The Republican journal., 1903-11-12
MINING FOR cRYoLIrE.
Greenland I,eposita Worked Only During
Summer.
TSt. Johns, N. F.. Dispatch to the Chicago


Greenland I,eposits Worked Only During
/. Summer.
'TSt Johns, N. F.. Dispatch to the Chicago
News.
The most northern mine in the world
over which the American flag floats, if
the gold areas of Alaska are excluded,
is the cryolite deposit on the western
coast of Greenland. This, moreover, is
real mine, an underground working,
with all the modern mechanical acces-
series, and it is operated for about six
months every year, the terrible winter
frosts which cause iron and steel to
burn a mans hands as if at white heat,
making active progress impossible at
that season.
Cryolite is fiuoride sodium and alum
mum, is the most fusible mineral known,
melting in the flame of candle, and is
found in inexhaustible quantities on the
Greenland coast, where alone in the
western hemisphere does it occur in
workable beds. Besides the element it.
self the raw material contains mixed
iron and galena. 1t is purified at Phila-
delphia, where the cryolite is handled
for commercial uses, it entering largely
into the manufacture Of soda, bOrax
and alum, and in its crude state fetches
$50 ton, the quantity of waste con-
stituents in it being comparatively
small. To convey it from Greenland to
Philadelphia requires fleet of II stout
ships, which for over 20 years have been
plying this perilous trade.
Of all the mariners who follow the
| Il, hnr Ic1,y y,c
90 such strenuous and desperate battles
with wind and wave as the men OF the
cryolite fleet. The big, bluff, storm
stained vessels are familiar to every
western ocean voyager, which sees them
thrashing their way along with ragged
ensign huttering from the peak, light in
ballast and the sport of the gales on the
northward trip and numbering heavily
in the seas on the laden homecoming
run. Hardly month elapses but one
of them is driven into st. Johns for
shelter. water or REPAIRS for this port
is the haven for all the crippled ship
ping of the north Atlantic and the worst
weather is met beyond the Grand Banks
Greenland is Danish colony, peo-
pied almost exclusively by Esquimaux.
The trading regulations are of the
strict est and foreigners find it extreme
| ly difficult to secure permits even to
prospect for mineral. The enterpris-
ing Americans who now own the ergo
lite concession had to obtain it first
through the agency OF Danish com,
pany, which, having secured legal
rights, was paid off with good round
sum Every spring the present owners
send north a colony of Americans to
work the mine and ship the product,
l.D, n nd mo n
workmen remain on the spot perma-
1 nently, except when they revisit the
United States for sojourn.
Occasionally, when the ships with
the annual augmentations for the little
mining camp are late in arrival, the
Eskimos have to be utilized i'll getting
out sutficiency of the mineral to load
the boats, but otherwise native help is
never used.
The EsGuimaux, naturally, is not a
worker and has no instinct of saving or
economy. Anything like continuous
labor or working under orders he alb
hors, and after repeated experiments
the mining managers have had to aban-
don as hopeless all attempts to train
the natives to habits of industry or
thrift.
The little mining force is managed on
quite simple lines, Danish customs pre-
vailing all over the Greenland coast,
where the Norseman nine centuries ago
first set foot. The good order of re-
spectacle American community is OBJ
served and the festivals are those
of the mother land. The Fourth OF
July is the days of days there, old
glory floats from every pole top, and 1t
the children lack the facilities for max
ing the celebration as diversified as else
where they make up for it in enthusl-
asm. The isolation of the place in Win
ter is absolute, there being no commu-
about six months, as the impenetrable
ice foes shut off the whole ocean, and
even when navigation is open the ar
rivals and departures OF the cryolite
ships supply the only variety. Yet the
settlers are contented. Hard work is a
great solace and they are workers,
every one, while the fact that the ham
let is not gold camp indicates that
lawlessness is at a discount.
Probably no mine i'll America is more
profitably managed, despite the heavy
odds, because the virtual monopoly en-
ableS it to pay on very moderate out
put. The first ships usually reach there
in May, after four to six weeks of
steady advances against gale and toe,
and then shipping is continued till the
end of October or later if the season
will permit ships then on the way to
reach there.
The last departing ship, if she is clos
ing the season, takes south those who
will not winter there, but it sometimes
happens that the one designated for this
purpose fails to arrive at all, and then
nobody gets away till the next season,
unless belated Danish gunboat calls
in and gives some of the heads of the
mine roundabout passage.
With the departure of the fleet opera:
lions cease, save to small extent, and
the approach of Thanksgiving is well
coined and duly honored when It comes.
During the winter all sorts OF season
able sports were enjoyed, hunting, skat,
ing and iceboat sailing. Game of varied
character is Obtainable; seals can be
shot among the ice and furred animals
in the forest. Christmas and New Year
are observed, and during the six months
night which marks the winter in this
land of the midnight sun long sledging
trips are taken behind the speedy wolf
like Esquimau dogs, the greatest run.