The Tomahawk., 1925-07-30
prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety. Washington. D. CO.


~ REENLAND replaces Splits
" bergen in the public's inter
" est since the summer explor-
alton of the North Polar re-
gions Is being conducted from that
bleak continental island. The Mac.
MILAN expedition under the auspices
of the National Geographic society not
only has its chief base in Greenland,
at the far northern Eskimo village of
Etah, but the navy planes which are
accompanying the party will fly over
and map large areas Of the interior
of the island, and in addition studies
will be made on the ground Of Green
lands old Morse ruins.
Greenland Is an interesting region
In itself apart from the scientific &C
tivities being conducted there this
summer. 1t Is the largest island In
the world Cf Australia be classed as
a continent), has the land reaching
closest to the North pole, Is the coun-
try harboring the northernmost civil
liked community, and Is the one land
mass where conditions of the great ice
age are now dominant.
Mercator Of map fame has unwit-
tingly confused the mind Of the world
In regard to Greenland. Because the
sphere Is flattened out on many maps
as though it's surface were stretched,
Greenland, vast as 1t Is, Is made to ap-
pear many times larger. It is as
though the island were reflected in one
Of the mirrors set up at country fairs
to make the thin appear fat.
But viewed properly, the. great north
ern island bulks large enough to COM
mand respect. If its northernmost
point were placed at the Canadian Dor
der in North Dakota. its southernmost
point would reach to the mouth Of the
Rio Grande, the southern extremity Of
Texas. Its greatest width Is approx
mately equal to the distance from New
York to Chicago.
But though the island Is almost con-
tinental in size, having an area Of
about 100000 square miles, 1t has only
$4,000 inhabitants, the daily popula-
ton Of single huge Office building In
lower New York city. The reason for
this sparse population Is not 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 $780,
600 souls. But while Scandinavia Is
bathed by the warm Gulf stream, and
Iceland, too, is benefited by 1t, Green
land lies far from its influence and Is
washed only by icy Arctic currents.
Buried Under Snow and Ice.
Exposed to the full effects of the
frosts of the Arctic, the great island
which at one time in geologic history
had the climate and verdure of Cali
fornia, has been changed into a frozen
desert. The once green country has
been buried under a sheet Of snow and
Ice.
Greenland's mountains are 'icy" as
the missionary song has It. All noun
tains that are high enough are icy
even under the Equator. But the song
missed the real point: Greenland's
Valleys dIC Sy-hICu VI
ice, in fact. It Is doubtful II any
where else In the world such a ire
mendous ice sheet exists as in Green
land. The SHOWS Of perhaps dozen
or more millenniums have built up a
crystal blanket that In places is six
or seven thousand feet thick. It has
buried valleys. hills and mountains
alike, making central Greenland into
huge snow and Ice plateau, a single
tremendous glacier with countless ten
tacles that extend down into the coast
fiords, ever feeding icebergs to the
ocean.
Only a narrow fringe along a part
Of the coast is free from the ice cap,
and even this ground Is frozen in win
ter and covered with snow. 1t is along
the fiords Of these narrow ice-free sec
tons Of the coast that the few thou
sand Eskimos and the handful Of
Danes that make up the population of
Greenland find a precarious livelihood.
During the short summer the inte-
rior Of Greenland presents phenomena
to be found aowhere else in the world |;
but the frozen wastes are inaccessible
and only few eyes have beheld the
changes that take place there when the
sun swings TO the north. Great lakes
are formed! mighty rivers flow be-
tween blue crystal banks, their waters
never touching a stone nor fragment
Of soil until they finally plunge down
some chasm IN the ice. Glaciers push
out of the countless fiords, some dis
charging ice into the sea at the rate
Of so to 100 feet 4 day.
Moses and lichens and a few flow
ers and shrubs spring to sudden life in
the summer along the ice-free fringes
~ tha Ioast hut fauu vaoaf ahiao axoapt