Norwich bulletin., 1921-07-25
IN THE DAYS NEWS
GREENLAND

."The largest Island III the "oiiu NhA Australia be classed as contlnenig Z the land reaching closest 10 tne NS NoIth Pole. the country harboring the north ernmost civilized community, and the one land mass where conditions Of the great ice age are TOW dominant-such is Greenland" says bulletin issued ny the National Geographic Sodety n connection with a visit now being made by the King of Denmark to his eleak American colony.
 "Mercator of map fame has unwit- tingly confused the mind of the worlc in regard to Greenland continues the bulletin. Because the sphere is flatten- ed out on many maps as though its surface were stretched. Greenland vast as it is is made to appear many times larger. 1t is as though the country were reflected in one of the mirrors set up at country fairs to make the thin appear fat.
 But viewed properly, the great nor thern island bulks large enough to command respect. If its southernmost point were placed at the Canadian Dor : der in Nortk Dakota its southernmost Grande, the southern extremity of Tex point would reach the mouth of the RIO as. It's greatest width is approximate 1 ly equal to the distance from New York | to CnlcdSO-
 But though the island is almost continental in size, having an area oi pabout 500, 900 square miles, it has on- l ly 15,00O inhabitants, the daily popula- | ton of a single huge office building | in lower New York City. The reason 1 for this sparse population is not alone ! the far northern position of the coun- i try for the lower half Of the island if l in approximately the same latitude al ] the Scandinavian peninsular with its l $. .OOO. 900 souls But while. Scandinavian
 is bathed by the warm Gulf Stream
 and Iceland too is benefited by 1t | Greenland lies far from it's influenc'
 and is washed only by the icy Arc | tic currents.
 Exposed to the full effects of tn, frosts of the Arctic, the great islanC
 which at one time in geologic histor! had the climate and venture of Cal
 ifornia, has been changed into a frozel desert. The once green hills and valley! and even mountains have been liter ally buried under sheet Of snow anC ice varying from hundreds to thou | sands of feet in thickness. All but { few mountain peaks have been submer' ged. and the entire vast interior Of thu
 country is a nearly level plateau O ice.
 "Only narrow fringe dtOnB a par of the coast is free from the ice cap
 and even this ground is frozen in win ter and covered with snow. It is alonl
 the fiords of these marrow ice-free sec tions of the coast that the few thou | sands of Eskimos and the handful o Danes that make up the population O Green find a precarious livelihood.
 During the short summer the in terior of Greenland presents phenome
 na to be found nowhere else in tn
 world; but the frozen wastes are irac cesible and only a few eyes have be l held the changes that take place ther
 when the sun swings to the north Great lakes are formed; mighty riy
 CTS flow between blue crystal banks , their waters never touching ston nor a fragment of soil until they fl , nauy plunge down some chasm in uh , ice. Glaciers push out of the counties fiords, some discharging ice into th sea at the rate of 50 to 100 feet a day Moses and lichens and few tlo . wers and shrubs spring to sudden If , in the summer along the ice-free firing
 es of the coast, but few vegetable except radishes, turrips and lettuce ca be grown. The people of Greenland ar almost entirely dependent for food 6 tn sea and on supplies brought frol ! outside.
 "Greenland was discovered and set :, tied by Eric the Red from Iceland near lv 1000 years ago-the same Eric wh
 soon after discovered America. Tn 7 settlement throve for l0e yeafs bt 2 mysteriossly disappeared before CO