Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-07-29
View Of oodthaab, Greenland.

radishes, turnips and lettuce can be
grown The people of Greenland are
| almost entirely dependent for food on
the sea and on supplies brought from
outside
West Coast Settlements.
Greenlands history has been a his
tory of its west coast. The east coast,
although nearest Iceland and Europe,
is inaccessible. 1t has been dubbed
"the most inhospitable shore in the
world" A broad stream of icebergs
and smaller fragments of Ice is con-
stantly moving southwark along the
coast, forming a barrier that is i'm
| penetrable by ships for large part of
the year. Angmagsalik is the only
permanent settlement on the east
coast Its population consists of sew
eral hundred Eskimos and a mere
handful of Danes-trader, missionary,
doctor and a few minor officials In
| the summer a considerable volume of
water flows out from glacial rivers cen
tering a. Angmagsaiik, which tends to
make an opening in the drifting off
shore ice. 1t is then that Angmagsalik
counts on its annual contact with the
| outside world.
Along the fiords Of the west coast
are the remains Of one of the most In
teresting colonies the world has known.
the settlement built up on the edge of
America by Erik the Red and his fol-
lowers and conducted as a Christian
community 800 years before Columbus
crossed the Atlantic. On the narrow
ice-free strip Of coast, several thou
sand men of Norwegian blood main
/ tanned this colony, and another farther
north for several centuries.
Because of the inaccessibility of the
east coast, the first immigrants from
Europe to the Western Hemisphere
rounded the southern end of Green
land and landed on the southwestern
shore which is ice-free during the sum-
mer. They settled in two districts:
the Eastern Settlement (mOre proper
ly the southeastern) about 100 miles
around Cape Farewell, near the present
Julianehaab; and the Western Settle
ment (more properly the northwest
ern), nearly 300 miles farther up the
west coast near the present G0dthaab.
Soon after the year 1000 these set
Elements with their 1000 or more in
habitants were rated Christian COM
munities Twelve churches were built
in the Eastern Settlement and four in
the Western. About lilo a bishop of
Greenland was appointed and there is
fairly complete record of bishops to
the end of the Fourteenth century. A
monastery and nunnery even were
maintained in the Greenland colonies.
The Morse settlements in Greenland
were at their best in the Eleventh and
Twelfth and during the Thirteenth CEN
turtles. After 1900 they seem to have
started to decline.
What happened to the Morse colon
lists cut adrift in Greenland has long
been a mystery. Some traditions have
1t that they were destroyed by the Es-
kimos, others that the went westward
to other land. It is In the hope of
finding evidence to support this latter
tradition that the Macmillan expe-
dition is making Investigations this
summer.
Now Ruled by Denmark.
Although the early settlers OF Green
land were Norwegians, the country
later came under Danish control. This
occurred when Norway was combined
for a time with Denmark. A Danish
missionary who reached the southwest
shores of Greenland in 1921 was the
| first to renew Scandinavian settlement
of the country other settlers fol-
lowed and Denmark established a pa-
ternal government over the Eskimos
Of the south.
Northwest Greenland was discov-
cred, explored and occupied as base
for Polar expeditions by Americans
during the Nineteenth century-no-
tably by Peary and Greedy. When the
! United States purchased the Danish
/ West Indies in 1917, as part of the pur-
chase consideration it relinquished all
claim to any part Of Greenland. Since
then the Danish government has ex-
tended its authority to the sparsely-
settled northwest coast, and to all other
inhabited sections of the island.
The towns of Greenland are few and
unimportant. Godhaven of Godthaab,
the capital Of the northern Inspector
ate, is the chief settlement and yet has
only a few hundred inhabitants Uper-
nivik, near satiture 70 degrees, is the
northernmost town" in the. world
while Etah IS the northernmost set
Element. Jullanehaab, near the south.
west point of the island, is close to the
site Of the settlement of Erik the Red
and in the vicinity are still to be seen
ruins of the stone houses and churches
built in this isolated corner of Americs
In the days of the early Crusades