Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-06-18
GREENLAND,

GREENLAND.
some Facts About the region OF Rocks
and Snow.
From The Brooklyn Times.
$50 you want to know something
about Greenland" said a veteran
tourist and explorer. tive been there.
PROFOUND your conundrums. is it
easy getting there?' 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
last steamers ram right ahead all the
same. went up in July, and navlga~
ton was easy enough then, though l
only touched at the settlements on
the west coast. But have been quite
we'll up. Twas within sixty miles OF
where they found Greeley, and /
shouldn't have any hesitation in 60
ing there again, if thad another, or
two other, stanch vessels with
me. That's the way to carry on arc
tic explorations. Let q little feet 20 up,
and not send little 4OO-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 we'll turn around and
come home again, unless you are
anxious to beat Greely's record, for at
that point you bring up against ice
, that's simply impenetrable. It may
be 100 feet thick, and your vessel may
be nipped for the entire Winter.
Wha)ers are often frozen in. But if
you went In Summer, and didn't try
to go up the fancy ATTITUDES, think
you would enjoy Greenland-a few
weeks OF it. The scenery is fine; grand,
sometimes. There are great cliffs and
steep mountains along the shore, often
too nearly perpendicular for snow to
that they take on in the light of the
midnight sum- kind ofcontinual SUM-
set-are something wonderful. Most
people imagine land l used to think
the same) that Greeland is buried un-
der snow and ice the whole year round.
Wait until I open this portfolio.
There, do you see those dried MOSES
and flowers? They would hardly
grow in snow, would they? Well,
I picked those in Greenland,
and not in the most southern
part either. Berries grow there,
and dwarf willows. In Summer for a
distance Of two to twenty miles back
from the sea there are valleys opening
into the mountains that are beauti-
full, they are so full OF green moss.
Mosquitoes I've seen there in clouds.
No, the temperature isn't torrid, but
dressed as these people are, 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. The weather is often dis
agreeable in Southern Greenland, par
ticularly in spring and fall, on &C.
count OF rain and fogs, and in winter
everything is showed up, but the sum-
mer suits me blamed sight better
than some of the New York summers.
Fanny an August when the thermome-
ter didn't 60 beyond SIS or go degrees.
How does that strike you? The idea
that Greenland was covered with ice
and snow, comes suppose, from the
fact that tine interior has never been
explored, and that it seems to be, in
fact, I've no doubt it is, covered by
tremendous glacier starting near
the pole, and giving off little
side branches that come down
through the iords OF canyons
opening from the sea-. These branch
glaciers supply the icebergs. The ice
current pushes out until it reaches
water deep enough to float it, and
then it breaks off in mountainous
chunks, and goes south with the cur
rent. One OF the crawliest feelings I
ever had was when Iclimbed a goodish
sort OF a hill near Godthaab to take
the bearings OF things. There was
open water on the west, and little
valleys that looked pretty enough to
camp out in. ana there was the settle
ment with its church, brick church,
mind you. Oh, they can put on style.
Then when you turned the other way
there was a long line ofsnowy heights,
bleak and desolate, that seemed to
lead away aud away till you couldn't
stand it to think of the horrible chilli
and loneliness. There was aiong white
line that might have been fifty miles
off, and that was the horizon, nothing
but ice. 1t made me feel homesick for
q while. The interior mountains
don't make much OF an exhibition,
though if the glacier was to be lifted
off suppose they would show ND for
quite respectable hills. Some Of the
cliffs along the coast must be 1000
feet high, and on the east side believe
there's a peak that's put down at H.
900 feet. AS to living, they all seem to
have enough up there, such as it 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
year with letters, cheese flour, pota.
toes, beef, wood and bad butter
There are no COWS or horses. Stop!
I did see a COW, l think it was at
Godthaab, that's the biggest settle
ment; nearly 1000 people. The crit
ter had been sent from Denmark to
the parson there, and was picking
up a living on bunch grass and barrel
hoops. Not g. great deal OF money
changes hands III Greenland. A man
can live on what he can catch, and
stuff isn't awfully dear up there. The
fellows-not much like our Indian
agents-and they don't dare to charge
more than the rates fixed by a
schedule. You can hardly say that
there are any industries in Greenland.
There's a cryolite mine; that's about
all. A few coal mines are worked
just enough to supply the settlements,
butnot to export anything. Ofcourse
there's whaling and sealing and fish
ing, but not much hunting, for the land
animals have nearly been killed off.
Perhaps there's field for the the en-