Greely,
and shouldn't have any hesitation in
going there again, if had another, or two
other, stanch vessels with me. That's
the way to carry on arctic explorations.
Let little feet 60 up, and not send lit
tie 4o0-ton ship there all by herself. That's
the way the rescue party worked up
through Smiths Sound. After you get
that far you might as well turn around
and come home again, unless you are
anxious to beat Gree5y' IS ec9fd, for ct that
point you bring Up Eagainst Ice that. is
simply impenetrable. 1t may be 100 feet
thick, and your vessel may be nipped for
the entire winter. Whalers are often
frozen in.
FINE SCENERY AND GLORIOUS coLoRs.
sBut if you vent in summer, and didn't
try to go up the fancy latitudes, l think
you would enjoy Greenland-a few weeks
of 1t. The scenery is fine; grand, some
times There are great cliffs and steep
mountains along the shore, often TOO
nearly perpendicular for snow to lie on,
even in winter, and the colors that they
take on in the light Of the midnight sun
q kind of continual sunset-are something
wonderful. Most people imagine (and !
used to think the sane) that Greenland'ls
buried under snow and ice the whole year
round. Wait until 1 open this portfolio.
There, do you see those dried moses and
flowers? They would hardly grow in
snow, would they? Well, Ipicked those
in Greenland, and not in the most south
ern part either. Berries grow there, ana
dwarf willows. In summer for a dis
tance of two to twenty miles back from
tine sea there are valleys opening into the
mountains that are beautiful, they are so
full of green moss Mosquitoes I've seen
there in clouds. No, the temperature
isn't torrid, but dressed as those people,
and living in tightly built houses or
closely sheathed vessels, they don't suffer
any more from cold than we do down here
In winter" -........
aThs weatber is often disagreeable In
southern Greenland, particularly IN spring
and fall, on account of rains and fogs, ana
in winter everything is showed up, but the
summer suits me blamed sight better
than some Of the New York summers.
Fancy an August when the thermometer
didn't 90 beyond IS or 60 degrees. How
does that strike your The idea that Green
land was covered with ice and snow comes,
suppose, from the fact that the interior
has never been explored, and that it seems
to be, in fact, I've no doubt it is, covered by
q tremendous glacier starting near the pole
and giving off little side branches that
come down through the fjords of canyons
opening from the sea. The branch glaciers
supply the icebergs. The Ice current
pushes out until it reaches water deep
enough to- float it, and then 1t breaks on
in mountainous chunks, and goes soutn
with the current. One of the crawllest
feelings ever had was when climbed
coodish sort Of hill near Godthaao To
take the bearings Of things. There was
open water on the west, and little valleys
that looked prettS enough to camp out In,
and there was the settlement with It's
church, brick church, mind you. Oh, they
can put on style. e..
SNOWY HEIGHTS, BLEAK AND LONELY.
aThen when you turned the other way
there was long line of snowy heights,
bleak and desolate, that seemed to lead
away and away till you couldn't stand IL 10
think Of the horrible chill and.lonehness.
There was long white line that might
have been fifty miles of, and that was the
horizon, nothing but ice. It made ma
feel homesick for awhile. The 1nte1lor
mountains don't make much of an exhibit
tion, though if the glacier was to be n1ted
off I suppose they would show up
for quite respectable hills. Some
of the cliffs along the coast must
be 1000 feet high, and on the east
side believe there's q peak that's put
down at II 900 feet. AS to living, they all
seem to have enough up there, such as II
is. The EsquimauX eat fish and most any
kind of meat they can get, and the Danish
settlers live on much the same sort OF
grub. A government steamer goes from
Denmark twice a year, with letters, cheese,
-four, potatoes, beef, wood and bad butter;
There are no COWS or horses. Stop! did
see cow, think it was at Godthaa6s, a6s
that's the biggest settlement; nearly l,00o
people. The critter had been sent from
Denmark to the parson there, and wa:
picking up living on bunch grass ano
barrel hoops.
"You can hardly say that there are any
industries in Greenland. There's cryo-
lite mine; that's about all. \ few coal
mines are worked just enough to supply
the settlements, but not to export any
thing. OF course, there's whaling and
sealing and fishing, but not much hunt
ing, for the land animals have nearly been
killed off. Perhaps there's field for the
enterprising agriculturalist who will 60
I'D there and raise things under glass. A