Douglas Island news., 1919-06-13

of loeech. Tho speech and literary language of Norway. Sweden and Denmark changed almost beyond recognition during thc stupor of the uarK Ages. Only Iceland mas kept its heritage.
 Icoland's children of 1919 learn their lessons In the speech of tbo vikings. lccland's business men talk business identical with the trc- mcndous chants of Che Gmnar and Grcttir sagas. lcelonds newspapers tell todoy's news in a language that the European world had forgotten | whom Columbus sailed westward.
 Because of this tradition of learn l ing, Icclands email population has produced distinguished men quite | out of proportion Co its numbers !
 One of the first physicians to win ! the Nobel prize was selected from ! this community of less than SO,OOO . people. He was Wilhelm Fnscu. fa- nous among other achievements for his development of the Fiuscn light treatment for lupus, one Of Che worlds d cstructivc sHn-discasos. The sculptor, Bcrtcl Thorwaldson Cor Albert Thovaldsen, as his father called him) was am lcelander
 Editors Motel: llr. stcfanmon Canadian-born but of lcelandic blood. has twice conducted important re- searches in Iceland, after which he turned to tho American Arctic In the winter of l9OG-7 he lived with the Esklmog at tho mouth of Che Mackenzie river. From 1908 toI 1912 he journcycd many thousand miles, depending on his rifle for subsistence; and it was in thc course of this long advcnturing that he found hitherto unknown Eakimos who had never seen a white man and lived like people of the Stone Age. In 1913 he sailed from Victoria, B. C., in command of thc Canadian Are tic Expedition. and among other ez- traordnary fcats. he crossed Che Arctic ocean on moving ice with only two companions. going from Alaska to Banks Island. In the fol- lowing year he penetrated still far thcr north with three companions and explored a large area west of Prince Patricl, island. discovering new land north of it
 In his book. My Life With Che Eskimos," Alr. s;cionsson calls ot- tcntion to thc fact that Icclaudcrs had colonizcd Greenland 800 years before Columbus discovered the West Indian frontier of America, and that it was a Norsemon. sailing to visit his father in Grccnlnd, who discoy cred the American mainland in Che year l.OOO
 By the time of Columbus, lee landic communication with Green land had become scanty. Finally it l ceased and a mystery that has not yet been solved closed in upon the lcclandlc colonies. When William Davis practically rciiscoyercd Grccland after its 800 years of ieo- lution. he found no Europeans sur viving.
 No record was over found Chat gave even hint of their possible fate. until stcfonmon found thc men whom the world had christcncd Che "blond Eskimo" Since Chat Gisooy cry. laymcn. 1T not scientists. arc on titled to hold the romantic hope that they may prove Co be descendants Of the lost Icclandcrs thus found by @ son of Iceland
 No guessing need be done about the Icclandcrs who remained m lcc- land. Many great nation might envy this isolated group its excel Ience of national records A quarter century before English Elizabeth ac- cendcd Co tho throne, Iceland had a printing onice. A Bible. and a very elaborate one, was printed in lee land in 1884, four years before the Spanish Armada set sail. lt seems crudoly modern to mention linotypcs i'm connection with such gaudy an- tiQulty. Most apologetically we mention that the first ono was i'm stalled in 1914.
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