Arizona state miner., 1925-11-07
Macmillan Expedition For
wards Interesting Facts
About the Natives.

washington, ID. Glow the ESKl-
mos live in icy Greenland, one of the
most forbidding of all inhabited areas,
is related in the following bulletin
from the National Geographic society,
based on a radio dispatch from the
Macmillan Arctic expedition:
aside from it's mines of coal and
cryolite, Greenland is as free of in
dustry and manufacture as it is of
agriculture, husbandry or forestry.
The rock lace-work border between
ice cap and sea offers no opportunity
for farming or herding and two
inch tree produces little lumber. But
there are thousands of suitable har-
bors to which a kayak or small
wooden boat can retreat from the
storm.
"The Eskimo has been repulsed by
a barren land which, however, well
comes him cordially when fish are
piled on his dock or walrus or seal
drag at his towline. 1t is natural
therefore that the only industrial
plant we saw in Greenland should be
related to fishing.
ACROSS a narrow blight from the
main town of Holstenborg is small
but modern factory for canning hall
but. There girls, in bright bead col
lars, work for 40 cents day, solder
cans, weigh the firm white flesh or
scrub sections of the big fish In
chilly tubs Of sea water.
In oil IL
zation has been working it's way with
primitive peoples What has meant
wealth to Gloucester has meant in
creasing want to the kayaker, and the
Danes have sought to provide employ
ment for those Greenlanders who,
while developing tastes for imported
articles, are farming their once pro-
ductive half acres less profitably than
before. The halibut cannery at Hol-
stenbOrg is an attempt to enable a
settlement to live through cO-Opera-
tion at a time when individual skill
and initiative are on the wane. Sons
of kayakers who would brave any
storm, get seasick on the big halibut
schooner and it is hard to find eff
cient men at any price commensurate
with possible return.
Trapping White Whales.
Greenland halibut is perfection in
fish food and sale is gradually be-
ing developed for canned halibut pro-
duced in a factory which answers a
demand, not for food or profit, but
for employment by those who would
otherwise lack 1t. SukkertOppen has
become prosperous by running nets
between islands and trapping white
whales.
"Holstenborg depends on a big fiat
fish to keep bright boots on it's women
and fat cheeks on it's babies.
'1The halibut is the king of those
fish whose wandering eyes and shift
ing body planes make them seem de-
formed when they are actually highly
developed for the life they lead. AL
though the life history Of the halibut
is still unknown, a study of these fiat
fish leads one to think that during
growth one eye migrates across the
head and that the body axis shifts.
"NOt only because of his shifty eye
and turnable spine is the halibut in
teresting, but he is also able to change
the color of his skin to match that of
the bottom near which he lies. In
some mysterious way this ability to
play chameleon is connected with eye
sight and a severing Of the optic nerve
robs the halibut of it's protean ability
to camoufiage himself against the home
he has chosen and the furniture amid
which he moves Only by keeping his
eyes open can the halibut work out a
color scheme of his own. So CONNER