The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-26

WV 'special.9-"Ths largest is | land in the world eff Austra- 1 lia be classed as contnent), the
 land reaching closest to the north
 pole, the country harborng the
 northernmost civilized community,
 and the one land mass where condi- | tions of the great ice age are now dominant-such is in connection with visit now being made by the King of Denmark to his bleak American colony.
 "Mercator of map fame has unwit-
 tingly confused the mind of the
 world in regard to Greenland" con tinues the bulletin. Because the 1 sphere is flattened out on many maps as though it's surface were stretched, Greenland vast as it is, is made to | appear many times larger. It is ss though the country were reflected in one of the mirrors set up at county 1 fairs to make the thin appear fat.
 But viewed properly, the great northern island bulks large enough
 
 most point were placed at the Cana
 dian border in North Dakota, it's 1 southernmost point would reach tol | the mouth of the Rio Grande, the 1 southern extremity of Texas. Its greatest width is approximately equal to the distance from New York
 to Chicago.
 But though the island is almost continental in size, having an area of about 500, ,0O0 square miles, 1t has only 15,00O Inhabitants the daily popula- tfon of a single huge office build ing in lower New York city. The req son for this sparse population IS lnot alone the far northern position of the country, for the lower half of the island is in approximately' the same latitude as the Scandinavian peninsula with it's S,00o,00o souls Bat
 while scandinavia is bathed by the warm gulf stream, and Iceland, too' is benefited by it, Greenland lies Tar from It's influence and Is washed only by Arctic currents
 "Exposed to the full effects or the frosts of the Arctic, the great island which at one time in geologic his7l tory had the climate and verdure oi California, has been changed into a frozen desert. The once green mus and valleys and even mountains nave been literally buried under sheet oi snow and ice varying from hundreds to thousands of feet in thickness. All but a few mountain peaks have been submerged, and the entire vast ln- terior of the country is nearly level plateau of ice.
 "Only a narrow fringe along part of the coast~is free from the ice cap, and even this ground is frozea in winter and covered with snow. II is along the fiords of these narro" ice-free sections of the coast that the few thousand Eskimos and the hand full of Danes that make up the popu- ulation of Greenland find a precari ous livelihood.
 "During the short summer the in-
  ena to be found nowhere else in the world but the frozen wastes are in- accessible and only few eyes nave beheld the changes that take place there when the sun swings to the north. Great lakes are formeo
 mighty rivers flow between blue crystal banks, their waters never touching stone nor fragment CT soil until they finally plungs doWh some chasm in the ice Glaciers push out of the countless fiords, | some discharging ice into the sea al
 the rate of 30 to 100 feet aaS
 "Mosses and lichens and tsw flowers and shrubs sprfns ie sae- den life in the summer alanr tAs iss- free fringes of the coast aat tsN vegetables except vadiehes tpsni ; and lettuce can be groA Fae >o- pie of Greenland sfs asFaest e2are fly dependen. fsr iaYa an the ga and on sunr aghe faen outside. .Greenfs @e discovered and settled he Red from Ice and n.sF FsaTs 4go-the same 1 Eric eiter aiscoVercd
 Ame sttlements throve for 1 1 4an nysteriousy disap-
 aear Columbus discovery. | { Tbe S slers were Norwegians | | Fta &y was combined for q 1 tisa, oenmark, and the Danes | ! s9ee s ag asirs to the bleak island. | 4A Jss missionary who reached 1 ltRe sGa est shores of Greenland ! fir i79 N3s the first to renew Scan din avian Aettlenent of the country. | etre CT sst feEs followed and Denmark i l est Ai.shgs paternal government ov nj eskimo of the south.
 'Nest lssst areenland was discoy-
 cred esf ared md occupied as baas <<-r q m 4 | t-~ l.