SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES NUMBER FIFTEEN ICELAND AND GREENLAND* By AUSTIN H. CLARK (Publication 3735) CITY OF WASHINGTON PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION AUGUST 19, 1943 Z$t £ov& <§attimou rt Pi c o ^ s c-~ « <0 cS „, CD en r- U c >,C «■£ o«hr so « a . >> o _C <" o "0 en 3 «4 S - *-*• ". im}~ 'x mm ■\ j&t**. ' "■ ■' >% y,v:?x <:■ "••^'•«^a '"' :'%l%* ' JSP**1 &V '-.'•' .-$$b « siiysjsP® Plate 8 Upper: A salmon river in northern Iceland. Photograph by Edvard Sigurgeirsson. Lower: Lake Hvitavatn; face of a glacier. Photograph by Bjorn Arnorsson. (From Island i myndum.) Plate 9 Upper: Nesting grounds of the eider duck, Iceland's most important bird, the source of eidei down. Photograph Dy Vigfus Sigurgeirsson. Lower: Blafell, where the whooper swan nests. Photograph by Pall J6nsson. (From Island i myndum.) ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 21 the account of this expedition: "Now the Skraelings have the whole Western Settlement; there are horses, goats, cattle, and sheep, but every- thing is wild, and no people " But there was not always trouble between the Eskimo and the Green- landers. In one of the native legends recorded by Dr. H. J. Rink it is related that in the beginning, when the Eskimo first came to the Western Settlement, they and the Norsemen lived peacefully together. But later disagreements arose, and the Norsemen attacked the tent place of the Eskimo in the neighborhood of Uyaragssuit. The men were away on a reindeer hunt, and the Norsemen attacked the women and killed all but one of them. This inspired the Eskimo to take revenge. Another light is shed on the disappearance of the Greenlanders by a passage written for the year 1342: "Greenland's inhabitants left of their own accord the true belief and the Christian religion, and laid aside all good customs and true virtues and turned to the American people [i.e., the Eskimo heathenism]." This would indicate that some, at least, of the Norsemen became merged with the natives. In 1355 a ship was sent out from Norway, which had not sent a ship to Greenland for 9 years (the time of the "black death"), so as to hinder "that Christianity should decline." This expedition was under the com- mand of Paul Knutson and returned to Bergen in 1364. No account of the expedition was ever written, but a stone with an inscription in Runic symbols dated 1362 found near Kensington in western Minnesota, and several iron weapons of a type dating from the late Middle Ages from the same general region, suggest that this expedition may have penetrated to the far interior of North America, perhaps by striking southwestward from Greenland. There is a record in the year 1379 to the effect that "The Skraelings made hostile onslaughts on the Greenlanders, killing 18 men, but caught two boys, whom they made thralls." This must refer to the Eastern Settlement (Eystribygd). It is possible, as maintained by Dr. W. Thalbitzer, that these Eskimo came from the south, around Cape Farewell. But most of the Eskimo that invaded the Eastern Settlement came from the north. In 1389 a complaint was made to Queen Margaret that some Icelanders had visited Greenland and there carried on illicit trade. Dr. Jonsson relates that the Icelanders swore that they had been at the Althing in Greenland, where the common people had agreed that no east-men present should be allowed to buy food unless they also bought merchandise intended for export. The Icelanders did not dare to do this, though 22 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 they offered to carry commodities belonging to the Crown; but as they had no papers to this effect no goods were entrusted to them, which caused them to be set at liberty. Dr. Jonsson says that this throws a clear, but unfortunately also a very lurid, light on the unhappy position of the Greenlanders. Because of the competition of the Hanse merchants, and to some extent because of the plague that raged in Norway in 1392 and the destruction by fire of Bergen in 1393, the Norwegian merchants were no longer able to carry on the sailings to Greenland. The last record contained in any of the annals of events dealing with Greenland is dated about 1407, and in 1410 the last ship returned to Europe from that country. According to a somewhat dubious report, German merchants in Bergen in 1484 killed about 40 sailors because they refused to sell them the products which they might bring back from Greenland. A papal letter dated 1492 says It is said that Greenland is an island lying at the end of the world, that the inhabi- tants there have no bread, wine, nor oil, but live on dried fish and milk. On ac- count of the surrounding ice navigation to the island is seldom, and landing can only take place in August, after the melting of the ice; therefore one believes that no ship, in the last eighty years, has been there, nor a bishop or priest has lived there. And the consequence has been that most of the inhabitants have fallen away from the Christian belief and have no other memorandum of it than that once a year an altar-cloth is shown which had been used by the last bishop about a hundred years before. Now, on the appeal of the then Cardinal Borgias, the Benedictine monk Mathias had offered to go as missionary to that country so as to convert the apostates, and had wished to risk both life and health on this enterprise by per- sonally traveling there by ship. There are no further references to the Icelandic colony in Greenland, which was abandoned and all but forgotten, perhaps partly because of internal difficulties in Iceland and the increasing contacts between Iceland and the countries of northern Europe. The 60-year period of colonization of Iceland, followed by the first hundred years of the republic, constituted the picturesque Saga Age. There had been the stirring events of the colonization itself, then the discovery and colonization of Greenland, followed by the discovery, ex- ploration, and attempted colonization of the North American mainland. Also, there were voyages through the Baltic and to Russia, foraging raids along the coasts of Spain and into the Mediterranean, the service of Icelanders as court poets and bodyguards at various European courts, and journeys through every known land and sea of the time, the travelers usually coming home to spend their later years in reminiscence. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 23 After 1030 came what the Icelanders regard as the two centuries of peace, when commerce replaced piracy. Stefansson notes that the most fashionable journeys now were pilgrimages to the Holy Land, although there continued to be much travel to other countries. During this period the sagas assumed the varied forms they now have in the vellum manu- scripts, as sober family histories and national histories of Iceland and of various European countries, chiefly those of the northwest; as more or less romanticized accounts of the adventures of the leaders of the Saga Age; and as highly fictionized and decorated sagas of the Burnt Njall type, which, according to Stefansson, are historical novels rather than histories. At the same time there was also the recording of the ancient poetry and mythology which the settlers had brought with them, mostly from the Scandinavian countries, some of it strongly colored by other influences, chiefly Irish. This era of peace was followed by a time of turmoil. All the goSorS had gradually come into the possession of a few families, who abused their power for their own ends. The natural result was sanguinary struggles between these families, leading to general chaos and misery. The King of Norway, Hakon Hakonarson, strongly supported by the foreign ecclesiastical power, which desired to increase its hold on the national Icelandic church, watched for an opportunity to take part in the internal dissensions of the Icelanders, and finally, in 1262, the Icelandic people were induced to swear allegiance to him. The submission of the country, quarter by quarter, was completed in 1264, and the original republic came to an end. With the lawbook which was formally accepted in 1271 and revised in 1281 a complete change was made in the constitution. The supreme power was in the hands of the king. The goSorS were abolished, and royal officials took the place of the goSar. The Althing was retained in a modified form, chiefly as a court of law with judges who were chosen by the royal officials; it also had some legislative power, exercised partly in conjunction with the king and partly by itself. The power of the Crown was increased by the confiscation of the great Sturlung estates, which were sublet to farmers, while the early falling off of the Nor- wegian trade threatened to deprive the country of its means of existence. Under the republic life had been turbulent and lawless, though free and varied. The republic produced men of mark, and fostered bravery, adventure, and progress. The great chiefs were in reality only greater franklins (freemen), but their wealth and comparative luxury gave them leisure and opportunities for culture that raised them as examples and leaders above their fellows, while pride of birth preserved a nobility 24 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 of feeling and high standard of honor amid much of violence and chicanery. But now increased burdens and decreased opportunities gradu- ally reduced the upper classes almost to the level of peasant proprietors, with little political interest in the present and little hope for the future. But their pride in their past and in their families was maintained. The fourteenth century saw a succession of terrible calamities in Iceland. Many volcanic eruptions occurred, spreading ashes over wide areas and destroying meadows and pastures so that the stock died of hunger, followed by the people, and even damaging the fishing grounds. In the year 1340 Oraefajokull, Hekla, Mosfell, HerSubreiS, and Trolladyngja all erupted simultaneously. In addition to this, deadly epidemics carried off much of the stock and many people. In 1349 the "black death" killed about one-third of the people in Norway, and Norwegian interest in Iceland all but disappeared. The same disease raged throughout Iceland in 1402-1404. From the old days of the republic there had been an intermittent and desultory trade with England, more or less on a buccaneering basis. This trade now increased to appreciable proportions. About 1312 Kingston-upon-Hull began to flourish, and Leland says that the great increase in this town was by passing for fish into Iceland from whence they had the whole trade of stockfish [unsalted dried codfish] into England, in such time as all the trade of stockfish for England came from Iceland to Kingston. Because the burthen of stockfish was light, the ships were ballasted with great coble stones brought from Iceland, the which in continuance paved the town of Kingston throughout. In 1381 Norway entered into a union with Denmark, in accordance with which the laws of Iceland, revised and little altered by King Hakon, were continued by the new masters. By the union or compact of Kalmar, Sweden was allied under a common king with Denmark and Norway in 1397, and the old Treaty of Union by which Iceland had reserved her essential rights was more or less overlooked by the Danish monarchs. New taxes were imposed. But it was neglect arising from the remoteness of the island and its relative unimportance from the continental view- point rather than any positive action that damaged Iceland's interests. The half-smuggling, half-buccaneering trade that had long been carried on with England, especially through the enterprise of the Bristol merchants, with the Germans, and to some extent with other peoples, now became of much importance, and without it Iceland would have fared badly. The Icelanders exported stockfish, sulfur, wool, and eider down, and received in exchange, as before, wood, iron, honey, wine, grain, and flax goods. This period of Iceland's history is rather colorless. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 25 She had peace, but not prosperity. There was not much the people could do. Even shepherding and such agriculture as there was declined. Because of complaints made by the King of Denmark concerning the bad conduct of the English in the Iceland fishery, King Henry V ordered proclamation to be made "that none of our subjects do for one year to come presume to resort to the coasts of the isles belonging to Denmark and Norway, more especially to the Island of Iceland, for fishing or any other reason to the prejudice of the King of Denmark." As a result of this, for the next 10 years many of the English who frequented Iceland were pirates as well as fishermen. A minute account of the enormities they committed is preserved, from which it appears that these vessels were fitted out from Hull, Lynn, and other eastern ports. This condition probably originated in the exactions of the Danes under the pretense of toll. About 1425 the English fishery trade with Iceland reached its greatest volume. Ships from Bristol and other western ports entered the trade in competition with those from the eastern ports. As a result of this increase in shipping, there soon was not enough available fish to load all the boats. In order, it was said, to conciliate the King's uncle, the King of Denmark, an act was passed by King Henry VI in 1430 for- bidding Englishmen to enter the dominions of Denmark, excepting only the town of Northberne (Bergen) in Norway, and by no means to enter into any other of the territories of Denmark in opposition to the King of Denmark's prohibition. This statute seems to have made no difference in the resorting of Englishmen to Iceland, which was then on the increase ; probably licenses were granted to the English fishermen by the King of Denmark. That the English continued to fish in Iceland appears from the quarrel between the Kings of Denmark and England over the killing of the governor of Iceland by some Englishmen from whom he had extorted extravagant tolls in 1469. On this occasion the King of Denmark seized four English ships with their cargoes in the Baltic. It is interesting to recall that in 1476 Christopher Columbus visited Iceland, meeting Icelandic sea captains who informed him that Icelandic vessels had found land on the western side of the North Atlantic. This knowledge may have contributed to the maturing of his plans for his famous voyage of 1492. In Iceland, as elsewhere, the Reformation wakened men's minds, open- ing new vistas of hope and new fields of thought; but it left their circumstances but little changed or, if changed at all, it was for tht worse. The royal power was now greatly increased. The Hanse trade now replaced the English, to the detriment of the people, and the Danish 26 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 monopoly which succeeded it when the Danish kings began to act with vigor under the stimulus of European changes was still less profitable. In spite of the resented arrogance of some of the Roman Catholic bishops, the Reformation was not at first welcomed by the Icelanders. In 1537 King Christian III had given his sanction to a new code which embraced the Lutheran creed. This was sent to Iceland, but no attention was paid to it. Stern measures were then applied. In 1541 the King appointed Christopher Huitfeldt governor and sent him to Iceland with two warships. The mission of the governor was to bring about the adoption of the new church code, to prevail upon the people to take the oath of allegiance to King Christian III, and to grant him a new tax. The Althing of 1541 assembled under the drawn swords of the foreign military forces. Bloodshed and uprisings followed. But the reformation was not established until 1550 when Jon Arason, the last Roman Catholic bishop, and his sons were beheaded at Skalholt. Church properties were confiscated and their revenues diverted to the royal purse. The glebes and hospital lands were a fresh power in the hands of the Crown, and the subservient Lutheran clergy became the most powerful class in the island, while the bad system of underleasing at rack rent and short lease with unsecured tenant rights was extended in this way over a great part — at least a quarter — of the better land, stopping all possible progress. The details of the religious changes are uninteresting. Nearly all who took an active part on either side were men of low type, moved by personal motives rather than by religious zeal, and the story of the acceptance of the Reformation is not altogether a pleasant one. Stefansson writes that when it was once accomplished, the little group of able men who came to the front for two or three generations, stirred by the new life that had been breathed into the age, did nobly in preserving the records of the past for a later time to evaluate and appreciate. Among the notable men of this time were Oddur Gottskalksson, translator of the New Testament, GuSbrandur Thorlaksson, bishop, publisher of the Bible, and Hallgrimmur Petursson, a writer of hymns. The close of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth was marked by a new curse, that of the English, Gascon, and Turkish pirates, who caused widespread panic and more or less devastation in 1579, 1613-1616, and 1627. The Turkish raid in the summer of 1627 was described by Jon Olafsson, the "Traveler to India," an Icelander from a poor and obscure, though typically self-respecting, family. This emphasizes an interesting point. Dame Bertha Phillpots points out that though it is true that the decay ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 27 of education amidst the disasters and famines of the first half of the seventeenth century is a common theme of lament among contemporary Icelandic authors, "there was still a great deal of truth in the statement made by a Norwegian divine some thirty years before Jon's education began that 'among the Icelanders it is a usual custom that they teach their children, of both sexes, to read and write.' " So even under the most adverse circumstances the poorer people in Iceland were better educated than some of the nobility in continental Europe. The eighteenth century was the gloomiest in Iceland's history. Smallpox, famine, sheep disease, and the terrible eruptions of 1765 and 1783 fol- lowed each other in awful succession. Against these calamities, which reduced the population by about one-fourth, little could be done, and, as remarked by Stefansson, when the only man who might have roused the Icelanders from their misery, distress, and impoverishment, the noble and patriotic Eggert Olafsson, a hero of the old type, was drowned in the midst of his career in 1768, it is hardly to be wondered that things went from bad to worse, and that a listlessness and torpidity crept over the national character. The few literary men, whose work was done and whose books were published abroad, were concerned only with the past, and Jon Vidalin was the one man of mark, besides Eggert Olafsson, who worked and wrote for his own generation. In the early years of the century the trade of Iceland, which had been monopolized by the Danes since the beginning of the seventeenth century, though until long afterward they were not able to exclude the English from it, was found to be a losing one. The Danish ships, nominally at least king's ships, were armed. Some went to the fish ports, and some to the flesh ports. Everything was purchased by barter at fixed prices that never varied. When Sir Joseph Banks visited Iceland in 1772 he found the monopoly of the trade there much in the same condition as had been described in 1733 by Bushing. But now the barter prices were by no means fixed. The company that traded in the king's name through their agents altered them every year in proportion to the success of the fishery in such a way as to secure the whole produce of the island, no matter whether great or small, at the same price to themselves — that was for just enough European necessities to keep the Icelanders from starving. Thus all initiative and energy were suppressed. The greatest industry by the Icelanders resulted in no more advantage to them than ordinary exertions. The people complained bitterly of this, and repeatedly solicited Sir Joseph to propose to his government the purchase of the sovereignty of the island from Denmark, which they thought would be sold for about 28 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 £100,000. They believed that they would very soon make good this sum to their new masters. In 1783 there occurred the most devastating volcanic eruption in the history of the island, that of Skapta. The Danes sent relief ships with all the supplies they could spare for the stricken people, and it was proposed that the inhabitants be removed and resettled in Jutland. It was during the eighteenth century that all the colonial and outlying peoples subject to the European powers had the most difficult time. Colonies were regarded as areas for exploitation for the benefit of the homeland, and if they produced nothing of value they were neglected. Denmark was a European country surrounded by powerful neighbors of uncertain and constantly changing sentiments toward her. Her main preoccupations were with Europe. To her Iceland was a remote and impoverished region, reached only by a long and dangerous voyage and producing little that could not be procured elsewhere more conveniently and with less risk. The attitude of Denmark toward Iceland was in principle parallel to the attitude of England toward the American colonies at the same time. The most oppressive features of the Danish trade monopoly were removed in 1788, though the monopoly was not finally abolished until 1854. The first census of Iceland was taken in 1703. This was very thorough, giving the name, standing, and age of every person. It was one of the first to be taken in any country. At that time the inhabitants numbered 50,000; but by 1801 the number had fallen to 47,000. During the summer of 1808 a British letter of marque (or privateer), the Salamine, arrived in Iceland, looted the public treasury of about 35,000 rixdaler, and took some private property. The public money was later returned by the British Government because the captain had exceeded the privilege of his letters of marque, which entitled him to prey on the enemy's ships, but not to commit depredations on land. In 1809 a respected British merchant, Samuel Phelps, misled by a keen and unscrupulous attorney's clerk, J. Savignac, and an equally un- scrupulous Danish adventurer, a prisoner of war on parole, Jorgen Jorgensen, went to Iceland in the letter of marque Margaret and Anne, captured the governor, Count Trampe, annulled all Danish authority, confiscated Danish property, committed all sorts of depredations, and set up a new and independent government under Jorgensen. In the middle of August the British man-of-war Talbot, Capt. the Hon. Alexander Jones, arrived. Captain Jones demolished the fort which had been set up, and restored the government to the state in which it had been before ICELAND AND GREENLAND— CLARK 29 the "Revolution." Count Trampe, who had been taken to England, was returned and liberated. Jorgensen was sent to prison as an enemy alien who had broken his parole by leaving the country. He eventually was sent as a convict to Tasmania, where he died in 1844. At this time Denmark was allied with Napoleon, though the sentiment of the people as a whole favored England. Although Iceland had nothing to do with the war which made Denmark an enemy of England, she was technically an enemy country from the English point of view, and as such exposed to depredations by English marauders. Since the British Government hesitated to follow Sir Joseph Banks's advice to annex Iceland, it occurred to him that the only remedy for the situation was for Iceland to be declared neutral so long as the war lasted. He finally succeeded in bringing this about, and an order in council was issued to this effect on February 7, 1810, including the Faroes and the Greenland settlements as well as Iceland. In order to improve the situation, a British consul, John Parker, was appointed for Iceland in 1810. It was at this time that trade between Iceland and the United States first began. In 1809 the Neptune and Providence, Capt. Samuel Staples, brought a cargo of foodstuffs, brandy, and tobacco. In 1810 Edward Cruft of Boston sent another ship, and in 1811 still another, this one with wares better suited to the needs of the Icelanders. It was, however, captured by the English on the return journey. The War of 1812 dis- rupted this trade, but in 1815 Mr. Cruft petitioned the Danish Govern- ment to grant him sole American trading rights. On the recommendation of the Danish governor general, who testified that the goods were of value to the Icelanders, and that the price was low, the petition was granted. Through her alliance with France, Denmark had been a party to the defeat of Napoleon, and as a result by the Peace of Kiel she lost Norway to the King of Sweden in 1814;. but no change was made in her relations with Iceland. Now the question of the interpretation of the treaty of 1262 arose. The Icelanders contended that it had meant only that Iceland and Norway were united under one king, while the Danes contended that a material union was contemplated, and even that Iceland had been incorporated in the Kingdom of Norway and had now the same status with regard to Denmark. When the consultative chambers were established in Denmark irt 1834 the Icelanders claimed equal rights for themselves. The King complied with their wishes, first by summoning a commission of the highest officials of the country to make proposals concerning its interests, and later by establishing a consultative assembly, chosen for the most part 3 30 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 by the Icelanders themselves, which was called the Althing and met for the first time in 1845. By the constitutional law of 1849 the King resigned his absolute power in Denmark; but this law did not apply to Iceland, where the King continued to be an absolute monarch. Now the old spirit of nationalism began to take on new life. But the aspirations of the Icelanders received a set-back when in 1864 Denmark was defeated by Prussia and Austria, and the provinces of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg were lost. Under the leadership of Jon SigurSsson, the greatest statesman the island produced, the struggle of the Icelanders for independence and a more liberal constitution was continued. The first step ended with the Danish Government passing a law fixing the status of Iceland within the Danish state in 1871. This legislation, opposed by the Icelanders, made Iceland a part of the Danish state, though with special rights, and with their own legislature and government; but in all joint affairs the Icelanders were to have no voice. In the summer of 1874 Iceland celebrated the one-thousandth anni- versary of the first settlement, and in honor of the occasion the King, Christian IX, and his entourage visited the island, bringing with him a new constitution based upon the law of 1871. The Althing was granted legislative powers, together with the king, in all matters concerning in- ternal affairs, and a special minister was appointed to be resident in Copenhagen. But this did not wholly satisfy the Icelanders. Bayard Taylor covered this event for the New York Tribune, and Samuel Kneeland, another visitor from the United States, was present. Both wrote accounts of their experiences. The contacts between Iceland and the outside world were now increasing rapidly. The development of steam navigation enabled tourists to visit the island in increasing numbers, and her fishing banks were regularly frequented by schooners from Gloucester, as well as by ships from France and elsewhere. Whaling, formerly carried on offshore, was now under- taken from shore stations of which there were altogether 15, 9 in the northwestern peninsula, 1 in the north, and 5 in the east, operated by Norwegians. There was a considerable immigration of Icelanders to the United States and to Canada, the immigrants settling mainly in Manitoba (New Iceland), Minnesota, and the Dakotas. Soon after 1874 the constitutional dispute was resumed, and in 1903 a new concession was made. It was agreed, among other things, that the Icelandic minister in the Danish cabinet should be resident in Reykjavik and should act as chief administrative officer in place of a royal governor; also, he must be able to understand and speak Icelandic. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 31 This was the beginning of parliamentary government in Iceland, for the minister or ministers (the number was later increased) were to be re- sponsible to the Althing. In 1905 the complete separation of Norway and Sweden gave the Icelanders fresh hopes. In July 191 8 a commission composed of Danes and Icelanders sat in Reykjavik to draw up proposals for a basis of union between these two peoples. Bjorn Thordarson writes that these proposals were subsequently submitted to the legislatures of the two countries, and adopted as a law, which was confirmed by Christian X, King of Denmark and Iceland, on November 30. By this law, which is essentially a treaty between two states of equal standing and with equal rights, a new state was created, the Kingdom of Iceland. Mr. Thordarson says that in the tumult of World War I and the period following, the outside world, with the exception of the related Scandinavian peoples, probably took very little notice of the event. To the great nations it may perhaps have caused some surprise, and may have raised doubts as to how the inhabitants of this remote island proposed to maintain a separate state, but the recognition accorded to it by the Danish people is sufficient assurance that strong reasons underlay the event. The Icelanders were an ancient people, and an ancient state had simply arisen anew after a period of abeyance. Since that time conditions in Iceland have steadily improved. Feeling against the Danes, which formerly was as bitter as that of the Irish against the English, has died down. In April 1940 when the Germans occupied Denmark, the Althing assumed control of Iceland's foreign affairs, and Sveinn Bjornsson was elected Regent, which position he still holds. In the following month a British expeditionary force occupied Iceland. On July 7, 1941, by invitation of the Icelandic Government, United States Marines replaced the British force, and the United States Navy agreed to assure safe com- munications between Iceland and the United States. LANGUAGE Iceland has its own language spoken nowhere outside of Iceland except by those Icelanders, about 40,000 in number, who reside abroad, chiefly in Canada and the United States. The total number of people speaking Icelandic is about 160,000, or roughly the same as the number of people in Sacramento, California. Icelandic, one of the oldest living languages in Europe, is the most regular and the purest of the Teutonic dialects, and the one that most 32 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 nearly approaches the common language of all the Teutonic tribes of the fourth century, from which English, German, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian have developed. Mr. Thordarson says that In the course of time Icelandic has undergone some changes in pronunciation and accentuation, but the main change has been in the growth of the vocabulary. Icelandic has great fecundity, and it has always been found possible to form new words and compounds to express new ideas, new activities, and new methods; but since the old vocabulary has also been retained practically without change in the words or inflections, every Icelandic child that is able to read can read and understand the prose of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as easily as the spoken and written tongue of today. . . . Although the country is so large, and communications have been difficult until recently, there are no dialects in Iceland, and the difference between the spoken and written form is less than in most other languages. According to Mr. Thordarson the chief reason for the purity and continuity of the language is undoubtedly the fact that the literature is practically as old as the people itself, and that all have shared in it, high and low, rich and poor, in spite of the sparse population and material difficulties. In addition to this, the foreign power which for centuries ruled over Iceland never made any attempt to interfere with the language, and few foreigners ever settled permanently in the country districts. Most visitors to Iceland have noted with surprise not only the fact that literacy is universal, but also that knowledge of other languages is widespread. Danish and English, and to a lesser extent German, are understood by a large percentage of the people. In earlier days knowledge of Latin was very general. The Icelandic language still uses two letters that are no longer found in English. These are the following: P, p, = th; the equivalent of Old English Y, y. D, 3, = the sound of th in "thee." LITERATURE The immortal fame of Iceland springs from its early literature some of which, from the artistic or even from the scholarly point of view, is almost without a rival elsewhere. Axel Olrik has pointed out that the most important factor in the production of this magnificent literature was the selection of the human stock that settled the island. This stock included all those families of petty kings and peasant chieftains from western Norway who refused to submit to the autocratic rule of Haraldr Harfagri, together with Nor- wegians from other sections of the country, stragglers from Sweden, and ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 33 Vikings from the West, including some semi-Celtic elements. The largest part of the population came from the districts of Hordaland and Rogaland, the regions that had contributed most to the great Viking Age, and the period of discovery. As described by Mr. Olrik, these talented and aristocratic people settled in Iceland under more severe conditions of life than they had formerly known. Instead of being a petty king, the peasant had at most a very limited authority as the goSi of his district. Many a man of noble origin had to settle as a peasant in the goSorS of another man. Their external circumstances were narrowed down to obtaining the necessities for existence. The only mark of nobility that they still retained was their mental culture; but this they assiduously cultivated. In the Icelandic colony of Greenland conditions were even harder; but even here the old traditions were maintained. Professor Einarsson says that one of the Eddie poems is said to be "groenlenzkt," but that is all we know about it directly. Of the two sagas that deal with Greenland and the discovery of Vinland (North America) one, Eiriks saga RauSa, or Porfinns saga Karlsefnis, seems to embody Icelandic tradition of the events, while the other, Groenlendinga Saga, probably embodies Green- landic tradition. But according to Professor Einarsson both sagas were undoubtedly written in Iceland. The early literature of Iceland is divided into two classes, Eddas and Sagas. Regarding these I cannot do better than quote, more or less verbatim, the description given by Dame Bertha Surtees Phillpotts, D.B.E. (1931). Dame Bertha writes that the term "Edda" covers not only the collection of poems known as the Elder or Poetic Edda, but also Snorri Sturluson's Younger or Prose Edda, that very remarkable manual for poets which rearranges and interprets, long after heathen days, much of the ancient lore contained in the Poetic Edda and in some Eddie poems which are now lost. ^ Saga covers the prose stories of all kinds, from history to romance, which are the special glory of Iceland. The two words together may be taken to include the other main type of Old Norse literature, the verses of the skalds or court poets, since almost all that is left of them, whether Norwegian or Icelandic, is preserved by quotation either in the prose sagas or in Snorri's Prose Edda. But these poems and this prose, Edda and Saga, are something more than the surviving literature of Norway and its settlements in Iceland and Greenland. Many of the Eddie poems, it is true — mainly those which purport to give the utterances of gods or other supernatural beings — reflect beliefs and traditions which, in the absence of all other evidence, 34 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 we must consider as specifically Norwegian or Scandinavian. These poems are not the least interesting of the collection, especially since some parts of them seem to reveal the thoughts and the philosophy of a figure who is mute in all other early medieval literature — the peasant or small farmer. But they form only half the collection. The traditions in the other poems — those dealing with human heroes — are not local or national. Though the authors of the poems, as we have them now, were all of Norwegian stock, not one hero in poems preserved in Eddie manuscripts is a Norwegian or an Icelander. A few are Danish or Swedish, but in the main the stories center around kings from the time of the Wanderings of Peoples, or the Heroic Age as it has been called. The chief historical figures in the poems are Ermanaric, who ruled over the vast East Gothic Kingdom and who died soon after A.D. 370; Attila (Atli or Etzel), the Hun, who struck terror into Europe in the first half of the fifth century; and Theodoric the Goth, who ruled Italy from 489 to 526. The figures of the great Nibelungen story, which has pride of place in Scandinavian as in German memory, are identified with the court of the Burgundian King Gundahari, who was defeated by the Huns in 437. These were the kings whose stories seem to have been the common cherished possessions of the Teutonic peoples. The Danish and Swedish kings celebrated in Eddie poems are less easy to date, but they probably lived soon after A.D. 500. As far as we can judge, their stories were not known over so vast an area as those of the Gothic and Burgundian kings, but they have a special interest because they are from the same period, and also from the same regions, as the kings sung of by Anglo-Saxon poets in the seventh and eighth centuries. The last time these stories are retold is in the thirteenth century, in the prose Volsunga Saga written in Iceland. But the first poems about these personages must have been composed in the great kingdoms of the Goths, the Burgundians, the Lombards, and perhaps the Franks in the fifth and sixth centuries, in languages of which the literature is now utterly lost to us. Naturally the stories must have been profoundly modified in those 20 or 30 generations, and in passing from one people to another. Yet we may truly say that the Eddie heroic poems represent the ancient thought and experience of the race to which we belong. Without their help we cannot understand the attitude toward life of our own forefathers. The ideas underlying them were the common heritage of the English and Scandinavian peoples. To a great extent they were the common heritage of most of the Teutonic peoples, for a similar attitude toward life can be traced in German stories, especially ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 35 in the Nibelungenlied, which is a piece of the ancient tradition reshaped in the Age of Chivalry. It was written in what is now Austria in the thirteenth century — about the same time as the Icelandic Volsunga Saga which tells the northern version of the same tale. So far flung, both in time and space, are the stories and ideas which have come down to us in the historic poems of the Elder Edda. Dame Bertha says that at first sight the sagas seem to form the strongest possible contrast to this heroic Eddie literature. The Eddie poems com- memorate in verse kings renowned all over Europe, and they preserve a memory of the wealth of the Heroic Age. Glorious weapons are mentioned, and magnificent ornaments, and lavish feasts at which foreign wine is drunk in golden goblets. The activities mentioned are wholly warlike; no one in the heroic poems is concerned with agriculture, or indeed with any occupation other than war and sport. The great kings of the ancient world and their companions are seen through a haze of antiquity and glory. The only sagas that can in any way be compared with the heroic Eddie poems are the "Sagas of Icelanders," as distinguished from the sagas which claim to be history and the later sagas which are pure romance. The "Sagas of Icelanders" tell in sober prose of the doings of local landowners and their people, men and women who were intimately known to their neighbors, and who were separated by no great number of generations from those who actually committed the stories about them to writing. The treatment is realistic; there is little wealth, little glamor about the scene. The chief persons of the sagas are seen in all the details of their everyday life, getting in their sheep from the mountains, sowing their seed, interested in their crops, involved in litigation over slander or about strayed cattle or disputed boundaries — in fact they are seen as the farmers they were, notwithstanding their habit of carrying arms and their readiness to use them. The heroes of the Eddie poems were famed from the Black Sea to Greenland; the personages of the Icelandic sagas were celebrated only in their own country. But there is an essential continuity of thought which persists through the diversity of form and subject and treatment. The best of the sagas quite definitely and recognizably inherit what we may call the heroic tradition of the Teutonic peoples. This tradition can be traced among the Goths, the Burgundians, the Lombards, and perhaps the Franks, as well as in England and in Scandinavia. But in all these countries it is to be traced only in the literature that gave it birth — in poems or traditions about far-off kings and heroes who are as remote from ordinary life as the personages of the Iliad. It is only in Iceland 36 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 that we see this heroic tradition expressed in the speech of everyday life, and at grips with the harsh realities of existence for ordinary men and women. Dame Bertha says that the sagas may well be called the first democratic literature, and they are none the less democratic because they apply to the ordinary man the measure of the heroic tradition, of the royal and heroic figures commemorated in the Eddie poems. Dame Bertha points out that there is another point which we must bear in mind in considering both Edda and Saga. The tradition is not narrow, or insular, or provincial. But neither are the authors, whether Norwegians or Icelanders. In the period that saw the creation of much of this literature, in the form in which we have it, that is, from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries, the Norse language became current over a large part of Europe. It was spoken, with small local differences, in the whole of Scandinavia, in a considerable area of England, Scotland, and Ireland, in part of France, on the southern and eastern sides of the Baltic, and as far south as the great Swedish Kingdom centered in Kiev, the mother of Russian cities. It became a recognized language in Con- stantinople (Istamboul), for it was the speech of the Emperor's bodyguard. It was probably used by traders on the shores of the Caspian Sea, though there is no actual record of its being spoken farther east than the river Jordan, in a verse, still extant, uttered by an Earl of Orkney on pilgrimage. Its western limit was Nova Scotia, or perhaps the coast of Massachusetts, for it was the first European language to be spoken in the New World. The Earl of Orkney, in his verse on the Jordan, observes that it is a long way to Palestine. History records how long and how diverse were the ways which were trodden or sailed by these northern peoples, but Dame Bertha remarks that perhaps the imagination is more readily stirred by inscriptions cut in their own Runic alphabet on rocks or great boulders set up to the memory of the dead. There is a Runic stone on the island of Berezanij in the Black Sea. There is a Runic inscription carved on the marble lion that adorned the Greek harbor at Piraeus and is now at Venice. Two score or so of stones still stand in Sweden commemorating men who fell in far-off countries in the tenth and eleventh centuries. On one of these, at Gripsholm, we read "Tola had this stone raised to the memory of her son Harald, Ingvar's brother. Gallantly they sought gold afar, and sated the eagle in the East. They perished south in Arabia." The most remote of these stones is found far to the north in west Green- land, on the shore of Baffin Bay. Wherever these peoples settled the stories and ideas incorporated in the Eddie poems went with them. We know this, although the poems were written down only in Iceland. Plate 10 Upper: EskifjorSur, an eastern Iceland village. Photograph by Bjorn Bjornsson. (From Island 1 myndum. ) Lower: Many waterfalls are formed where the streams from the lava plateau plunge over its bounding escarpment. The lava banks show the typical columnar structure formed in many lava flows as they cool. Courtesy Canadian Geographical Journal. ••* T3 T3 O ^ z ■H JS .£ £ _w Ss e a "altb -no tl — ^ o « C D. £ 2 2-- ■ SOh LO -2 Oh 0> OS (J t-H 1" l-H (DO a 2 < 2 3 S JO ■;.■>.; ' f\..f . .> V-.V : M una 2 S <« — « 00-3 .. . d w « - ii^2 £ s So 60 c ■ c o -o _C .-Q ao " 2 8 § 2 8 v2 e££ Plate 13 Upper: Vestmannaeyjar, an important town in southern Iceland. Photograph by Sigurjon Jonsson. Lower: IsafjorSur, one of the important towns of the northwest peninsula. Photograph by Vigfus Sigurgeirsson. (From Island i myndum.) ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 37 Old Norse literature belongs to a time when Norse was one of the most widely spread languages of Europe. Dame Bertha says that we must not think of it as a language spoken chiefly by peasants and bar- barians. It was the speech of men who established towns and commerce wherever they went, of brilliant administrators, of legislators whose word "law" superseded the old English "doom"; of conquerors who saw, hundreds of years in advance of their time, that a free tenant was better than a serf; and of men who, in Normandy, laid the foundations of the most highly organized state in Europe, and prepared the way for the Norman conquest of England. The epoch celebrated in the Icelandic sagas begins with the first settle- ment in 874 and runs until 1030, and the earliest of the saga writers was Ari Porgilsson froSi, a descendant of Queen Audr, widow of the King of Dublin. Professor Einarsson points out that Ari was the first to write vernacular historical prose, which was no mean achievement in an age when the custom was to write history in Latin. He writes that the form of the saga and also the style may be said to have reached perfection in the works of Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241), poet, historian, and chieftain, and the greatest figure in old Scandinavian literature. He was the author of the Snorra Edda, an ars poetica containing old Icelandic mythology; of Heimskringla, the Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings; and, as is now held by many scholars, of the Egils Saga, one of the most original of the Icelandic sagas. Sir Edmund Gosse writes that, unlike England and France, Iceland has had only one golden age in literature upon which all her fame must rest. Of its creations it has been truly said that they fill a place none others could take in the high ranks of the Aryan classics. The noblest of them are distinguished by pure and strict form, noble heroic subject, and simple, truthful, self control of style and treatment, free alike from overwrought sentiment or extravagant passion, and raised equally above euphemism and commonplace, but ever inspired by a weird ^Eschylean power, grim and tender, and splendid as that which breathes through those historical books of the Old Testament, to which alone the master- pieces of Iceland's greatest writers should be compared. Almost every educated European and American knows at least a little about old Icelandic literature, especially the sagas. Many writers from other lands have visited Iceland to familiarize themselves with the country from which these masterpieces flowed. Among our own poets Longfellow was especially influenced by the old Icelandic writings. Fifty years ago William Morris went so far as to suggest that a portion of Icelandic literature should be to the British what the tale of Troy is to the Greeks. 38 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 At different times the Icelandic writings have played an important part as a basis for nationalistic movements, first in Sweden and Denmark, later in Norway, and still later in Germany. Although properly speaking not a part of Icelandic literature, it may be mentioned, as noted by Dame Bertha Phillpotts, that a twelfth-century Icelander, "Star" Oddi, made observations leading to a more accurate determination of the equinoxes than was attained by any German or English calendar of the time, and that in calendral computations Bjarni the Mathematician, who was at school before 1121, was in advance of all western Europe. The literary and scholarly traditions of Iceland have continued un- impaired to the present day, and with improved conditions the printed output, particularly of cultural and scientific books and books dealing with localized areas, has increased, especially in the past 15 years. Modern Icelandic literature is vigorous, abundant, and varied, consisting of novels, short stories, and poems, many of which have been translated into other languages. There are also numerous children's books. The interest of the Icelanders in matters outside their own country is as active now as in the past. There are Icelandic translations of many foreign books, especially from the English, among which may be mentioned works by P. G. Wodehouse, H. G. Wells, Bertrand Russell, Paul de Kruif, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Mark Twain, Maxim Gorki, Pierre Loti (Louis Marie Julien Viaud), Maurice Maeterlinck, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rex Beach, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and Jules Verne. Interest in foreign personalities is shown by Icelandic accounts of Winston Churchill, Tsoif Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Shirley Temple. There are a number of women authors in Iceland, among whom may be mentioned I>6runn Magnusdottir,2 Elinborg Larusdottir, GuSmn Larusdottir, Helga SigurSardottir, Jonina SigurSardottir, GuSlaug Bene- diktsdottir, GuSrun Jonsdottir, Porunn AstriSur Bjornsdottir, GuSrun Johannsdottir, GuSrun Helga Finnsdottir, and Theodora PorSardottir. There are also a number of women editors and translators. The volume of books, pamphlets, and periodicals produced annually in Iceland is almost unbelievably large. In Reykjavik, which is about the size of Lynchburg, Virginia, the annual output of books has averaged over 120 for the past 15 years, and there are at present 3 daily papers (there have been as many as 5), besides weeklies and other periodicals. In Akureyri, which is about the size of Millinocket, Maine, the annual 2 In Icelandic the ending -dottir is the feminine of the ending -son. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 39 output of books for the past 15 years has been about 15. Books are also published in many of the towns of lesser population. There are very numerous periodicals of all kinds in Iceland. In the past 15 years there have been about 275, though many of these ran for only a few numbers. Professor Einarsson says that the love of literature and bookishness characteristic of the Icelanders has been nowhere more graphically shown than in Canada. A very considerable amount of Icelandic literature is published in Canada, especially in Winnipeg. Of Canadian poetry published in languages other than English by far the greatest amount is in Icelandic and Ukrainian. There is a little more in Ukrainian than in Icelandic, but there are about 10 times as many Ukrainians as Icelanders in Canada. The quality of the Icelandic poetry published in Canada is very high. Stephan G. Stephansson, who died in 1927, was not only one of the greatest of Icelandic poets, but also Canada's leading poet. Indeed, he was called by the late Prof. Frank Stanton Cawley of Harvard the greatest poet of North America. The preeminence of Icelandic poets in Canada recalls the ancient preeminence of Icelanders as court poets in Europe. Prof. Halldor Hermannsson notes that in recent years the output of scientific books has noticeably increased. The Icelandic Academy of Sciences (Visindafelag Islendinga), founded in 1918, has published 24 volumes, the contents being mostly in English, with a few in German. There is another scientific series of recent origin issued by the newly established Research Institute in the University of Iceland. Then there is the series "Statistique de l'lslande" (Hagskyrslur Islands) of 107 volumes. The elaborate series of memoirs on "The Zoology of Iceland" (Copehagen and Reykjavik) edited by A. FriSriksson and S. L. Tuxen, of which 33 parts have appeared (all in English), may be mentioned. In 1928 the Old Icelandic Text Society (HiS islenska Fornritafelag) was founded with the object of publishing in 35 volumes popular, yet scholarly, editions of the old literature. Eight volumes in this series have now appeared, all edited by Icelandic scholars. A series of monographs (Islenzk fraeSi) dealing with Icelandic literature, language, and history has recently made its appearance under the auspices of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Iceland. These volumes are written in Ice- landic, with resumes in one of the more widely used languages. In various districts societies have been formed with the purpose of publishing de- scriptive works of all kinds concerning the districts. Professor Hermannsson says that while a few books with illustrations by native artists had been published in Iceland, especially after the end of the nineteenth century when great interest in art had been awakened, 40 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 the production of illustrated books was handicapped by the absence of an engraving establishment. The first establishment of this kind was opened in 1919, and since then a number of highly competent illus- trators have appeared. Now there is even a humorous illustrated periodical (Spegillinn), with cartoons as well as other pictorial material, which was established in 1926. The Icelanders are great readers and eager for information, and Professor Hermannsson says it seems doubtful if, in the present state of the world, they can be supplied with sufficient translations to satisfy the demand. They have now been drawn into the midst of world affairs, and must keep abreast of events and currents in the outside world to an extent not necessary heretofore. In order to do this they will have to depend more and more upon books in foreign languages. Professor Hermannsson points out that geographically and commercially they are drawn toward the English-speaking peoples, and must be well acquainted with English. Historically and culturally they are one of the Scandinavian group of nations, so they must know at least one of the Scandinavian languages besides their own. Thus it is necessary for them to be in fact trilingual. Whether the Icelandic language can in the long run maintain itself under such conditions Professor Hermannsson says only time will show. MODERN ICELAND Within the past score of years great changes have come over Iceland. Her commerce has become integrated with that of the northern world in general, thousands of tourists have visited the country, and many Icelanders have visited other lands. As a natural result, she has to a large extent awakened from her isolation and has developed into a thoroughly progressive modern nation, quite as modern as any of the other nations of modern Europe. The population of Iceland in 1941 was 121,618, distributed among towns, villages, hamlets, and more or less isolated farms. The capital and chief town is Reykjavik in the southwest, with a population of 39,739 — about the same as that of Quincy, Illinois, or Norwalk, Connecticut. The population of Reykjavik less than 20 years ago (1925) was only 21,000, and 40 years ago only 6,600. Other towns of special interest are IsafjorSur (2,826); SiglufjorSur (2,833), the center of the herring industry; the beautifully situated Akureyri (5,357) ; SeySisfjorSur (882) ; Vestmannaeyjar (3,410) ; HafnarfjorSur (3,718), and NeskaupstaSur (1,082). ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 41 Iceland has over 3,000 miles of motor roads with about 330 bridges, on which, especially in the southern lowlands, motor vehicles are the chief means of transport. Most of the large rivers and many of the smaller ones have been bridged. But in large sections of the country ponies are still the chief means of travel and of transport. There are no railways. For coastal traffic both steamers and motor boats are used. Within the past few years regular plane service has been established between the chief towns. There are 240 post offices and 200 telephone offices, in addition to telegraph offices, 6 wireless stations, and a broadcasting station. Com- munication with the outer world is maintained by submarine cable and by wireless telephone. Before the war steamship communication was regularly maintained with Bergen, Copenhagen, and a number of English and Scotch ports by three steamship lines, one of which was Icelandic. The opening up of communications, both internal and external, is only one phase of a resurgence of that energy and initiative which, though in the past often suppressed, has always characterized the Icelanders. Perhaps the most interesting example of this is seen in the ingenious way in which the people have developed their local resources. The island lacks fuel, except for scattered deposits of low-grade coal which it does not pay to work, and some often inferior peat. But in compensation it has a great number of waterfalls which provide water power for the industries, and electricity. It is estimated that the available water power amounts to 4,000,000 horsepower, of which only about 25,000 horsepower is now utilized. The largest power station Ljosafoss, provides electricity for Reykjavik and its vicinity. Most of the towns and villages, and even isolated farms, are now lighted by electricity. Where this is not available, kerosene is used for illumination. Peat is still the principal fuel, but in Reykjavik gas is commonly used for cooking. In 1920 the Alafoss Cloth Mills tried the experiment of heating their buildings by piping to them water from the hot springs. This was the first attempt to apply this method on a large scale, and it proved successful. Some of the homes and greenhouses in Reykjavik are now heated in this way, and by the end of this year it is expected that the whole city will be heated by natural hot water. As a matter of curiosity, it may be mentioned that houses heated with natural hot water and using electricity for cooking do not need chimneys. Fed by water from the hot springs, extensive garden plantations have been developed in which it is possible to grow even semitropical products. In the towns and villages most of the houses used to be built of 42 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 wood and roofed with corrugated iron. But this type of building has now been replaced almost wholly with concrete, usually throughout, though floors and partitions may be of wood. The construction of concrete houses has reached a very high degree of perfection in Iceland. In the rural districts the most common form of dwelling house is still the baer — a group of houses with earthen walls and wooden gables, the interior walls being lined with matched boards. The fisheries and agriculture are the chief means of livelihood in Iceland. In 1925 the Icelandic fishing fleet, exclusive of open boats, included 36 steam trawlers, most of them large and modern; 33 long-liners; 62 motor vessels of 30 tons or more; 560 motor vessels of less than 30 tons; and 20 sailing ships of various sizes. The fish exports in that year were 50,000 tons, and 254,110 barrels of herring. The most important fish is the cod. Each dry-salted cod is rigidly examined by a government inspector before its export is permitted, so that a uniformly high quality is maintained. The agricultural industries consist mainly of sheep raising and dairy farming, and the chief agricultural exports are mutton, wool, and sheep- skins. Some butter and cheese are also exported. At the time of the outbreak of the war the bulk of the trade was with Denmark, Great Britain, and Spain. More than two-thirds of the im- ports have come from Denmark and Great Britain, and almost exactly one-third of the exports went to Spain. The three next important countries were Norway, Sweden, and Italy. Reykjavik, the seat of government, is a thoroughly modern city. Among the institutions of interest are the National Museum, the Einar Jonsson Sculpture Gallery, the National Library, including 100,000 printed vol- umes and about 8,000 manuscripts, many of which are of great value, and the University. Of special interest to Americans is a colossal bronze statue of Leifr Eiriksson by A. Stirling Calder, a gift from the Congress of the United States in commemoration of the thousandth anniversary of the establishment of the Althing in 930. Educational standards in Iceland have always been high. There is no illiteracy. The standard of education is well illustrated by the fact that in Iceland there is one publication for each 466 of the inhabitants, while the number in Denmark is 1,106; in Norway 1,558; in Sweden 2,309; in Britain 3,205; and in the United States 12,497. The Icelanders there- fore publish 27 times as much per capita as the United States. The present schools are municipal and state schools, and instruction is free, or practically so. Attendance in the elementary schools is compulsory up to the age of 14. From the elementary schools the system is progressive, ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 43 terminating in the University. The University was founded in 1911 and has four faculties, theology, law, medicine, and arts. The present Icelandic Althing is composed of varying numbers of members not exceeding 52. The Prime Minister and his cabinet are responsible to the Althing. The judicial authority consists of the Supreme Court with five judges, and the Lower Courts each with one judge, from which appeals lie directly to the Supreme Court. Iceland has no army and no navy. As late as 1872 Lord Bryce recommended that only two kinds of people should visit Iceland, those interested in Scandinavian history and literature, and those who belong to that happy and youthful class which enjoys a rough life for its own sake. It is to be regretted that this good friend of the country and its people did not live to see the modern Iceland. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY The literature on Iceland, mainly in the Scandinavian languages, English, and German, is very extensive and widely scattered. Those who are especially interested in Iceland should consult the Catalogue of the Icelandic collections bequeathed by Willard Fiske, Cornell University Library, vol. 1, 1914, vol. 2, 1943, compiled by Prof. Halldor Hermanns- son, and also Islandica, vols. 1-29, 1908-1942, edited by Professor Hermannsson. In the preparation of the preceding pages I have been most kindly and generously assisted by the Hon. Thor Thors, Minister of Iceland in Washington, by Henrik Bjornsson, first secretary, and by Prof. Stefan Einarsson, of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. INDIVIDUAL BOOKS Anderson, Sven Axel. 1936. Viking enterprise. New York. Baring-Gould, Rev. Sabine. 1863- Iceland, its scenes and its sagas. London. Beck, Richard. 1943. Icelandic poems and stories. Princeton. Beckett, John Angus. 1934. Iceland adventure; the double traverse of Vatnajokull by the Cambridge Expedition. London. Bruun, [Capt.] Daniel. 1918. The Icelandic colonization of Greenland. Copenhagen. Bryce, Viscount [James Bryce]. 1923. Memories of travel. New York. 44 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 Chadwick, H. M. 1912. The heroic age. Cambridge. Chapman, Olive M. 1930. Across Iceland. London and New York. Craigie, Sir William Alexander. 1933. The Icelandic saga. Cambridge. 1937. The art of poetry in Iceland. Oxford. Dasent, Sir George Webbe. 1861. The story of Burnt Njal. 2 vols. Edinburgh. Dufferin, The Marquess of [Frederick Temple Hamilton Blackwood]. 1857. Letters from high latitudes. London. Einarsson, Stefan. 1940. Shakespeare in Iceland. Baltimore. Einarsson, Vigfus. 1942. Iceland, land of frost and fire. Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1941. Gathorne-Hardy, G. M. 1921. Norse discoverers of America. Oxford. Gjerset, Knut. 1924. History of Iceland. New York. Gray, Edward F. 1930. Leif Eriksson, discoverer of America, A.D. 1003. New York. Hermannsson, Halldor. 1928. Sir Joseph Banks and Iceland. Ithaca, N. Y. 1930. The book of the Icelanders (Islendingabok) by Ari Thorgilsson. Ithaca, N. Y. Holand, Hjalmar R. 1940. Westward from Vinland. New York. Holme, J. G. 1921. Icelanders in the United States. New York. Johnson, Sveinbjorn. 1930. Pioneers of freedom; an account of the Icelanders and the Icelandic Free State 874-1262. Boston. JONASSON, SlGTRYGGUR. 1901. The early Icelandic settlements in Canada. Winnipeg. Jones, Gwyn. 1935. Four Icelandic sagas. Princeton. JONSSON, FlNNUR. 1930. Ari Porgilsson fr65i; Islendingabok [includes facsimile of AM. 113B (Cod. A) fol., with printed text]. Copenhagen. Ker, W. P. 1908. Epic and romance. London. 1911. The Dark Ages. London. KlRKCONNELL, WATSON. 1930. The North American book of Icelandic verse. New York and Montreal. 1936. Canada's leading poet, Stephan G. Stephansson. Toronto. Kneeland, Samuel. 1876. An American in Iceland. Boston. KOHT, HVALDAN. 1931. The Old Norse sagas. New York. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 45 LlNDROTH, C. HjALMAR. 1931. Die Insektenfauna Islands und ihre Probleme. Uppsala. 1937. Iceland, a land of contrasts. New York. Magnusson, Eirikr, and Morris, William. 1870. The story of the Volsungs and Niblungs, with certain songs from the Elder Edda. London. Olrik, Axel. 1930. Viking civilization. London. OSTENFELD, CARL HANSEN, and GRONTVED, JOHS. 1934. The flora of Iceland and the Faroes. Copenhagen. Phillpotts, [Dame] Bertha S. 1923, 1932. The life of the Icelander Jon Olafsson, traveller to India. 2 vols. London. 1931. Edda and saga. New York and London. Snorre Sturlason. 1932. Heimskringla, or the lives of the Norse kings. Cambridge. Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Codex wormianus (the Younger Edda). Copenhagen. 1940. Codex regius of the Younger Edda. Copenhagen. Stefansson, Jon. 1907. Iceland, its history and its inhabitants. Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1906. Stefansson, Vilhjalmur. 1939. Unsolved mysteries of the Arctic. New York. 1939. Iceland, the first American republic. New York. 1940. Ultima Thule; further mysteries of the Arctic. New York. Taylor, Bayard. 1874. Egypt and Iceland. New York. Thordarson, Bjorn. 1941. Iceland, past and present. Oxford. Thordarson, Matthias. 1930. The Vinland voyages. New York. Thorsteinsson, Thorsteinn. 1926. Iceland. Reykjavik. Van Doren, Mark. 1928. An anthology of world poetry. New York. Yates, Elizabeth. 1940. The quest in the Northland; Iceland adventure. New York. JOURNALS AND REPORTS American Geographical Society (Research series). New York. The Danish /wgc/Z-Expedition (chiefly in English). Copenhagen. Geographical Journal (Royal Geographical Society) (see index volumes). London. Geographical Review (American Geographical Society). New York. Hagskyrslur Islands (Statistique de l'Islande) (in French). Reykjavik. Islandica. Ithaca, N. Y. 4 46 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 Journal of English and Germanic Philology. Urbana, 111. Meddelelser om Gronland (largely in English). Copenhagen. National Geographic Magazine (National Geographic Society) (see index volumes). Washington. Scandinavian Studies and Notes. Lincoln, Neb., and Urbana, 111. Viking Society for Northern Research (or Viking Club). London. Visindafelag Islendiga (scientific memoirs mostly in English). Reykjavik. Zoology of Iceland (in English). Copenhagen and Reykjavik. Note. — Most of the pictures of Iceland are taken, with the kind permission of the Legation of Iceland, from Island f myndum — Through Iceland with a Camera, Reykjavik, 1943. GREENLAND PREFACE Just as Iceland is the westernmost outpost of Europe, so Greenland is the easternmost outpost of America, the Denmark Strait forming the only significant dividing line between the northern portion of the Old and New Worlds. Among the animals and plants, those that are not of general distribution in all Arctic regions are predominantly European in Iceland, predominantly American in Greenland. In prehistoric times Iceland was uninhabited, and her present population is entirely of European origin. The original inhabitants of Greenland represented the easternmost extension of a people, the Eskimo, occupying all the habitable regions of the far north from Greenland across North America to north- eastern Asia. The first Europeans came to Greenland as colonists from Iceland. DESCRIPTION Greenland is the largest island in the world. From its most northern point, Cape Morris Jessup, in latitude 83°39' N, as determined by Admiral Robert E. Peary, it extends southward for 1,650 miles to Cape Farewell in latitude 59 °46' N. Its length is slightly greater than the touring distance from Boston to Miami, or slightly less than that from New York to North Platte, Nebraska. In shape it is roughly triangular, with the greatest width, 690 miles, in about latitude 77° N., thence tapering irregularly to Cape Farewell. Its area is 736,518 square miles, or approxi- mately that of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Utah com- bined; but most of this area is covered by the inland ice, the portion beyond the inland ice being only 131,924 square miles, or an area some- what greater than that of New Mexico. The northernmost point of Greenland is the nearest land to the North Pole, only 439 miles away, while the southern tip is in the same latitude as the Shetlands, Oslo, Leningrad, and the Kenai Peninsula in southern Alaska. The coast line is extremely irregular, being almost everywhere deeply incised by fjords, many of which extend inland as far as the inland ice. The most characteristic feature of Greenland is the immense ice cap which covers about 86 percent of its surface. This ice cap is of special interest because of its resemblance to similar ice caps that covered large areas in northern North America and northern Europe during the Pleisto- cene or Ice Age. By far the greater part of this ice-covered area is 47 48 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 Fig. 2. — Map of Greenland. From Meddelelser om Gronland. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 49 included in the continuous ice sheet known as the inland ice, but beyond the borders of the inland ice there are several ice caps, some isolated, others more or less completely merged with it. The inland ice rises to its greatest height, about 10,000 feet, in north- central Greenland in latitude 75° N. There appears to be another elevation of about 9,300 feet north of Angmagssalik, and a third of about 8,300 feet in the south, in latitude 65 ° N. From these centers of greatest altitude the ice slopes gradually down to the edges, which in most places are about 1,600 feet above sea level. But the marginal contour is rather irregular. The great fjord glaciers continue as depressions far into the inland ice. Where the inland ice is bounded by ice-free land the outer border usually forms a vaulted plane the inclination of which may either be so slight that a dog sledge may be driven up it, or it may be so steep that it is impossible to climb it. In certain places the edge forms a vertical cliff. As the shore is approached from the sea in the Melville Bay region the inland ice stands out in its full grandeur. Along the stretch of coast from Cape York to Wandel Land, about 233 miles, the inland ice reaches the sea in about 70 places, and forms the coast for more than 186 miles. According to Dr. Lauge Koch, more than half the total ice front may be considered stationary, the remainder having the character of glaciers. Seven of these glaciers — Steenstrup, Nansen, King Oscar, Peary, Holm, John Ross, and Wulff — have a frontage of more than 6 miles. Icebergs are given off especially from the three first, as well as from the Dietrichson glacier. Most of the small glaciers do not produce icebergs. Rising above the inland ice near its outer borders are occasional moun- tain tops, sometimes of considerable area. These mountain tops protruding from the ice are called pingos in the north and nunataqs in the south. In the Upernivik District there is a fringe of islands between the inland ice and the open sea, though a fifth of the total ice front in this region reaches the water. Here the Giesecke and Upernivik glaciers are among the largest. In the southern part of the district the islands coalesce into large land masses which, like peninsulas, project from the ice-covered mainland. Farther southward the margin of the inland ice retreats inland so that there is an ice-free shore strip which, in certain places, is as much as 95 miles in width. This ice-free coast is interrupted, however, by Nordost Bay and by Disko Bay which extend almost to the margin of the ice, and into the innermost ramifications of which some of the largest glaciers of the west coast deliver their enormous production of icebergs. 50 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 In the Godthaab District many glaciers extend from the inland ice to the heads of the fjords, and at the southern boundary of this district, in latitude 62° 30' N., the inland ice sends a huge lobe, the Frederikshaab Iceblink, nearly 12 miles across, almost to the sea. South of the Frederiks- haab Iceblink the coast land narrows to about 22 miles until, in the Julianehaab District, the coast turns eastward. Here there are many islands, and in many places glaciers from the inland ice come down to the sea. The glaciers in the interior of Sermilik Fjord produce very large and numerous icebergs. South of latitude 61° N. there is no continuous inland ice, but only more or less extensive local neves. Here the most pronounced features of the landscape are the mountains, and not the ice. Along the southern part of the east coast, as far as Igdluluarssuk, the mountains are so high that the inland ice cannot push out to the coast, but large numbers of glaciers extend out to the long fjords. Between Igdluluarssuk and Angmagssalik the ice almost everywhere comes to the sea, partly as broad glaciers extending outward between tall pointed nunataqs, and partly as an infinite shining white level plain. But farther north, from about latitude 65° 30' N. to Agga Island, the inland ice is separated from the sea by an ice- free strip from 6 to 25 miles wide. Along the north coast of Greenland there are considerable areas of ice-free land. The inland ice does not extend so far as Peary Land, though there are local ice caps there. In north Greenland generally it touches the sea only at the heads of the large fjords which cut far into the country and are continued inward as depressions in the inland ice. The glacier ice is usually filled with an immense quantity of small bubbles of air under strong pressure, so that sometimes even pressure with a needle is sufficient to burst a large piece with a crack like an explosion. Quite commonly an iceberg will crumble into innumerable fragments from the explosive action of these small bubbles. When the top of an iceberg is "rotten" it may topple if a shot is fired nearby, or even at the sound of a voice. For this reason the Greenlanders always keep perfectly quiet when they are obliged to pass an iceberg at close quarters. The rate of movement of the glaciers running outward from the inland ice is very much greater than that of the Swiss glaciers, or the glaciers from the local Greenland ice caps. In southern Greenland a number of glaciers have been found to have a flow, in the center, of about 65 feet a day. The Upernivik glacier was found to move at the rate of about 125 feet a day, and the Frederikshaab Iceblink at the rate of 10 feet a day. The movement of the northern glaciers is much slower than that of the southern. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 51 The ice-free area of west Greenland amounts to 44,787 square miles, about the same as the area of Pennsylvania or Louisiana. It is a mountain- ous region, although the mountains are only of moderate height. Most of the prominent peaks are between 3,940 and 5,250 feet in height, only a few in the Julianehaab District and about Nordost Bay exceeding 6,560 feet. The highest peak of west Greenland, 7,230 feet in height, about 600 feet higher than Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, our highest peak east of the Rockies, is on the great peninsula south of Tasermint and Lindenow Fjords, only 46.5 miles north of Cape Farewell, and about midway between the west and east coasts. Dr. Kaj Birket-Smith says that though the actual mountains are more or less negligible when compared with the Swiss Alps, the Greenland scenery can hold it own against any other. Glittering fjords with majestic icebergs, promontory upon promontory standing softly silhouetted against the pale gold of the midnight sun, here and there a jagged crest towering above the glowing snowfields of the peak — a thousand features melting into a mute symphony of purity and a peace that passes all understanding. In typical west Greenland scenery plateaus and hills are far less common than evenly rounded mountains. There are innumerable streams, but no large rivers. Most of the streams are rapid and turbulent, rushing along through narrow beds and falling from the hanging valleys into the main valley or into the fjord. There is a multitude of ponds and lakes of various sizes, the largest of which is Lake Giesecke, 31 miles long and only 33 feet above sea level. Several of the lakes are situated in the immediate vicinity of the inland ice, so that the latter discharges icebergs into them. The ice-free area of east Greenland is about one-third that of the entire ice-free region, and one twenty-second of that of the whole island— about the size of Portugal. Here the ice-free land is of very varying breadth, the inland ice in places coming down to the sea, while in the region of Scoresby Sound the distance from the sea to the margin of the inland ice is about 186 miles, and at Franz Joseph Fjord 155 miles. Broadly speaking, the ice-free coasts are narrower toward the south than toward the north, the reverse of the conditions in west Greenland. The coast is extremely irregular, with innumerable fjords and peninsulas, and thousands of islands, islets, and skerries. The greater part of the region consists of mountainous land, often rugged and alpine, sometimes mesa- like, though there are lowlands of considerable extent. In general, east Greenland is higher than west Greenland, and the mountains often rise to great heights very near the coast. Mount Forel, north of Angmagssalik, is estimated to be 11,286 feet in height, and if this is correct it is the 52 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 highest mountain in Greenland. Mount Petermann, in Franz Joseph Fjord, according to Nathorst, is 9,186 feet in height. On the Blosseville coast Mount Rigny is 7,825 feet high. There are many mountains with a height of more than 6,500 feet. In north Greenland the ice-free land, though generally rough and rugged, is not very high. In many places in the western portion the inland ice reaches the sea, but in the extreme north, especially in Peary Land, there are large ice-free areas. The central portion of Peary Land is high, the mountain peaks having a height of from 3,300 to 6,500 feet, occasionally more. On the north coast there are four glaciers, large portions of which float on the sea. The largest is that of Petermann Fjord. Including the depression, this glacier has a length of 125 miles, of which the outermost 25 miles floats on the water. ICEBERGS Characteristic of the Greenland seas are the icebergs. These huge masses of ice, together with a great amount of water, represent the wastage from the glaciers. The largest icebergs come from the west coast north of latitude 69° N., or from the east coast south of that latitude. Icebergs are produced throughout the year, but for more than 6 months are penned up in the fjords by the winter ice. In spring this disintegrates from outside inward toward the shore; finally the narrowing belt of winter ice becomes too narrow to withstand the pressure of the penned up icebergs and "calved" ice, and breaks suddenly, the whole mass rushing out of the fjord with great speed. The Danes call this the "shooting out" of the fjord. The tallest icebergs originate in Jacobshavn glacier, and are often more than 330 feet in height, sometimes as much as 450 feet. Hammer estimated the volume of the largest iceberg encountered in Jacobshavn as 1,000 million cubic feet. The icebergs of the east coast do not reach the height of the tallest ones of the west coast. Amdrup estimated that the largest icebergs of the east coast were from 165 to 215 feet in height, and about 3,280 feet — considerably more than half a mile— in length. The cubic content of one that he measured he gave as 212,000,000 cubic feet, or 7,851,481 cubic yards, nearly twice the volume of the concrete in Boulder Dam. It should be remembered that, enormous as icebergs appear at sea, only about one-eighth of their total bulk is above the water. Helland estimated that the yearly production of icebergs from the Torssukatak glacier is 2.3 cubic kilometers, or about 0.55 cubic miles, and from the Jacobshavn glacier 5.8 cubic kilometers, or about 1.4 cubic *E** < Plate 14 Upper: Akureyri in spring. Photograph by Steinbor SigurSsson. Lower: Siglufjorcmr, center of Iceland's herring industry. Photograph by Vigfus Sigurgeirsson. (From Island i myndum.) rs \ sH^^^^fa^'-jasafi^ct^a. V v ' ' V --%'■ ';."■■■ - anW ■ w.ijuM ; Plate 15 Upper: Foss (Waterfall) Farm in southeastern Iceland. Photograph by Vigfus Sigurgeirsson. Lower: A modern farm at EyjarfjorSur. Photograph by Edvard Sigurgeirsson. (From Island i myndum.) "_L— . B ' * 8 8 utlulei' Plate 16 Upper: Sey5isfj6r5ur, a town in eastern Iceland. Photograph by Eyjolfur Jonsson. Lower: Faskru3sfjor3ur, an east coast fishing village. Photograph by Bjorn Bjornsson. (From Island f myndum.) Plate 17 Upper: Native Greenland boats; a umiak, or woman's boat, and several kyaks. Photograph by Capt. R. A. Bartlett. Lower: Iceberg off the west coast of Greenland. Photograph by Richard L. Davies. m nwii iMwev-,,- ps ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 53 miles. But Drygalski believed that Helland's estimate, at any rate for the Jacobshavn Icefjord, was far too low; he gave the yearly output of ice from the Great Qarajak as 15.3 cubic kilometers, or 3.67 cubic miles. CLIMATE The climate of the coastal regions of Greenland, as described by Helge Petersen, is everywhere extremely variable, and considerable departures from the mean values are not uncommon. Because of the rugged topogra- phy with the deep fjords and outlying belts of islands, local conditions play a considerable part in the climate of any given region, and the climatic conditions in two neighboring areas sometimes differ widely. The low altitude of the sun, as a result of which the difference in the amount of light falling on the south and north sides of mountains and ridges of land is increased, plays an important part in this. As would be expected, the temperatures are low, the mean temperatures for the year being, at North Star Bay, 9.1° F.; at Upernivik, 16.3° F.; at Jacobshavn, 21.7° F.; at Godthaab, 28.4° F.; at Qornoq, 28.76° F.; at Ivigtut, 33.1° F.; at Nanortalik, 32.9° F.; and at Angmagssalik, 28.4° F. But the annual and monthly mean temperatures vary greatly in different years, the monthly temperatures most widely in January and February, and least in September and October. At all the stations at which records have been kept, temperatures well above freezing have been recorded in December, January, and February. The highest winter temperatures are recorded for Upernivik, where for February the maximum recorded temperature is 60.8° F. and the lowest — 44.1° — incidentally the lowest temperature recorded anywhere in coastal Greenland. In all the summer months the temperature occasionally falls below freezing everywhere except at Ivigtut, where the lowest record for July is 32.5° — barely above freezing — and the highest is 74.1° F. The highest temperatures recorded for Greenland are 77.5° at Angmagssalik in June, and 77.3° in the same place in August. On the inland ice the temperature is always low, never rising above 32° F., ranging between 27° and —49° F., the last at night. On the dark nunataqs or mountain peaks rising above the ice the temperatures are higher, and some of the nunataqs support a sparse vegetation about which are many kinds of insects, including butterflies. Precipitation in Greenland is mainly in the form of snow, which occasionally falls in summer, even in the south. The amount of pre- cipitation decreases markedly from the south northward, with increasing 54 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 distance from the moist air masses over the Atlantic. Mr. Petersen points out that the annual amount of precipitation at Godthaab and Angmagssalik is very nearly the same as that on the west coast of Norway, while that at Upernivik and Jacobshavn is as small as that measured within the most continental areas of northern Siberia, which were compared by Middendorf to a desert. Everywhere there is a pronounced maximum of precipitation in autumn and a less marked secondary maximum in May. The least precipitation is in summer and winter. The mean precipitation for the year is, at Upernivik, 9 inches; at Jacobshavn, 8.5 inches; at Godthaab, 26 inches; at Ivigtut, 46 inches; at Angmagssalik, 37 inches; and at Danmarkshavn, 6 inches. Thus the annual precipitation in Green- land varies from about that of Little Rock, Arkansas (46.1 inches) to less than that of Phoenix, Arizona (7.6 inches), the driest place in the United States. Everywhere along the Greenland coasts there is much fog in the summer, though little in the winter. Godthaab and Nanortalik have a considerably greater number of foggy days in summer than the other larger towns because of their location on the open sea. Thunder and lightning are rare in Greenland. There are no records of thunderstorms for Upernivik, and only a very few for Jacobshavn. Mr. Petersen notes that there are one or two a year at Nanortalik, where they have been recorded for every month except May. Greenland is a region of comparative calm, especially at Ivigtut and Angmagssalik, where it is calm half the time or rather more. It is most stormy at Godthaab, where the weather is calm only about one-seventh of the time. Winter is the stormiest season. GEOLOGY The geological history of Greenland, though far from complete, is of great interest. By means of the successive geological formations we are able to trace the history of Greenland back for about 2,000 million years, through a period when it was colder than it is today to a time when the climate was warm temperate, with flourishing forests including many different kinds of familiar and unfamiliar trees, beyond that to a time when conditions over the whole earth appear to have been much the same, and finally to the far distant past long before any life existed. During the Pleistocene or Ice Age, that is to say for the million years or so preceding the past 25,000, the inland ice of Greenland extended as a continuous sheet over almost the whole of the area now free of ice, ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 55 with a few of the highest mountain tops projecting from it as isolated peaks, usually distinguished by particularly steep Alpine forms. The various deposits of shells found along the coasts show that there were several oscillations of climate between the present time and the Ice Age. Some thousands of years ago when the level of the land was not much lower than it is at the present day the climate was milder than it is now, and certain southern shells lived much farther north. Before that, when the land was lower, the climate was high Arctic. This was preceded by a climate apparently like the present one, which followed the high Arctic climate of the time just after the Ice Age. Tertiary formations, deposited from 7 to 55 million years ago, occupy a large area in Greenland. The greater part of these formations consist of basalt, which occurs in the same peculiar manner as on Iceland, the Faroes, and certain parts of Great Britain. In west Greenland these deposits are mainly found on Disko Island and on the Nugssuak and Ivartenhuk Peninsulas. In east Greenland they are extensively developed on the large peninsula south of Scoresby Sound, also occurring on a number of the peninsulas farther north. In the basalt on Disko Island and in its vicinity are found masses of native iron weighing up to about 25 tons. These masses of native iron are quite distinct from the iron meteorites, first mentioned by Sir John Ross, found near Cape York, three of which, one weighing about 34 tons, were brought to New York by Admiral Peary in 1895 and 1896. Most interesting are the fossiliferous strata that have been found in various parts of the basaltic formations, either below the basalt or in the lower portion, sometimes reaching a thickness of several hundred yards. In west Greenland the fossiliferous rocks are sandstone and clay ironstone. The fossils are almost wholly of plants, of which the best preserved are in the iron ore. About 300 different plants are represented, of which two-thirds are dicotyledons — willow, bay (Myrka), alder, birch, horn- beam, hazelnut, beech, chestnut, oak, elm, plane tree (sycamore or button- wood), walnut, ash, grape, tulip tree {Lkiodendron) , magnolia, maple, holly, and others — the remainder mostly conifers. The most common and characteristic types are the sequoia (now confined to California), and the bald cypress (the species characteristic of our southern swamps) . This flora is usually referred to the Eocene, that time about 55 million years ago when the earliest prototypes of our modern mammals, including the earliest known horse, first appeared. The coal layers and slates on Sabine Island contain similar plants. In the area south of Scoresby Sound coal layers have been found only in a few places. The fossils, in a rather 56 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 poor state of preservation, consist of the usual plants, and also Eocene crabs, bivalves, and gastropods. It is evident from the occurrence of these plants that the climate of Greenland in the Eocene, 55 million years ago, was very different from what it is today. It has been estimated from a study of the ranges of comparable plants living today that the mean annual temperature of Greenland at that time must have been somewhere about 5 3° -54° F., or about that of Atlantic City, New Jersey. During the Tertiary period violent volcanic action occurred in Green- land, the most violent probably in the earlier part of that period. We now come to the Mesozoic period, between 95 and 190 millions of years ago, to an unfamiliar world in which such mammals as existed were small and insignificant and reptiles were the dominant vertebrates, at least on land. It was in the Cretaceous, about 95 million years ago, that the reptiles attained their culmination and the first grasses appeared. Lower Cretaceous deposits are found in east Greenland at Danmark Harbor on the east coast of Koldeway Island, and on the east side of Kuhn Island. They are more widely distributed in west Greenland, where they form the basis of a great number of Tertiary formations on Disko and Nugssuaq, occurring also on Upernivik Island. The Kome beds of black slates on the north side of Nugssuaq contain about a hundred different kinds of plants nearly half of which are ferns, the remainder mostly conifers and cycads. The Atane beds, gray and black slates and sandstones, distributed over the whole of the area, contain about 200 species of plants of which nearly half are dicotyledons, including species of bay (Myrtca), oak, magnolia, plane tree, laurel, breadfruit (Artocarpus), and many others, the remainder mostly ferns and conifers. From a study of the plants of the Kome and Atane beds Prof. O. Heer has deduced a subtropical climate with a mean annual temperature of from 68° to 90° F., very slightly higher than that of New Orleans or Mobile, while the Patoot beds suggest a somewhat cooler climate. The Jurassic, representing a time 155 million years ago when the first mammals, the first birds, and the first modern trees appeared, occurs in a number of localities in east Greenland, at Danmark Harbor, on Koldeway Island, on Hochstetter Foreland on Kuhn Island, and on Jameson Land. The Triassic, 190 million years ago, the age that witnessed the rise of the dinosaurs, is represented only by a few small occurrences in east Greenland, the deposits containing fossil ferns, cycads, and conifers. This brings us back to Paleozoic time, when the world was a very ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 57 different place from what it is today. The Carboniferous, from 215 to 300 million years ago, saw the rise of echinoderms, sharks, insects, and reptiles, and the first appearance of ferns and seed ferns. The Carbonifer- ous is found only in three small areas in extreme northeastern Greenland. Both the Upper and Lower divisions are represented; in the latter the included brachiopods are closely related to the Russian-Arctic forms. Greenland is the northernmost locality at which Carboniferous plants have been found. Judging from the available evidence the climate of Greenland at this time could not have been essentially different from that prevailing over large portions of the globe. Devonian sandstones, red, gray, or green, with a thickness of at least 5,000 feet, deposited 350 million or more years ago when the first land animals and first land plants appeared, were described by Dr. A. G. Nathorst from the region of Franz Joseph Fjord; they contain as fossils several kinds of fishes. Silurian strata, deposited from 390 to 425 million years ago, at the time of the appearance of the first lung fishes and the first relatives of the scorpions, occur in a band along the northern, or outer, border of the Ordovician (see below). The included fauna is most closely related to the corresponding European type. In the greater part of the area in which they occur the strata are horizontal and entirely undisturbed; but in the north they have become highly folded, this folding having taken place in the Devonian. Toward the west the fold continues across Grinnell Land, and toward the east it has its natural continuation in the Caledonian fold across Spitzbergen and thence across Norway to Great Britain. In the western part of the Greenland fold the strata are not highly metamorphosed, so that several of the fossiliferous strata may be identified in it. In this portion the strata form distinct and regular folds. In the eastern part the compression has been far greater, so that the rocks for the greater part have been metamorphosed into crystalline schists, and here granite massifs are found. The central portion of the fold is traversed by a number of eruptive veins, partly of diabase and partly of porphyry. The Ordovician, laid down from 430 to 480 million years ago, when the first armored fishes appeared, is represented in a narrow, irregular band across north Greenland, mostly bordering the inland ice. It has been studied in most detail along the coast of Washington Land. The strata reach a total thickness of about 2,300 feet. In contrast to the Silurian fossils, which show European affinities, those of the Ordovician are most nearly related to the corresponding American types, or in a few cases are cosmopolitan. 58 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 The Cambrian, laid down from 490 to 550 million years ago and including the earliest known marine life, is represented by some small areas on the south side of Kane Basin, a larger area north of Humboldt Glacier, and an area on the south side of Bronlund Fjord. South of Kane Basin the Cambrian formations overlie the Algonkian sediments and eruptives, and the formation here begins with a basal conglomerate and sandstone. This is followed by a limestone, and these strata are finally overlaid by a grayish-yellow limestone. Strata consisting of limestones and conglomerates, frequently without fossils, occupy Daugaard Jensen Land. The fossils, like those of the Ordovician, show American affinities, or are cosmopolitan. In Greenland there are a number of different sedimentary formations in which no fossils have been found and, as they do not border upon formations of known age, their age cannot be determined. The remaining rocks of Greenland are older than the oldest rocks containing fossils. Sedimentary formations which with more or less certainty may be referred to the Algonkian, laid down 1,600 million or more years ago, are the Arsuk formation, found near Ivigtut, consisting of highly metamorphosed sediments of various kinds in intensively folded strata, and the extensive sandstone formation in north Greenland de- scribed by Dr. Lauge Koch. In the region between Cape York and Cape Alexander the latter is largely red sandstone with basal conglomerate, and frequently with fine ripple marks. In the upper parts there are also other sediments such as limestones, dolomites, slate, and white sandstone. There are no fossils. A similar formation occurs on the coast of Inglefield Land, here consisting chiefly of dolomite and white sandstone. The formation on the south side of Independence Fjord and about Danmark Fjord consists almost exclusively of red sandstone which reaches a height of nearly 3,300 feet. Professor Boggild believes it probable that these widely scattered occurrences form part of a continuous sandstone plateau beneath the inland ice. After the deposition of these sediments numerous eruptions occurred. In the western area the eruptions consisted chiefly of diabase in veins and flows, in the eastern mostly of more acid elements. There are a large number of larger or smaller massifs of granite, syenite, nepheline-syenite, or essexite, and others which are of much more recent origin than the granite, although their age cannot be determined with certainty. They are especially common in the most southern part of Greenland. About half of the area of Greenland not covered by the inland ice is still older — Archean. As the Archean borders the inland ice almost everywhere, Professor Boggild suggests that by far the greater part of ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 59 the area beneath the ice must also belong to it. Only in the far north, from Cape York to Northeast Foreland, where the exposed rocks are all sedimentary, can it be assumed that large areas of later formations underlie the inland ice. Almost everywhere in the Archean a number of larger or smaller massifs of granite or other eruptives occur. Granite is especially common in the southern part of Greenland, where it is even more abundant than the gneiss. It is usually reported as light gray, not at all schistose, and especially resistant. It is referred to a late Algonkian period. A few warm springs are found in various places in Greenland. In the basalt area there is one in Disko Fjord with a temperature of about 50° F. ; one at Mellemfjord with a temperature of 65° F. ; and another on Turner Land, south of Scoresby Sound, with a temperature of 100° F. In summer the springs on Disko have a temperature of from 32° F. to 37.5° F., the water being mixed with great quantities of water from melting ice; in winter the temperature is from 46° F. to 63° F. The hottest springs are found in the Archean area, at Unartoq in the Julianehaab District (lat. 60°30' N.), with a temperature of about 104° F., and on Liverpool Island on Scoresby Sound, with a temperature up to 144° F. A fog bank is constantly present over the hot spring at Unartoq, as over so many of the hot springs on Iceland. FAUNA General features. — The present land fauna of Greenland is composed chiefly of immigrants which have reached the island since the Ice Age. The great majority of these immigrants reached Greenland from high Arctic North America either by flight, by wind transportation, or by traveling across the intervening narrow sounds and channels which are covered with ice for the greater part of the year. But a few are of European origin. Compared with the land fauna of the extreme north of North America, that of Greenland is relatively poor, as would be expected both from the relatively restricted ice-free areas, and from its remoteness from other regions. The sea fauna, including those forms of life like the sea birds and the polar bear which are dependent upon it, is exceedingly rich and diversified. The Mackenzie, Coppermine, and other rivers draining the northern portion of North America deliver vast quantities of vegetable detritus and other food materials to the sea to the northward, and by the general easterly drift of the water these food materials are slowly borne to the Greenland coasts, where they support an almost unbelievable amount of marine life from the surface down to the greatest depths. 60 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 The number of different kinds of marine animals in the waters about Greenland is not large when compared with the number in any tropical area of equal size, but the number of individuals is vastly greater than it is anywhere within the Tropics. In the Greenland seas the enormous bulk of living substance is contained within the bodies of relatively few types of animals, while in tropical seas a much smaller amount of living substance is distributed among a much greater number of animal types. Mammals. — Thirty-three different kinds of mammals are known from Greenland. Of these, 9 are land mammals, 22 are sea mammals, and 1, the polar bear, with an eastern and a western variety, though belonging to a group elsewhere strictly confined to the land, lives almost entirely on the sea ice and derives its support from the sea, so that it is most logically to be regarded as a sea mammal. All the mammals of Greenland are active throughout the long, dark, and cold winter, none of them passing the winter in the long sleep of hibernation as do most of the bears and many of the rodents with which we are familiar farther south. Presumably there were no land mammals in Greenland during the Ice Age. All those now inhabiting Greenland are relatively recent immi- grants from the high Arctic regions of northeastern North America. They number only nine: the reindeer, closely related to the North American Barren Ground caribou; the musk ox; two kinds of weasels or ermine; the Arctic wolf; the Arctic fox; the collared lemming; and two varieties of the Arctic hare, one in the north and the other in the southwest. The reindeer, which usually occurs in herds, was formerly distributed over the entire coastal region, except for the north coast; but its range, like its numbers, has been greatly reduced. At present along the west coast it is found only from the southern part of the Upernivik District to the southern part of the Frederikshaab District, most commonly in central west Greenland where the ice-free land is widest and the conditions for its existence are especially good. Reindeer are no longer found in east Greenland, though old antlers and other evidences of their former existence are common. In the northern portion of this region, which is seldom visited by man, their extirpation cannot be attributed to excessive hunting; why they died out is somewhat of a mystery. The musk ox is met with in small scattered herds. At the present time it is found only on the northern and northeastern coasts, from Cape May on the north to Scoresby Sound on the east, though in the past it was more widely distributed. The weasels or ermine occur only on the northern coast and on the northern part of the east coast as far as the region around Scoresby Sound, ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 61 where they are rather common, though nowhere abundant. They live almost exclusively on lemmings, and consequently have the same range. At the present time the white Arctic wolf has the same distribution as the musk ox, occurring on the north coast and on the northern part of the east coast as far as the region about Scoresby Sound. It is not at all common. The Arctic fox is common all along the Greenland coasts. It is especially numerous in east Greenland, particularly north of Scoresby Sound, and in western south Greenland about the deep fjords which rarely freeze in winter, and least numerous on the north coast. Very young ones are blue, but toward autumn some of them become white. The blue foxes are more numerous than the white, but the proportion between blue and white ones varies greatly from place to place. The collared lemming lives only on the north coast and along the northern portion of the east coast as far as the region of Scoresby Sound. It is abundant wherever there is sufficient vegetation to support it. The Arctic hare lives everywhere along the Greenland coasts except in the southeast from the Blosseville coast to about latitude 60° 30' N., although in most places it is not very common. Although it keeps mostly to the interior, where it prefers fairly steep slopes, it may be found in rocky regions along the coasts. Living both on the land and on the sea ice, the polar bear is most intimately associated with the sea from which it derives its chief food — seals. It is found along the whole coast of Greenland, usually as more or less widely dispersed individuals or families; but on the southern part of the east coast and along most of the west coast it appears only as a more or less casual visitor. In winter and spring it comes with the pack ice down the southern east coast, around Cape Farewell, and up along the southern part of the Julianehaab District. It is least common on the west coast between Disko Bay and Julianehaab. Its chief haunts are the northern part of both the west and the east coasts. In the north, from about Polaris Bay to Independence Bay, it is rare. In striking contrast to the poverty of the mammal fauna of the land, the seas about Greenland, teeming with pelagic plants, invertebrates, and fish, and not subject to the violent wave action of the Antarctic seas, support a greater variety of marine mammals than any other region of the world. Six different kinds of seals are found in Greenland waters, the hooded seal, the Greenland seal, the ringed seal, the harbor seal, the bearded seal, and the walrus. The hooded seal or bladdernose is more of a true sea mammal than 5 62 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 any of the other seals, living mainly far out to sea, among the great floes of drift ice in Davis Strait and off the east coast, approaching the land only twice a year. From April to June herds of hooded seals haunt the southern west coast from Holsteinborg to Julianehaab, being at this time fat and well fed. In June they disappear, returning in July in a lean state and remaining for only 3 or 4 weeks. Farther north, from Egedes- minde to Upernivik, the bladdernose appears late in summer in rather small numbers, a few being caught as far north as Cape York. To the southern east coast (Angmagssalik) this seal generally comes from the north in April, but its numbers are few, and it disappears again in May. In July it reappears in greater numbers, this time from the south, remaining until well into the autumn. It is rarely seen on the coasts of northern east Greenland, and it does not occur at all on the north coast. The Greenland seal or saddleback at some seasons lives far from land on the drift ice off the east coast and out in Davis Strait, at other seasons appearing along the coasts, most frequently in herds. On the southern portion of the west coast it appears in good condition in September, migrating from south to north between the islands; gradually it extends along the whole of the coast and into the fjords, keeping by preference to deep water. It is most numerous in October and November. In December its numbers decrease, and in February and March it disappears entirely, wandering away far from the coast to the drift ice where it brings forth its young. Farther to the north, particularly in the Egedes- minde District, it remains until the ice forms, in mild years throughout the winter. In May, or farther north in June, the herds return in lean condition, followed by their young, usually hunting capelin. They remain along the coast until the latter part of July when, together with the capelin, they disappear, returning again in September. To the southern part of the east coast (the Angmagssalik District) this seal also migrates twice yearly, in July and September. In July both old and young appear, occurring individually until the ice begins to be solid. In September they appear in shoals, and then migrate toward the south. In Scoresby Sound the saddleback is only a casual visitor. This seal does not make breathing holes in the ice. When the icefields become extensive it resorts in herds to holes kept open by the currents. It disappears when the water is entirely covered by solid ice. Commonest of all the seals on the Greenland coasts is the ringed or fjord seal— the "floe rat" of the sealers — which is found everywhere, even in the northernmost part of the island where no other seal occurs. It is usually seen singly, never in large herds, and remains more or less in the same locality throughout the year, frequenting especially the interior ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 63 of the fjords which cut deeply into the land, and preferring those that remain ice-covered for a long period. It scratches breathing holes in the ice, and frequently crawls out on the ice to rest. The young are born on the ice, from February to April, usually in a cave dug beneath the snow at the breathing hole made by the mother. The harbor seal is a southern seal which on the west coast scarcely goes farther north than Upernivik, and on the east coast than Angmagssalik, though a few are said to have been seen in Scoresby Sound. It lives well dispersed, and is usually met with singly, or sometimes several together, but never in large herds. It remains throughout the year in the same areas, haunting the interior of fjords as well as the outer coast, avoiding the ice whenever possible and seeking isolated regions far from the settlements. It frequently crawls up on the rocks and beaches, sometimes also on the ice; but where the ice is solid it is seldom seen. The bearded seal, the largest of the Greenland seals except the walrus, is less numerous than the other seals, and occurs usually as scattered indi- viduals, not in large herds. By preference it keeps to the ice, though it occurs also near the shore and in the interior of bays. It seems to be most numerous off the southern west coast where it appears in spring with the pack ice, and also on the northern part of the west coast, especially around Nugssuaq Peninsula. It still is found in the Thule District, and Robeson Channel seems to be its northern boundary. On the east coast it is of rather common occurrence throughout the year at Angmagssalik; it is not rare in Scoresby Sound and is met with even farther north. It seems to be absent from the region between Robeson Channel on the north coast and latitude 77° N. on the east coast. The walrus is a permanent resident on the west coast only between Sukkertoppen and Egedesminde, particularly at the mouth of North Stromfjord where in the autumn it habitually appears in great numbers and hauls out on the islands around Taseralik, and also in the Upernivik District, Melville Bay, and Smith Sound. Elsewhere its occurrence is more sporadic. On the east coast it rarely appears in the southern portion, but in Scoresby Sound in the summer it is of relatively frequent occurrence along the coast; it also occurs farther north and has been observed as far north as Amdrup Land (lat. 81° 10' N). North of this point it has not been found, nor does it occur on that part of the north coast that faces the Polar Sea. The whales known from the seas about Greenland number no less than 16 — and 2 or 3 more probably occasionally stray into the region but have not been recorded. The 16 whales known from Greenland waters are the cachalot or sperm whale, the bottlenose, the narwhal, the 64 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 white whale, the caa'ing whale, the killer whale, the common porpoise, the white-beaked dolphin, Eschricht's dolphin, Holb0ll's dolphin, the humpbacked whale, the blue whale, the finback or common rorqual, the piked whale, the Greenland whale or bowhead, and the North Atlantic right whale. The white whale or beluga is a small whale usually about 12 feet long, though large males sometimes reach as much as 18 feet. The young when born are dark brown in color, but as they grow they become paler so that the adults are almost pure white. This is the commonest whale on the west coast of Greenland, though in the most southern portion it appears only sporadically and in small numbers. In summer it lives as far to the north as ice conditions permit, migrating southward in autumn. In Baffin Bay and in Smith Sound it appears in summer, and in Disko Bay it is common in October and November, remaining through the winter only in mild seasons. At Godthaab it appears at the beginning of December, and as a rule its migrations do not extend farther than somewhat south of Fiskenses. Throughout the winter it keeps along the west coast about at the Arctic Circle, in April and May gradually working toward the north, so that when holes appear in the ice in May and June it is again numerous in Disko Bay, from which it disappears in July. During the migrations it frequently follows the coast, going in among the islands and into the fjords. At that time it usually appears in schools which may include as many as several hundred, or perhaps even a thousand. When the winter ice is solid and without holes over large areas it is not found. But in the more northerly parts of Greenland it frequently happens, when severe cold suddenly sets in with calm weather, that a school of white whales becomes cut off from the open water by a broad belt of ice. In their distress they try to find a spot or a crack with open water, and if the cold continues they do all they can to keep the hole open. Such a school is called savsat by the natives. If the opening is small the whales sometimes lie close to each other. At other times they only come to the hole to breathe; they then usually have several holes in a long row over a distance of some miles along which they pass back and forth. Little information is available regarding the occurrence of this whale on the east coast. At Angmagssalik it is occasionally seen and caught in July and August, and it has been observed at Scoresby Sound and at the mouth of Franz Joseph Fjord. However, it is common outside the ice belt of the east coast in the region about Spitzbergen. The narwhal is a small whale about 12 feet long in which the male ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 65 has a single long, straight, sharply pointed tusk projecting through the upper lip and reaching 6 or 7, sometimes as much as 8, feet in length; rarely there are two tusks. Occasionally the female has a tusk, which is usually much smaller than that of the male. Though by no means so numerous as the white whale, the narwhal is common along the northern part of the west coast, but ' south of Sukkertoppen it appears only occasionally. In summer it is only found far north in Baffin Bay, in Smith Sound, and as far as Hall Basin. It does not migrate southward until late autumn. It does not appear off Umanaq until November, and as early as March it may be met with in Davis Strait, migrating toward the north. When the sea is suddenly covered with ice the narwhal resort in schools to some hole which they keep open by constantly moving about in it. If the hole is very small they do not leave it, but remain there with their tusks protruding through it. If they find no natural holes they may themselves break a hole or a row of holes through the ice by means of the thick and firm cushion on the upper side of the head in front of the blow hole. Such aggregations of narwhal, as in the case of the white whales, are called savsat by the Greenlanders. The narwhal is also common along a great part of the east coast, where it seems to occur farther south in summer than on the west coast. It is rather common at Angmagssalik, as a rule appearing from May to August. Farther north and at Scoresby Sound it is rather common in summer, and it has been observed as far north as about latitude 75° N. Although it has not been seen living north of this point, remains of narwhals have been found in the ruins of former Eskimo habitations as far north as latitude 80° 24' N. No trace of it has been found north of this point, or on the coast of Greenland facing the Polar Sea. The familiar common porpoise, one of the smallest of the whales, only 5^ feet long, is a common summer visitor to the west coast of Greenland, from Cape Farewell to Upernivik, usually appearing at the end of April and disappearing in November. It occurs in schools among the outer islands as well as in the interior of fjords. On the east coast it is seen at Angmagssalik at intervals of several years, when there is very little ice. The best known and most famous of the whalebone whales in the Greenland seas is the Greenland whale or bowhead. This whale reaches a length of about 60 feet, possibly as much as 67 feet, of which the enormous head makes up about one-third. The upper jaw is very strongly arched, so that the longest whalebone plates are about 12 feet long and from 10 to 12 inches wide at the base. This whale is the source of the finest grades of whalebone. Formerly it was common from Spitzbergen westward to Alaska, but it has been greatly reduced in numbers and 66 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 now is found only sparingly along the west side of Davis Strait and northward into Baffin Bay, locally farther westward, and in very small numbers in its former haunts off the west Greenland coasts. When it was common it occurred along the west coast of Greenland from Smith Sound to Sukkertoppen, and as an occasional straggler farther south. It always kept close to the ice, frequenting by preference the margins of the great icefields. In the warmest season, in July and August, it lived far to the north in Baffin Bay and in the sounds between the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In the autumn it migrated toward the south and east, one of its routes being along part of the west coast of Greenland. It appeared at Upernivik in October, and at Godhavn and Sukkertoppen in December. To Upernivik it came chiefly from the north, to Godhavn and the region farther south in all proba- bility partly from the west, perhaps because its route of migration was deflected to the west of Disko, perhaps because it came partly from the west coast of Baffin Bay. From the more northerly part of the west coast, as the Upernivik region, it disappeared during the severest cold, from December on, but it returned and remained from April until July. At Godhavn and farther south it generally remained throughout the winter. It usually migrated from Sukkertoppen in March, and from Godhavn in June. Off the east coast of Greenland it formerly occurred from about latitude 80° N., or even farther north, to about latitude 65° N., or somewhat farther south. In early summer it mostly kept to the sea between Greenland and Spitzbergen. In June and July when the belt of ice along the east coast became loosened and partly broken up it approached the coast, moving both to the north and to the south, off the Liverpool coast. In the autumn it seemed to roam southward along the coast near the shore. When the floes of drift ice offshore began to freeze together it migrated toward the margin of the ice belt and traveled for some distance both north and south. During the winter it probably frequented the margin of the ice off the more southerly part of the east coast, in the early spring again migrating toward the north along the ice margin, arriving at Spitz- bergen in April. For the most part it lives in small schools, by preference where the sea is covered by icefields divided by channels of open water, and is more rarely seen in the open sea. It likes to stay beneath the ice. In the seas east of Greenland the Europeans began to hunt the bowhead in 1611, and along the Greenland coast of Davis Strait in 1719. At the height of the fishery the number annually killed east of Greenland ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 67 might amount to 2,000 a year, in Davis Strait to several hundred. The killing of this whale is now forbidden by international agreement. The humpbacked whale, from 40 to 50 feet long, is common along the west coast of Greenland, at least along the stretch from Frederikshaab to Disko, occurring individually or in small schools. It is a summer visitor, appearing at the end of April and disappearing in November. On the east coast it is seen at Angmagssalik at long intervals when the pack ice has disappeared. The killer whale, the most ferocious and formidable animal in the Greenland seas, reaches in the males a length of 31 feet, with an immense dorsal fin 5^ feet high; the females are scarcely half as large, reaching a length of 16 feet. It is rather common in small schools along the shores of the sea west of Greenland from Frederikshaab as far as Upernivik, and is also known from Cape York. On the east coast it has been met with a few times at Angmagssalik, and once in the outer part of Scoresby Sound. The killer occurs in all seas, and is occasionally seen off our coasts. It feeds chiefly on seals and also on porpoises, and sometimes attacks the large whales. The caa'ing whale — the "blackfish" of the New England coast — is from 20 to 28 feet long. It is in Greenland, as elsewhere, of irregular oc- currence, occasionally appearing in large schools on the southwestern coast. The sperm whale or cachalot, the largest of the toothed whales, is a summer visitor to Davis Strait, usually keeping well out to sea. The male is 60 feet in length, but the female is much smaller, only 35 feet long. The bottlenose, the male of which is 30 feet long and the female 24, occurs offshore beyond the drift ice, chiefly in the seas east of Greenland. Both these whales feed on cuttlefish, in pursuit of which the sperm whale is known to dive to a depth of a mile beneath the surface. The blue whale, largest of all animals, reaching a length of 100 feet or even more, and the finback, up to 80 feet long, are common in summer in the seas about Greenland. The small piked whale, 33 feet long, is of frequent occurrence in the summer, usually in pairs or singly, along the west coast at least as far as Upernivik, and also on the east coast after the ice has gone. It is most numerous in the south and occurs in the interior of fjords as well as farther out. The white-beaked dolphin and Eschricht's dolphin have each been met with a few times in Davis Strait on the Greenland coast. Holboll's dolphin and the North Atlantic right whale, which is about 60 feet long and resembles the bowhead except that the head is less arched, have both been recorded once from western Greenland. Before the coming of the Europeans the native Eskimo had only a 68 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 single domestic animal, the dog. In northern Greenland the dog is still indispensable, especially for winter hunting. South of the Holstein- borg District there is no sledging, and here dogs are kept only as pets and for the sake of their skins. In some of the communities in the Julianehaab District there is cattle and sheep raising. In order to encourage sheep raising, for which con- ditions in this district are fairly good, the Government in 1915 estab- lished a fairly large sheep-raising station at the Julianehaab settlement. From this station the Greenlanders who desire to go in for this occupation are supplied with breeding animals, and the station also buys the products and ships them to Denmark. The station also has at its disposal a few Icelandic horses, the only ones in Greenland. Goats are kept throughout southern Greenland, principally for their milk, though partly for their meat. Attempts have been made at keeping rabbits. They do well, but there is little interest in them. Birds. — Conditions in Greenland do not favor diversification in the land birds. Between the inland ice and the sea there is only a narrow mountainous coast, without woods. Here and there sparse growths of willow, alder, and juniper may be seen, and in the south birch, but for the most part the country is covered with low vegetation of various types, interspersed with more or less extensive areas of naked rock. Whereas the land mammals of Greenland are all of American types, the land birds, including those aquatic birds that breed away from the coasts, while mostly circumpolar, include European as well as American elements. By far the greater part of the bird life of Greenland is associated with the sea or, like the geese, ducks, and waders, is aquatic. The number of different kinds of sea birds, however, is much less than it is in the Bering Sea area. This is parallel with the lesser diversity in the fishes and in the marine invertebrates. There are 172 different kinds of birds recorded from Greenland of which no less than 107 are casual or accidental visitors; one, the European whooping swan, is no longer found in Greenland, and one, the great auk, formerly a casual visitor, is extinct. Of the casual visitors, 60 percent are from North America, 36 percent are from, Europe, and the remainder are found both in Europe and in North America. Of the 55 birds that are definitely known to breed in Greenland, slightly less than half remain throughout the year, the others migrating southward in winter. Of the permanent residents only 10 are land birds. These are two , I H < i-J aj ' u ^ C « 4- O ^ o^ c— £ £ o 3'3-§2 w so c-S ,ffi fe' O U lH !_, 03 JJ c« £j ' £ -S W w ■ u oSrt Plate 19 Upper: Holsteinborg, Greenland, in 1932. Photograph by Capt. R. A. Bartlett. Lower: The town of Julianehaab, with the church in the foreground. All the churches in Green- land are Danish Lutheran. Photograph by Richard L. Davies. Plate 20 Upper: The town of Ivigtut, Ivigtut Fjord, Greenland, the locality of the famous cryolite mine. Mount Kunjat in the background. Photograph by Richard L. Davies. Lower: Angmagssalik, Greenland, the largest town on Greenland's east coast. Photograph by Capt. R. A. Bartlett. Upss*- Plate 21 Upper: Greenland girls dressed in native costume. Lower: Herd of walrus on the ice off the coast of Greenland. Photographs by Capt. R. A. Bartlett. ICELAND AND GREENLAND CLARK 69 forms of the rock ptarmigan, one in the north and one in the southwest; the snowy owl; the gyrfalcon (with a gray and a white phase) ; the white-tailed eagle; the raven; Hornemann's redpoll; the mealy redpoll; and the snow bunting. Although all these are permanent residents, all move southward to a greater or lesser extent during the dark season. The snow buntings and redpolls are said to migrate toward the interior, while the others move toward the coasts. In the case of the snow bunting the migration toward the interior chiefly concerns the old birds, the young being supposed to migrate southward across the sea. During the summer months these permanent residents are joined by the Greenland wheatear, the American pipit, and the Lapland longspur. The resident birds other than land birds include 1 wader, the purple sandpiper; 7 ducks; 1 cormorant; 4 gulls; 2 murres; and the little auk or dovekie. Of these the most interesting is the Greenland variety of the mallard, the only duck confined to Greenland. All the other birds men- tioned are more or less widely distributed, and all are known from New England, some from much farther south. The 29 birds that breed in Greenland but leave the country in winter include the white-fronted, pink- footed, snow, brant, and barnacle geese; the common and red-breasted loons; the fulmar petrel; the peregrine falcon or duck hawk; the ringed plover; the turnstone; the red-backed sandpiper or dunlin; the sanderling; the red-necked and gray phalaropes; Sabine's gull; the kittiwake; the Arctic tern; the common, long-tailed, and pomarine jaegers; the razor-billed auk; and the common and large- billed puffins. Domestic fowl are kept by the Danes everywhere in south Greenland, and in the north at the settlements about Disko Bay and in the Umanaq District. Fishes. — Including those from deep water, 100 different kinds of fishes are known from the seas about Greenland. At about the latitude of the Arctic Circle a submarine ridge extends from Baffin Land to west Green- land, and another from east Greenland to Iceland and beyond. South of these ridges the abyssal fishes are those of the Atlantic deeps. North of them, in water the temperature of which is about 32° F. or somewhat lower, are found the fishes of the cold deeps of the Greenland Sea. In the shallow water on the east coast a number of important fishes do not range farther north than Angmagssalik, on the south side of the ridge. On the west coast there is a much less definite line of demarcation in the general vicinity of Disko Bay. Only three fishes are found in the fresh waters of Greenland, all of them living also in the sea. These are the northern trout or charr, the 70 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 three-spined stickleback, and the American eel. There are two varieties of the charr. One lives permanently in ponds and streams and reaches only about 6 inches in length. The other lives in the sea and ascends the streams to spawn, like the salmon; it reaches 30 inches in length. Very large ones in the larger rivers are usually called salmon. Land invertebrates. — There are 437 different kinds of insects known from Greenland of which 188, or about 40 percent, are two-winged flies, including the pestiferous Greenland mosquito and two buffalo gnats or black flies, one of which is as annoying as the mosquito. There are five kinds of butterflies of which two, a medium-sized brilliant orange one and a smaller brown bog fritillary, are widely distributed and common, while the other three, the Arctic copper (a close relative of the European copper) , the Arctic blue, and another bog fritillary, are very local. These butterflies all pass the winter as caterpillars, and are assumed to require 2 years to develop from the egg to the butterfly. There are 44 kinds of moths, all of them small, though some are very handsome. There are 66 hymenopterous or wasplike insects, all, except for a few sawflies and two bumblebees, parasitic, chiefly on flies. The spiders and their relatives number 124. Of the spiders the commonest are hunting spiders. According to Hendricksen and Lundbeck the greater part of the insects and spiders are purely European forms so that, in spite of its geographical position, Greenland, on the strength of its land arthropod fauna, belongs to Europe. All the butterflies occur in North America as well as in Europe. Marine invertebrates. — There are about 742 different kinds of crustaceans in the seas about Greenland, and 60 in the fresh waters. Some of the smaller kinds, which often swarm in the sea in unbelievable numbers, together with certain pelagic mollusks, are very important as food for whales. There are 247 different sorts of marine mollusks known from the seas about Greenland. Nearly all the other invertebrate groups are well represented in the Greenland region, the individuals of many, if not most, of the species being enormously abundant. In shallow water in many places the sea bottom for several miles is entirely covered with the common Arctic sea urchin, well known to all visitors to the New England coast. This is not eaten in Greenland although it is, or has been, a most important item in the dietary of the Aleutian Island people. Several of the marine invertebrates occurring in the seas about Greenland are of unusual size. The giant squid, which reaches a total length of 55 feet with the body from the tip of the tail to the base of the arms 20 feet long, the largest invertebrate known, has been found washed ashore. It was presumably one of these giant squid that was seen by ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 71 Hans Egede on July 6, 1734, and recorded in the journal of the Greenland Mission as a sea serpent. The common Arctic jellyfish reaches a diameter of 1\ feet with tentacles 125 feet long, though these figures are taken from one washed ashore near Boston. The common Arctic featherstar, found all along the Greenland coasts in water of moderate depth, is one of the largest of the group with an expanse of nearly 2 feet. As in the case of the fishes, the Atlantic deep-sea types extend north- ward to the ridges across Baffin Bay at about the Arctic Circle and from east Greenland to Iceland ; north of these ridges occur the bottom animals of the cold depths of the Greenland Sea. SIGNIFICANCE TO THE NATIVES OF THE ANIMAL LIFE By far the most important animals, so far as the Greenlanders are concerned, are the seals. The ringed seal is eagerly sought, and in the northern settlements it is the chief objective of the chase. Because of its curiosity, which often induces it to come within range, it is the easiest to shoot of all the seals. The Greenland seal is also extensively hunted. It is killed in large numbers, particularly off the southern part of the west coast. The skin is especially suitable for clothing, waterproof skins, dyed skins, and skins for shoe soles and kayaks. In the Thule District the walrus is of great importance — indeed it is the most important of all the animals that are hunted. It is also of considerable importance at the recently established settlement at Scoresby Sound on the east coast. Elsewhere it is of no great significance. The hooded seal is of great importance to the population of the Julianehaab District and in part of the Frederikshaab District, where it is killed in large numbers among the floes of sea ice. In the northern districts it is caught in appreciable numbers only among the outer islands. The bearded seal is especially valuable because of its thick skin which is cut into strips and used for towing lines as well as for lashings on kayaks, umiaqs, and sledges. It is also used for covering umiaqs. The skin of the harbor seal is finer than that of the other seals, and is therefore in special demand by the women for their gala attire. In recent years the hunting of this seal has greatly decreased. Most important of the whales from the Greenlanders' point of view are the white whale, the narwhal, and the common porpoise. A few of the large whales are captured each year, but the killing of the scarce bowhead or Greenland whale has been stopped by international agreement. On the west coast the white whale is sometimes hunted from kayaks with harpoons or rifles, though chiefly by means of nets. A special form 72 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 of hunting is carried on at a savsat, where it is possible to kill several hundred white whales in a few days. In some places the hunting has improved greatly in recent years; by means of motor boats, the noise of which frightens them, they are driven in schools into indentations along the coast from which escape is impossible. Besides the meat and blubber, the skin of this whale is valuable, as it can be made into leather. The skin of this, as well as of other whales, is called mataq and is considered a special delicacy. It is eaten raw as well as boiled or fried, and is an excellent remedy for scurvy. Though not so numerous as the white whale, the narwhal is of much importance to the Eskimo, especially in the north. They are sometimes able to kill several hundreds at a savsat in a short time. It is also frequently captured on the east coast. The porpoise is hunted like seals from kayaks or killed with rifles. A number of large whales are now caught on the west coast, and the hunting of these whales is of great importance to the population in the settlements. The larger whales, especially the bowhead and the humpback, in former times were occasionally captured by the Greenlanders. At Frederikshaab the natives used to have a special technique for killing the humpback. In boats propelled by paddles they cautiously approached it while it was asleep and thrust three lances into the region of its heart, then pursued 'it until it died, when they drove a harpoon into it and towed it ashore. This form of hunting whales has now disappeared. The caa'ing whale is hunted whenever it appears. For instance in 1926 some 200 were killed at Sukkertoppen in the middle of September. Most important of the land mammals for the Greenlanders are the reindeer or Greenland caribou. The meat is eaten, the fat is used for various purposes, for instance as cream in coffee, and the contents of the stomach are considered a special delicacy. The skins are used as underlayers on sleeping platforms and for sleeping bags and garments, the antlers for hunting implements, the sinews for thread, etc. The reindeer hunters with their households set out in umiaqs at the end of June and, entering the fjords, go to the great plateaus in the neighbor- hood of the inland ice. They pitch their tents in the selected summer camp, which the hunters use as a base. They generally return to their settlements on the outer coast in the latter part of August or at the begin- ning of September. Although the profits are relatively small, reindeer hunting is still popular because open-air life is considered by the Green- landers one of their greatest pleasures. In north Greenland reindeer ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 73 hunting is carried on chiefly in the winter. The killing of reindeer is now subject to strict governmental regulation. The polar bear is of great importance to the Greenlanders in the Thule District. Its skin is absolutely indispensable to the Polar Eskimo for trousers, for without this warm clothing it would be impossible for them to hunt throughout the winter, and bear skins are better than anything else as rugs for sleeping platforms. In the rest of Greenland bear hunting is of importance only in three districts, Angmagssalik, where about 100 are killed annually; Julianehaab, with an annual catch of about 32; and Upernivik, with an annual catch of about 17. In the new settlement at Scoresby Sound 115 bears were killed during the first year. Fox skins are used for over jackets and trousers for the women, and in the winter when the animals are fat the meat is much prized. Foxes are caught in traps set along the beaches and baited with bits of fish or blubber; more rarely they are killed with rifles. In the settled areas fox hunting is regulated by law. In 1913 a farm for breeding foxes was established at Godthaab. The Arctic hare is not of any great importance. The Greenlanders as a rule do not like its meat, but occasionally shoot it to sell to Europeans. In the Thule District it is caught in snares which are set and tended by the women and children. The skins are used for stockings. In south Greenland the shooting of this animal is forbidden during the summer. Economically the most important bird in Greenland is the eider duck. This duck breeds everywhere on the west coast — rarely in the south, abundantly in the north. For breeding places it chooses by preference low islands. Most of the eiders pass the winter in south Greenland, in the evening passing to the interior of the fjords, in the morning returning to the outer shore. In April and May they migrate northward in huge flocks. The eider is hunted at all seasons. The flesh and eggs are eaten, the skin is used for clothing or sewed into eider rugs, and the down is sold. Hunting the eider and collecting the eggs and down are now under strict government regulation. The king eider, which breeds along the northern part of the west coast and also rather commonly in the northeast and winters in south Greenland, is also caught in great quantities. Briinnich's murre is perhaps the commonest of Greenland birds, and is of great importance to the population. It keeps mostly out to sea and only rarely enters the fjords. It breeds in flocks, sometimes in immense numbers, on the ledges of steep cliffs, either by itself or in company with other birds — fulmars, cormorants, gulls, or auks. There are great numbers of these rookeries, especially in the north, the largest being Qaersorssuaq 74 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 (or Sanderson's Hope) at Upernivik. This is 3 miles in length, one of the highest in Greenland, and is covered with nests as far as the eye can see. This bird does not breed in south Greenland, though it is found here in great flocks in summer. In times of severe cold or heavy snow it comes inshore in great numbers and takes refuge in the fjords which are most free of ice, especially in the Julianehaab and Godthaab Districts. Here it is caught with bird darts, not only by the regular hunters, but by all who are able to paddle a kayak, from old men to boys of 10 or 12, or is killed with small shot. In a few places the hunting is done by several kayaks surrounding a large flock, driving them into a narrow bay, and then gradually up onto the land, where it is possible to catch them by hand as they cannot rise from land. When the fjords freeze over, the birds are shot at holes, and when these freeze, they are caught by hand, as they cannot rise from ice. At the rookeries great quantities are shot, and the people in the vicinity more or less live on them throughout the summer. Besides eating the flesh, the Greenlanders use the skins with the down attached for clothing, while the feathers are collected for feather beds, or for sale. The little auk breeds commonly on the northern part of the west coast — by millions on all the cliffs at Cape York. It is very important as a supplement to the usual winter food, and its small skins are used for making undergarments. The black guillemot is a common breeding bird on all the Greenland coasts, except in the north where there is no open water in summer. Unless temporarily driven away by ice, it is a permanent resident. It is less valuable than Briinnich's murre, and not so abundant. The various kinds of sea gulls are shot at the cliffs, and also during their migrations. Puffins, jaegers, skuas, ducks, geese, cormorants, and loons are occasionally hunted. Of all these the cormorant is the favorite. The flesh, particularly of young birds, is a favorite dish, and the skins are in great demand. It is, however, now becoming scarce. The only land bird of economic importance is the ptarmigan which occurs everywhere, even on the north coast facing the Polar Sea, on the outlying islands, and inland as far as the inland ice. It is very variable in its occurrence in any one locality. Professional native hunters take little interest in the ptarmigan, which are killed almost exclusively by half -grown boys, by people who cannot go out in kayaks, and by Europeans. The Greenlanders do not eat ptarmigan when other food is available, so the birds killed are sold to the Danes. The taking of ptarmigan is now regulated by law. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 75 Perhaps the most important fish in Greenland is the capelin, a relative of the smelt. In the region from Disko southward the capelin come inshore in immense shoals every year in May, June, or July, to spawn in the fjords in places where the beach is shelving and sandy, or at least more or less level. Each hamlet, as a rule, has a special place to which the people, including the women and children, go at the proper season for the capelin fishery. At certain hours when the fish are closely packed along the shore they are scooped up in pails or dip-nets and spread out on the rocks to dry. Large quantities are boiled and eaten on the spot, while those spread on the rocks are gathered in sacks or strung to be kept as reserve food for winter use. In the northern settlements where dogs are of great importance for traveling and for winter hunting dried capelin form a significant item of their food. Another important fish is the Greenland shark which is widely dis- tributed in west Greenland from Cape Farewell to Wolstenholme Fjord, and in east Greenland is very common at Angmagssalik, and occurs in Scoresby Sound. It lives in the fjords as well as far out at sea. It is usually between 8 and 13 feet in length, reaching a maximum of about 18 feet. In winter it is caught through holes in the solid ice, in summer from kayaks and small wooden boats. In north Greenland where dogs are extensively used for hauling sledges, this shark is of much importance in providing food for them. When fresh the flesh is poisonous, causing "shark intoxication," but when dry, or after being boiled in several changes of water, it is excellent food. The most valuable product from this shark is the oil extracted from its liver. Most of this is exported, though some is used locally as lamp oil. In recent years about 35,000 sharks have been caught annually, in some years as many as 50,000. Other Greenland fishes of importance to the inhabitants are the cod, which fluctuates greatly in numbers; the halibut; the Greenland halibut; and the large form of the charr, of which the flesh varies from white to red; all these are exported. Fishes used more or less extensively locally as food but are not exported are the fjord cod ; the Norway haddock ■ — the "rosefish" of New England; several kinds of sculpins; the lump- sucker, the eggs of which are regarded as a special delicacy; the long rough dab; the sea cats or sea wolves; and the polar cod. Of the invertebrates the red deep-sea prawn and the Greenland crab, which reaches an expanse of more than 30 inches between the tips of its claws, are the most important as human food. The large scallop is considered a great delicacy by the Europeans, and the common mussel is eaten by the natives. 76 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 FLORA The flora of the Arctic has a charm that is peculiarly its own. There are no very striking plants, and none of the plants have large flowers. But this is counterbalanced by the effect of the short growing season with very long days, which causes most of the plants to produce all their flowers almost simultaneously, and all the different kinds to blossom at about the same time. So wherever there is enough soil to support a luxurious vegetation the myriad flowers of the Arctic produce an im- pression never to be forgotten. Among the more conspicuous and more familiar flowers in Greenland are the buttercups, poppies, saxifrage, dandelions, pinks, bluebells, rhodo- dendron, milfoil, potentillas, fleabane, lousewort, and twinflowers. One of the interesting plants in Greenland, as elsewhere in the far north, is the quan or Archangelka, a large umbelliferous plant which may attain a height of 7 feet with shoots the thickness of an arm. It is common in the south, and in the Disko region in the vicinity of the hot springs. It is considered a great delicacy by the Greenlanders. Exclusive of those that have been introduced, there are known from Greenland 390 different kinds of flowering plants and ferns, 600 mosses, 300 lichens, 185 marine algae, 375 fresh- water algae, 600 marine and fresh-water diatoms, and 45 marine and fresh-water dinoflagellates. These figures can be considered as approximately correct only for the flowering plants, ferns, and mosses, as much still remains to be learned about the plants of the other groups. Prof. C. H. Ostenfeld believes that some plants, at least, lived in Greenland during the Ice Age, for it is probable that even during the maximum extension of the inland ice there were nunataqs, rocky walls, ledges, etc., free of ice, and where conditions were favorable these would have been able to support a few hardy plants. No less than eight different kinds of plants were found on a nunataq area near the northern coast, in about latitude 81° N., and no less than 54 species have been found on three nunataqs situated some distance from the coast in southern west Greenland. The number of kinds of plants decreases from the south northward, and as a result of the fact that there is more ice-free land in the west than in the east, and conditions here are generally more favorable for plant life, 134 species are known from the west coast that do not occur on the east coast; but 46 of these were introduced at the time of the old Icelandic settlements. On the east coast there are nine plants not known from the west coast. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 77 There are eight floral 2ones in Greenland of which the most southern and richest includes only the southern tip south of Ivigtut, and the most northern and poorest includes the extreme north, north of latitude 81° N. Northern Greenland is the extreme northern limit of plant growth. Of the plants at present living in Greenland, 52 percent do not give any indication of their origin, but presumably came from adjacent America; 29 percent are American; and 19 percent are European, but two-thirds of these are introduced. The affinities of the flora of Greenland are therefore very definitely American. Shrubs, tall or of medium height, and in some places small trees, are found here and there in Greenland, singly or in copses, as far north as Orpik (lat. 72° 30' N.) in the west, and Scoresby Sound in the east. The finest copses are in the interior fjord valleys of the Julianehaab District. These consist of large-leaved birches, which may be as much as 20 feet in height, frequently interspersed with willow, alder, mountain- ash, or juniper. The lowest copses are composed of dwarf birches, attaining a height of about a yard. The alder, growing to a height of from 3 to 7 feet, is found singly or in small groups, or in willow or birch copses. Willow copses may be as much as 10 feet in height. Even as far north as the south side of Disko there are fairly large copses, particularly in the valleys, the shrubs reaching nearly 7 feet in height. The prettiest tree in Greenland is the American mountain-ash, which here grows into a straight little tree with a height of 8 or even nearly 12 feet. Of the lower plants in Greenland the most interesting is the minute, almost microscopic alga which, living in immense numbers to a depth of several inches in the snow, gives it a pink or even a fairly bright red color. Long ago Sir John Ross mentioned the occurrence of red snow in the otherwise shining white desert, and pictured snowfields in north Greenland which he called "crimson cliffs." Less common is the green snow, the color of which is caused by a related plant. THE NATIVE INHABITANTS OF GREENLAND The first Icelanders to settle in Greenland under the leadership of Eirikr found traces of human dwellings in various places, but they saw no natives. The first record of what were probably Eskimo is given in an account of a shipwrecked party high up on the east coast. In 1003 Thorgils Orrabeinfostre "was along on the ice and he found a big sea 6 78 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 animal driven up into an opening in the ice and two witches stood beside it tying bundles of meat together." In the early years of the thirteenth century there are more definite records. "On the other side of the northern Greenlanders [i.e., Icelandic colonists], hunters have found some small folk whom they call Skrsellings. .... They are altogether in want of iron, using walrus teeth as arrows and pointed stones as knives." At that time therefore, the Eskimo lived not in the section of west Greenland inhabited by the Icelanders, but considerably farther north. Even as late as 1265 they still lived far to the north. But by the middle of the fourteenth century they had begun to appear in the northern settlements, and in the last half of the century they came into contact with the western settlements, which soon succumbed to them. Later they may have overrun the "eastern" (geographically southwestern) settlements ; at any rate, all traces of the Icelanders disappeared. On the rediscovery of Greenland by Pining and Pothorst in 1472 or 1473 the expedition was attacked by the Greenland "pirates" in many small boats without keels. This was in the region of Angmagssalik, on the east coast opposite Snzefelljokull in Iceland. John Davis on his voyages in 1586-1587 and 1588 landed on various parts of the west coast where he found and traded with natives, of whom he gave a sympathetic account. Nearly all subsequent explorers who visited Green- land seem to have found natives, so it is evident that they had reoccupied the areas which had been abandoned at the time of the first colonization by the Icelanders. The Greenland natives are the easternmost group of the Eskimo, a distinctive race of Mongoloid affinities, showing some points of resemblance with certain Indians, that inhabits the far northern regions from eastern Greenland across the extreme north of North America to Alaska and northeastern Asia. There are about the same number of Eskimo in Greenland and in Alaska, which together have about five times as many as the entire remaining sparsely settled area inhabited by them. As far as the Eskimo are concerned, the decisive cultural factors are the conditions surrounding the capture of sea mammals. It is important to remember that the animal kingdom furnishes almost the entire support of the Eskimo. Indeed, they can get along perfectly well with no vegetable products whatever. From animals they get practically all their food and clothing, tent and boat coverings, blankets for sleeping platforms and sledges, ropes, thongs, and thread; they fashion their implements from bone, ivory, and baleen, sometimes from stone, and they use blubber ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 79 and oil for fuel. Driftwood is by far their most important vegetable product, though heather and peat may be used for fuel. Considering the Eskimo as a whole, their maximum cultural develop- ment is in the Bering Sea region. Although the least developed culture is not found in Greenland, still the original Greenland cultures are in certain respects more or less primitive from the Alaskan point of view. The Eskimo entered Greenland from North Devon and Ellesmere Land, coming in successive small groups at irregular intervals. The last group entered the Thule District between 1862 and 1866. It is not yet certain what route they followed in their migrations around the Green- land coasts. One view is that they went south along the west coast, around Cape Farewell, and then north along the east coast. Another is that some, at least, traveled along the north coast and then south along the east coast. Favoring the latter hypothesis is the similarity between certain archeological remains on the northeast and northern part of the west coasts, though this may be explained in other ways. In discussing the Eskimo population of Greenland at the present day, Dr. Kaj Birket-Smith points out that the region north of Etah and bordering the channels that lead to the Polar Sea is the section closest to the outer world, and presumably lies in the path by which the Eskimo entered Greenland. On Inglefield Gulf, between Etah and Humboldt Glacier, nine old dwellings have been located at Rensselaer Harbor, Marshall Bay, and Advance Bay. In the neighborhood of Marshall Bay there are no less than 60 house ruins, and even now Eskimo sometimes winter on this coast. North of Humboldt Glacier there are deserted dwelling places at Camp Clay and Camp Webster. Those at the latter place are the most northerly ruins of houses known in west Greenland — 5 large winter houses, 7 tent rings, 17 meat caches, and 1 grave. The most northerly traces of Eskimo are at Polaris Bay, where there are seven tent rings and a fireplace. The central part of the Thule District, the coast between Etah and Cape York, is at present the most northerly inhabited region of the world. The people living here, the so-called Polar Eskimo, are a small tribe (numbering 251 in 1922), but their hunting grounds cover im- mense areas, from Humboldt Glacier and even farther north to Cape Holm in Melville Bay. Formerly they used to cross over to Ellesmere Land to hunt musk ox, but this has been stopped. Since the reindeer have now become rather scarce, these people largely hunt bears. Numerous ruins show that this region has been inhabited for a very long time. Melville Bay, on the southwestern border of the area, was evidently once densely populated. 80 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 The repopulation of west Greenland took place after the establishment of the Icelandic colony there. The whole west coast is now inhabited from Igdluligssuaq, south of Holm Island, southward. The southeastern coast is no longer inhabited. Capt. W. A. Graah estimated that there were about 600 natives here in 1829-30, but even then they had begun to leave for the mission posts on the west coast. In 1884 Gustav Holm found only 135 here, and they were still leaving for the west coast. After the establishment of a trading post in 1894 at Angmagssalik, where there was already a considerable Eskimo popu- lation (now about 800), some of the natives went there. The last 38 left Tingmiarmiut in 1899 and in the summer of 1900 arrived on the west coast. One family of eight members remained, but later left for Angmagssalik. After the depopulation of the southeastern coast, probably largely in- duced by the reduction in the numbers of the seals through wholesale slaughter by European sealers, the Angmagssalik District was the only inhabited region on the east coast until the establishment of the new settlement in Scoresby Sound by the transfer of 70 Eskimo from Ang- magssalik in 1925. On the north coast between Polaris Bay and Bronlund Fjord a meat cache has been found at Frankfield Bay, slightly to the west of St. George Fjord, which shows that hunters have penetrated to this region. Dr. Birket-Smith says it is remarkable that no other traces of Eskimo have been found, for it is certain that if the Eskimo migrated to the east coast by way of the north they must have wintered here. He suggests that they may have lived exclusively in snow huts, like the central Eskimo tribes of Canada. As described by Dr. Birket-Smith, the Polar Eskimo, the most northerly people of the world and the only ones living under extreme Arctic con- ditions, have a high Arctic culture which centers entirely around ice hunting. This high Arctic culture is found in the Thule District where the occurrence of fjord seal and walrus, and to a certain extent bearded seal and bear, determine the location of the dwelling places. Where the ice lies smooth and unbroken without being pressed into ridges and hummocky fields the seals have their breathing holes, and in spring they creep up on the ice in order to bask in the sun. The walrus is to be found under young ice which it can break with its hard and solid skull, and in Melville Bay the bear wanders regularly between the open water and the glacier. A smooth floe which offers the best conditions for sledging is essential for the site of a dwelling place. A necessary ICELAND AND GREENLAND CLARK 81 condition for the existence of a high Arctic culture is that ice floes remain practically throughout the year, so that the kayak is not necessary; but at the same time there must be an alternative to resort to when the hunt for sea mammals fails. Dr. Birket-Smith says that this is the case in the Thule District. Along the north coast of Greenland the sea is never entirely free of ice, but is covered with the so-called paleocrystic or permanent ice, or in the fjords with permanent sikussaq ice, which is very unfavorable for mammals. It is possible that an Eskimo population in these regions would have to depend on musk ox hunting to a very large extent. It is doubtful whether even the Eskimo could exist along the north coast of Peary Land where steep mountains covered with ice and destitute of hunting grounds drop down to the permanently frozen ocean. Arctic culture requires, in winter, lasting and smooth floe ice on which the hunter can look for the breathing holes of the seals. This culture type is not sharply differentiated from the preceding. The fjord seal is still the chief game, and the requisites for dwelling places are in several respects the same. The occurrence of other animals, as walrus and bearded seal at Nugssuaq, and bear in the direction of Melville Bay, only exceptionally influence the location of the dwelling places. Open water in winter here begins to be a factor to be taken into account. This occurs partly in icefjords where the motion of the glacier produces open leads in the ice, and partly at tidal rapids where the tide keeps large holes open. Around such open waters the seals gather. A transition stage between the Arctic and sub-Arctic types is seen in the habitations in the Egedesminde and Holsteinborg Districts. Here the fjord seal still plays a part, though a far less important part than farther north, and the saddleback now, perhaps, ranks first as the chief objective of the hunt. For this reason the inhabitants shun the long and narrow fjords and keep to the island belt where the saddlebacks pass. Now that the fjord seals have greatly decreased in number, the natives in the fjords of Holsteinborg are in winter mostly restricted to fishing for Norway haddock and fjord cod. The sub- Arctic culture is characterized especially by kayak hunting, accom- panied by the disappearance of the dog sledge, which is not found farther south than Holsteinborg, and by cod fishing. The sub- Arctic culture area proper corresponds very nearly to the west coast from the Arctic Circle south to Cape Farewell, the culture reaching its climax on the southern west coast. When, in addition to favorable conditions for kayak hunting, there is a special abundance of seals the cultural possibilities are developed 82 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 to the maximum, as was originally the case at Julianehaab Bay, to which great quantities of bladdernose were carried by the pack ice around Cape Farewell from the east coast. But there is no sharp dividing line between these cultures. North of the Arctic Circle the area as far as Disko Bay forms a transition to the Arctic phase, and on the east coast there is a similar transitional region on the King Frederick VI coast and in the area about Angmagssalik. Some of the most expert kayakers live on the small group of islands at the entrance to Disko Bay, and also at Angmagssalik, and in both regions there is also dog sledging. By far the greater number of Eskimo live on the west coast south of Disko Bay, and along the greater part of this coast the kayak can be used, with short interruptions, throughout the year. Here also seals are especially abundant. Linguistically the dialects of the language of the Greenland Eskimo are phonetically related, and are distinguished from other Eskimo dialects by certain common characteristics. In their culture the Greenland Eskimo, especially beyond the Thule District, also show a very few endemic characteristics. The present native peoples of Greenland are properly referred to as Greenlanders, not as Eskimo, for they have advanced far beyond the primitive stage usually associated with the term Eskimo. They number at present about 18,000. They have increased steadily during the past 40 years. In 1901 there were 11,600; in 1911, 13,000; in 1921, 14,000; and in 1931, 16,800. They are more or less extensively mixed with European blood, chiefly Danish. The greatest mixture is about Disko Bay, where it would now be difficult to find a native of strictly pure blood. Mixed-bloods are decidedly in the majority all along the easily accessible west coast. In the isolated Julianehaab region, in the southern part of the Egedesminde District, and in the Upernivik District mixed- bloods are at a minimum. HISTORY The early history of Greenland from the year 900 to the year 1492 is the history of an Icelandic colony that finally perished and was all but forgotten. This colony is memorable because it was from Icelandic Greenland that the North American mainland or "Vinland" was dis- covered in the year 1000, and its settlement attempted. The history of this colony has no connection with the rediscovery of Greenland which led to its permanent settlement, but is properly speaking an integral and interesting part of the history of Iceland. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 83 The rediscovery of Greenland leading to its colonization by the Danes was one of the results of the attempt to find a route to China by sea through a northwest passage. Strongly encouraged by King Alfonso of Portugal, King Christian I of Denmark in 1472 or 1473 sent out an expedition under two adventurers, Diedrick Pining and Hans Pothorst, who were joined by the Norwegian Johannes Scolvus and a Portuguese nobleman, Joao Vaz Cortereal. This expedition reached Greenland in the vicinity of Angmagssalik, where it was attacked by Eskimo. According to Dr. Louis Bobe, it is likely that Columbus learned of this expedition when he visited Iceland in 1476. In 1537 and 1539 sailors from Hamburg had been blown out of their course to or from Iceland and driven toward Greenland, but they had been prevented from landing by bad weather. This led to an expedi- tion from Hamburg under Gert Mestermaker which found the country, but did not see any of the inhabitants. At this time there was much talk about Greenland, but nothing was done. The Englishman, Martin Frobisher, in 1576 sighted the east coast of Greenland in latitude 61° N. and circumnavigated Cape Farewell, but was prevented from landing by the ice, in which one of his ships was lost. He undertook another voyage in 1577, but again was unable to reach the coast because of the ice. On his third voyage in 1578 he landed somewhere on the southwest coast, without appreciating the fact that it was Greenland, and took possession of the territory in the name of Queen Elizabeth of England. He found that the Eskimo were in possession of some metal instruments from which he concluded that they had had intercourse with strangers. In 1579 a Danish expedition under the command of an Englishman, Jacob Allday, was on the east coast of Greenland, but it did not reach land, and in 1581 the Faroese Magnus Heinesen tried in vain to reach the east coast. The Englishman John Davis in 1585 (the year of the first attempt to establish a colony in Virginia) discovered Gilbert's Sound on the west coast of Greenland in latitude 64° 15' N. (the site of the present settle- ment of Godthaab) where he met Eskimo, but found no trace of the Icelanders. He made a second voyage in 1586, and a third in 1587 (the year in which Virginia Dare, the first child of English parentage, was born in Virginia) . On his last voyage he sailed far up the strait named for him and reached a lofty granite island in latitude 72°4l/ N. which he named Sanderson's Hope (now called Qaersorssuaq) in honor of a merchant, William Sanderson, one of his backers. Davis called the country "The Land of Desolation." He called the northern part London coast, 84 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 and the southern extremity Cape Farewell, because he could not get within 6 or 7 miles of it on account of the ice. Dr. Bobe writes that the rediscovery of Greenland — Davis had failed to identify his Land of Desolation with the old Greenland — should be dated from an expedition sent out by King Christian IV in 1605 which included in its personnel three English navigators, James Cunningham, who in 1603 had served as a captain in the Danish Navy, John Knight, and James Hall, and in addition the Danish nobleman Godske Lindenow and Peter Kieldsen. Mainly through the work of James Hall, this expedi- tion obtained much geographical information of great value. Hall in 1612 made another very important voyage, this time under the auspices of the "Merchant Adventurers of London." On this expedition he was accompanied by William Baffin. The chief interest of the Danes and English now temporarily shifted to other parts of the world, and the Dutch took the lead in Arctic exploration, sending out many expeditions and adding greatly to the knowledge of Greenland, and also Spitzbergen which was usually re- garded as a part of, or at least belonging to, Greenland. The expedition with John Cunningham in command had brought back skins of polar bears and blue foxes as well as narwhal tusks which had been procured by trade with the natives. It was, however, the whaling about which the commercial intercourse with Greenland centered. As early as the second half of the sixteenth century the Basques visited this area in specially equipped boats with special implements, among others the harpoon — the name of which is the only Basque word in common use in English. As late as about the middle of the eighteenth century Dutch vessels might meet the Basques in Davis Strait on their way to Baffin Bay. But the Basques kept to the open sea, as they did off Iceland and off Newfoundland, and did not make contact with the natives. The Basques were the great experts in whaling, and from them the English, Danes, and Dutch learned the art. The growing ascendancy of the Dutch over the English in the Arctic, and their discovery of various coastal regions of Greenland, of which they took possession in behalf of the Noordsche Compagnie, aroused the active interest of King Frederick III in the country, for during the whole period between the discontinuation of the sailings and the recolonization the kings of Denmark considered themselves the legal masters of Green- land. During the reign of King Frederick III three expeditions were sent to Greenland (from 1652 to 1654), and in 1666 the King included the polar bear in the coat-of-arms of Denmark as the special symbol of ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 85 Greenland. In 1691 his son, Christian V, issued a decree prohibiting Hanse trade in Greenland. The Dutch continued to trade extensively with the natives, with whom they appeared to be on more or less hostile terms. By 1720 trade was rendered difficult, apparently both because the natives became more and more afraid of them, and because they were surfeited with Dutch goods. It was Hans Povelsen Egede, a pastor in Norway, who through his initiative and wonderful perseverance caused the trade with Greenland to be resumed. This was done by means of a joint stock company in- corporated in Bergen the object of which was a combination of trade, colonization, and Christianization of the country. He was supported by King Frederick IV, who appointed him as Royal Missionary. The com- pany was organized primarily to support his work as a missionary. In 1721 he landed in Greenland and established the first permanent settlement. Adversities, troubles with the Dutch, shipwrecks and other accidents, and dissentions between the directors, resulted in the liquidation of the Bergen Company in 1727. The King now took a direct and personal interest in the affairs of Greenland, and in 1729 the administration was transferred from Bergen to Copenhagen. Dissentions among the people sent out, more troubles with the Dutch, and other difficulties wrecked the royal enterprise. But in spite of all mistakes and difficulties, trade was progressing and offered hopes of eventually proving remunerative. After much discussion and negotiation, Jacob Severin was granted permission to take over the Greenland trade as a monopoly for 6 years. Much difficulty was encountered with the numerous ships from Hamburg, Altona, Bremen, and the Dutch ports which visited Greenland and traded with the natives in defiance of the monopoly. In addition to these, from 120 to 180 vessels from Holland, Bremen, and Hamburg carried on offshore whaling with much profit to themselves, besides many large Basque men-of-war and a few French ships; the Spanish (Basque) and French, however, kept to the western ice and did not molest the settle- ments of the Greenlanders. As a result of continued difficulties with the Dutch, Greenland was granted the right to defend herself, and Severin armed his three vessels. About the middle of May 1739 a naval engagement was fought between Severin's three ships and five Dutch ships, in which the latter were cap- tured. In spite of all his numerous difficulties, Severin persisted in his work. New posts were established, troubles with foreigners were some- what lessened, and relations with the natives greatly improved. In 1746, a few days after the accession of King Frederick V, liberal patron of the arts and sciences, a peace treaty was concluded with Algeria 86 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 by virtue of which this pirate state guaranteed Danish vessels against seizure. This agreement gave rise to the establishment of the General Trading Company in 1747, with a concession for 40 years. In its Green- land ventures this company encountered all kinds of difficulties. The Dutch were again troublesome. About 1764 a settlement with the Dutch was brought about by the English and French ministers at Copenhagen acting as arbiters. It was resolved that Denmark should annul the restrictions on the fisheries, while the Dutch should cease trading with the natives. The war between England and the North American colonies, in which France, Spain, and Holland were more or less involved, paralyzed the shipping industry of those countries, which was taken up by neutrals and by them carried on with immense profit, particularly by Denmark- Norway. Since January 1, 1776, the Greenland trade has been a royal monopoly, which included the administration of the island. The instructions regu- lating the Greenland trade which were issued on April 19, 1782, and for nearly a century were the foundation of the administration of the country, pointed out many errors and defects in the old system and introduced order where hitherto there had been utter confusion. The traders were earnestly instructed to associate with the Greenlanders in a sensible and careful manner, to distribute among them the best sealing grounds, to encourage them to diligence and economy, and to undertake the trade which, according to season, must be considered the most profit- able, to instruct them in fishing and the proper manner of intercourse, to exhort them to enter into partnership or reasonable contracts with the Danish whalers where and when it was required by circumstances — in short, to give due consideration to their interests in all matters. In spite of good intentions, this new arrangement did not do much to improve conditions. The chief difficulty now was with the English, especially in the northern districts. As late as 1787 there were more than 60 English as well as 7 Dutch vessels in the bay as Godhavn, where their presence was greatly to the detriment of the natives. The directors of the company dared not offend the English by trying to drive them away. During the war between Denmark and England, from 1807 to 1814, the Greenland trade received a blow from which it did not recover for many years, and great suffering resulted, especially among the resident Danes. However, the English privateers that infested the coast were very considerate, for England had declared Greenland neutral territory, and the English even sent ships to Greenland with provisions for the people. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 87 After the war things went from bad to worse. Illicit trading flourished, in connivance with the crews of the ships sent out, and even in connivance with the employees of the company in Copenhagen. An energetic attempt to abolish this corruption was made by P. A. Eskilden, an able and energetic man who was appointed director of the company in 1822. He died in 1825 and was succeeded by J. H. Gedde, who uncompromisingly did away with old blundering methods and customs, and introduced efficient administration. From this time conditions began to improve, though slowly and irregularly. By a Royal Order of April 1835, the Greenland Commission was appointed to report on the possibilities and conditions of a more or less extended free trade in Greenland. After 5 years of deliberation the majority of the Commission strongly advised against breaking away from the trade system hitherto followed, although all agreed that the monopoly should be abolished as soon as the cultural stage of the inhabitants, and local conditions, permitted. The work of this Commission resulted in various reforms for the economic and spiritual benefit of the Greenlanders. A new Commission was appointed on March 2, 1851, with the object of considering Greenland's affairs. This Commission was composed of experts and men acquainted with local matters, among them the Inspectors for the Northern and Southern Districts, Carl Peter Holboll, a former naval officer, and Dr. Hinrik Johannes Rink, a former missionary. With a few exceptions the reforms proposed by this Commission were not carried out. However, interest in Greenland had been aroused both among the Danish people and in parliament. Dr. Rink spent 16 winters and 21 summers in Greenland, from 1853 as manager of the Julianehaab settlement, and from 1858 as Royal In- spector, and in 1870 was appointed director of the Royal Greenland Trading Company. In 1856-1857 he put forth a proposal for the intro- duction of native boards of guardians. These boards were to consist of the most competent individuals, each representing a small district. Their object was to form a sort of intermediary between the native and the Danish officials and employees. An experiment was made in South Greenland, and this led to the establishment of boards of guardians in both provinces in 1862-1863. This institution is the cornerstone of the development of the modern social and administrative organization of Greenland. In all fields Dr. Rink tried to do away with old abuses, and to improve the condition of the natives. After Hans Egede there is no one to whom 88 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 the Greenlanders owe a greater debt of gratitude than to the friendly, able, and persistent Dr. Rink. Throughout his career Dr. Rink met with great opposition and every sort of discouragement in his efforts to improve the condition of the Greenlanders. His cause was much helped by a young naval officer, E. Bluhme, who in 1864 published a book which he bluntly stated was intended as a controversial work in favor of the growth and development of the Greenland community. He frankly criticised the employees of the administration, the Danish mission, and the Moravian Brethren, who had been the cause of constant trouble, and made various suggestions, most of which were realized before his death in 1926. In 1888 an auxiliary steamer replaced the old sailing ships in the Greenland trade. The first steamer built for the purpose was wrecked in 1895. A Norwegian whaler was purchased, which was wrecked in 1896, and a steamer which had been chartered to replace it burned on the way out. However, since 1898 steamers have been successfully employed. Various scientific expeditions had aroused so much interest in Greenland that in 1893 the Danish Tourist Company applied for permission to equip tourist expeditions to Greenland, but permission was, on quite adequate grounds, refused. In 1894 the hitherto neglected east coast was opened up by the estab- lishment of a new station at the Eskimo settlement at Angmagssalik in latitude 65° 36' N. In the years 1902-1904 the so-called Literary Greenland Expedition visited Greenland under the command of the author and journalist Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, accompanied by Knud Rasmussen. The object of this expedition was to study the life of the Eskimo in Christianized west Greenland as well as in the Cape York District where the inhabitants were still heathen, and by comparing conditions to arrive at an under- standing as to the manner in which civilization and culture had acted on the native population. The underlying idea was that what had been done by Denmark, through missions and trade, had been rather to the detriment of the natives. Even though this point of view was greatly modified in the course of the expedition by its investigations, still one of the main results was a severe criticism of the old system and a vehemently expressed demand for reforms. This demand later led to tangible results. In 1906 coal was first mined in Greenland, and coal mining is now an important, though purely local industry. Another direct result of this expedition was the mission established in 1909 under the leadership of natives at Umanaq in the Cape York District, and the Thule station ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 89 founded by Knud Rasmussen in the same place in 1910 with the object of trading with the natives, and of forming a base for the scientific exploration of the polar regions. In 1908 trade and administration were temporarily separated, and a distinction was made between "the administration and settlements in Greenland" and the Royal Greenland trade; but they were again united in 1912. The present administration is based upon the Act of April 18, 1925. MODERN GREENLAND Greenland is now a Danish Crown colony, administered by one of the Government Departments in Copenhagen. The officials of the Greenland Administration are principally concerned with the trade, though they also have administrative and judicial powers. Apart from the fisheries, some sheep farming, and some mining, Green- land lacks everything which might make its colonization by Europeans profitable. The only way, therefore, by which Denmark has been able to utilize its resources was by trading with the native population. When Hans Egede went to Greenland in 1721 he founded a private trading company in Bergen the purpose of which was to provide the necessary funds for the maintenance of the missionary work which was started at the same time. This company established a number of trading posts on the west coast, while the traders during their journeys along the coast carried on extensive bartering with the natives. But the enter- prise was not successful, and after a few years it was abandoned. The trade was then taken over by the Government and, except for short periods during which concessions were granted to private companies, has con- tinued as a state monopoly. For a long time the Danish Administration of Greenland has regarded as its chief object the protection of the economic existence of the natives. The reason why the trade monopoly is still maintained, and why Green- land— with the exception of the uninhabited parts of the east coast — has been closed to non-Greenlandic fishermen and hunters, Danes as well as foreigners, is consideration for the natives. Greenland is one of the few colonial areas where consideration of what is best for the native population outweighs the demands of European trade. Greenland is one of the trade settlements where the colonial power exercises a considerable influence on the economic life of the natives, while at the same time the natives to a very large extent have been permitted to retain their economic independence. 90 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 The Administration has endeavored to develop and stimulate the economic life of the natives in certain directions. Fishing especially is being encouraged. But here also it is the well-being of the natives that is the chief consideration. The object is to teach the natives themselves to exploit the resources of the country. Greenland, in the opinion of the Administration, should contribute as much as possible to the economic life of the world, but in such a manner as to benefit the local population. In normal times the Administration of Greenland, including the trade operations, is centered in Copenhagen. The Greenland Administration (Gronlands Styrelse) is presided over by a director who is directly re- sponsible to the Prime Minister. A special section of the Administration takes care of the trade — purchase and assembling of goods for Greenland, and sale of the exports from the colony. The exports from Greenland consist of blubber, liver, bear skins, blue and white fox skins, seal skins, walrus hides, white whale hides, shark skins, eider rugs, eider down, bird feathers, baleen, narwhal and walrus tusks, and fish of various kinds; also cryolite, graphite, and some copper, asbestos, and mica. There are large deposits of coal over the whole of the basalt area of west Greenland, particularly on Disko and Nugssuaq, but the product of the mines is consumed locally. By far the most important exported product of Greenland is the cryolite, used in the manufacture of aluminum. The mining activities at Ivigtut are carried on by a private licensed company. The profits of the trading monopoly, if any, are entirely insufficient to cover the expenses of the Greenland Administration — salaries of officials, maintenance of schools, churches, hospitals, communications, etc. — but the deficit has in recent years been covered by royalties from the Cryolite Company. The output of the cryolite mine is at present exclusively at the disposal of the United States and Canada, and the Danish mines in Greenland thus play a very important part in the war effort. With regard to imports, the Greenland Administration has always made a distinction between articles which are considered necessary and those that may be considered luxuries, such as coffee, sugar, and tobacco. The former are sold at a very small profit, or even at a loss, while the luxuries are sold at a considerable profit. But the natives of South Green- land, according to rough calculation, spend from 76 to 80 percent of their income on coffee, sugar, and tobacco. For purposes of local administration Greenland is divided into three provinces: South Greenland, from Cape Farewell to North Strom Fjord; North Greenland, from North Strom Fjord to Northeast Foreland; and East Greenland, from Northeast Foreland to Cape Farewell. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 91 The highest official in South and North Greenland is the Landsfoged or Chief Administrator, whose duties, in addition to being administrative and judicial, include the supervision of public health and trade. The Chief Administrators of South and North Greenland reside in Godthaab and Godhavn respectively. South and North Greenland are divided into 13 Districts, each of which is subdivided into outposts.5 These, with their population in 1927 were as follows: Europeans Greenlanders South Greenland 92 8,014 Julianehaab District, with 8 outposts 26 3,518 Frederikshaab District, with 3 outposts 5 981 Godthaab District, with 4 outposts 37 1 ,276 Sukkertoppen District, with 3 outposts 17 1,363 Holsteinborg District, with 3 outposts 7 876 North Greenland 99 6,819 Egedesminde District, with 6 outposts 14 1,646 Christianshaab District, with 3 outposts 2 599 Jacobshavn District, with 2 outposts 19 653 Ritenbenk District, with 3 outposts 8 679 Godhavn District, with 3 outposts 21 400 Umanaq District, with 8 outposts 19 1,406 Upernivik District, with 8 outposts 16 1,152 Thule District, with no outposts 0 284 In each District there is a main trading post (settlement), after which the District is named. The head of a District is the Kolonibestyrer or District Manager who cares for the trade and exercises local police authority. In addition to those mentioned above, there are two trading posts in East Greenland, one at Angmagssalik with 9 Europeans and 696 Greenlanders, and another at Scoresby Sound with 4 Europeans and 105 Greenlanders. East Greenland is supervised by an Inspector ordinarily residing in Copenhagen. In normal times he visits the settlements of the east coast every summer. When the Inspector is in Copenhagen, all administrative functions rest with the Manager and the clergyman. Not included in the preceding enumeration are about 125 Europeans employed in the cryolite mine at Ivigtut. At present there are about 500 Danes and 18,000 natives in Greenland. The whole population of Greenland belongs to the Lutheran faith. There are a great number of churches scattered all over Greenland, and 5 There have been minor changes in the Districts and outposts since 1927, but the details are not available. 92 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 the Church plays a very important role in the daily life of the popu- lation. The Dean of Greenland resides in Godthaab. The clergymen in the settlements are usually Danes, though in some cases Greenlanders. In the outposts the pastors, who are at the same time teachers, are generally Greenlanders. There are high schools in two of the settlements, and a seminary for the education of teachers in Godthaab. In normal times the Greenlanders who show the necessary qualifications are sent to Denmark for further education. A staff of Danish doctors and nurses are resident in Greenland, and there are about 15 small, though rather well-equipped, hospitals. The health conditions have improved very much in the twentieth century, and there has been a steady increase in the Greenland population during the last 40 years. One of the interesting features in the administration of Greenland is the participation of the native Greenlanders in governmental affairs. This has been developed from the "boards of guardians" established as a result of a proposal made to the Ministry of the Interior in 1856, principally on the initiative of Dr. Rink and Samuel Kleinschmidt. First come the Municipal Councils, of which there are 26 in South Greenland and 36 in North Greenland. Every dwelling place with two or more householders entitled to vote can elect a member to the local Municipal Council, the Councils to consist of at least three members elected for a term of 4 years. The duties of the Municipal Councils consist partly in the administration of grants for the support and relief of the poor, decided at meetings held monthly during the 6 winter months, and partly in repartition proposals. They also deal with cases of in- heritance, civil cases, and misdemeanors. Each district has a District Council or "Sysselraad." The object of the District Councils is to bring about a greater uniformity in municipal and intermunicipal administration, and to counteract the tendency to devote attention purely to local interests. The District Councils consist of those members of the Provincial Councils who may live in the District, the chairmen of all the Municipal Councils in the District, and all the Danish officials holding appointments in the District. Among other duties of the District Councils are the inspection of schools and oversight of all matters relating to public health. South and North Greenland each have a Provincial Council which meets every other year under the presidency of the Landsfoged. The members of these Councils are elected from the members of the Municipal Councils in each District, 11 in South Greenland and 12 in North Green- ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 93 land, and hold office for a term of 6 years. They are concerned with matters affecting the entire province. The two settlements in East Greenland are not as yet sufficiently ad- vanced to justify the establishment of Councils. When the Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1916 the United States formally relinquished all claim to territory in northern Greenland that had been discovered by Rear Admiral Robert Edwin Peary. On May 10, 1921, the Danish Government placed the Greenland Ad- ministration in charge of the entire colony, extending the trade monopoly to the whole of Greenland. The east coast, however, was opened to Danish scientific men and trappers in 1924, and by special agreements Norwegians and citizens of certain other countries have been granted similar rights on the east coast. A dispute between Denmark and Norway concerning the sovereignty over part of the east coast was settled in favor of Denmark by the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague in 1933. When Denmark was invaded and occupied by German troops on April 9, 1940, the Danish Government came under German control and was no longer able to continue the administration of Greenland. A temporary Central Office for the local administrators was therefore estab- lished at Godthaab, in South Greenland, by the two Chief Administrators. Since October 1941 a special section of the Danish Consulate General in New York, established by the Minister of Denmark in Washington, the Hon. Henrik Kauffmann, is in charge of the supply of necessities to Greenland, and the sale of Greenland products. On April 9, 1941, Mr. Kauffmann, acting independently of the Govern- ment in Copenhagen, which for the time being is prevented from exercising its powers in respect to Greenland, concluded on behalf of Denmark an agreement with the American Government according to which the United States acquired the right to establish military bases on the island for the duration of the war. In return, the American Govern- ment agreed to protect Greenland against aggression and reiterated its recognition of and respect for the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over the whole of Greenland. LANGUAGE The language of the Greenland natives is a dialect of the common language spoken by all the Eskimo from eastern Greenland to eastern Siberia. In Greenland itself there are slight variations from one region 94 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 to another. Dr. C. W. Schultz-Lorentzen gives the following account of the Greenland language: He first calls attention to the mental peculiarity of the Eskimo — the appositive as opposed to the compositive manner of thinking, which means that they possess their ideas as juxtaposed elements without being able to sum them up. This peculiarity is a very marked feature of the language, which is essentially a juxtaposition of words, each independent and expressing a finished context. What we understand by sentences is a concatenation of ideas joined together by verbs, the object of which is above all to combine and keep together the fixed elements and thus to give the impression of something gliding and flowing. But the Eskimo content themselves with the noun, which in compensation contains all the elements required for supplying an aggregate complete meaning. Thus the character of the Eskimo language is very different from that of our own group of languages. For example, there are, strictly speaking, no classes of words or declensions, and attention must be exclusively directed toward the words and the manner in which they are built up. An Eskimo word is constructed from the following elements: Base or stem, affixes, and endings or final affixes. The base or stem is generally rather short, consisting of one or two syllables, and denotes that which to the Eskimo is the main idea of the word. The stem may frequently be a word which can be used without any addition, for instance, k/ak = heat; tsse = cold; inuk — human being. Sometimes, how- ever, the stem does not make sense as an independent word, and therefore cannot be used without an affix, but its meaning as a word is presupposed, and in many cases it has passed out of use in Greenland; an example is tat/ga = he relies upon him, where the stem is tatik or tate, a word which is used among other Eskimo in the sense of a pillar, but has disappeared from the spoken language. The stem, however, very frequently cannot be used independently in its composite form, for instance, ani — turning outward, or pu = swelling upward. There are a few stems which are so neutral as only to attain a meaning by means of the affixes. It is also justifiable to speak of stems in a second degree — extensions and modifi- cations of primary stems proper with a derived meaning. Thus from pu = swelling, secondary stems occur, as for instance pue = abscess, and puak = lung. The stems are regularly extended by means of affixes which add some- thing to the meaning of the word by indicating its dimension, circum- stances, treatment, etc. There are affixes which can be tacked on to any stem, others which favor certain word groups, or even individual words. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 95 But within certain rather wide limits, it is possible to tack on one affix after another to a stem. Stems, independent or extended by affixes, are finally completed by final affixes, the latter indicating whether the stem is singular, dual, or plural, as well as its relation to another link in the composite word group, or to the whole meaning. Among these endings are some which correspond to our prepositions and are used to indicate place, direction, road, distance, mode, or comparison. The person is expressed by other endings which in sense more or less correspond to our possessive pronouns. While what is usually termed the third person has a special character, the first and second persons occur with definite endings, and in addition a reflexive person, referring to the subject. Dr. Schultz-Lorentzen gives the following example of how an Eskimo word is constructed by means of the elements mentioned: eqaluk means a salmon, being a secondary stem of eqa, which is not used. eqalug-ssuaq, with the affix -ssuaq, meaning large; but among the Eskimo mean- ing "the large salmon," that is, the shark. eqalugssuar-niar-, shark fishing. eqalugssuarniar-iartor-, going out to fish for shark. eqalugssuamiariartor-qu-, bidding to go out to fish for shark. eqalugssuarniariartorqu-ssaq, bidden to go out to fish for shark. eqalugssuarniariartorqussa-u-, has been bidden to go out to fish for shark. eqalugssuarniariartorqussau-galuar-, has, properly speaking, been bidden to go out to fish for shark. eqalugssuarniariartorqussaugalua-qau- has, properly speaking, been forcibly bidden to go out to fish for shark. eqalugssuarniariartorqussaugahiaqau-gut, we have, properly speaking, been forcibly bidden to go out fishing for shark. Whereas the earlier additions to the word have been affixed, the last is an ending indicating the first person plural. The word given as an example must be translated as a verb in the indicative mood, though judging from its form it is decidedly a noun. As a matter of fact, it holds good for all Eskimo words that they are mainly of the nature of nouns, with the closely defined complete meaning of the noun. A connected group of words thus becomes a series of juxtaposed complete forms, tusarpunga, I hear, according to its form is to be regarded as a noun, "my hearing." tusarpara, I hear it, strictly means the complete "that heard by me." Still there is in the language a tendency to get beyond the noun and to express a meaning which indi- cates the flowing, gliding, and uniting character of the verb. We find an affix po, pa, and pe which clearly indicates the verbal character of 96 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 the word, and it is possible to make use of two personal endings, one of which indicates the subject and the other the object. Dr. Schultz- Lorentzen remarks that it might perhaps be said that the language had already become set before the verbal elements were completed. The language of the first European settlers of Greenland was Icelandic and did not differ from that of the parent country, Iceland. After the resettlement the language of the Europeans was Norwegian-Danish, that of the natives, Eskimo. At the present time the Europeans speak Danish, while the Greenlanders are encouraged to use their own language. LITERATURE The early literature dealing with Greenland consists of some Eddie poems characterized by a weird and gloomy note that bears witness to the wild nature of the surroundings amidst which it was composed, and was possibly written in Greenland, and two sagas, the Eiriks saga RauSa, or Porfinns saga Karlsefnis, and the Groenlendinga Saga, both undoubtedly written in Iceland. They are properly a part of early Icelandic literature. The modern literature of Greenland, according to Dr. C. W. Schultz- Lorentzen, is intimately connected with the development of the Eskimo language under the civilizing influence of the Danish colonization. In its original form the language of the Eskimo naturally had the exact scope determined by their material and intellectual requirements. It has been characterized as a Stone Age language, and indeed there is a certain uncouth roughness about it. It is a language dealing with real facts and things and experiences as seen and conceived. When the Eskimo came into contact with the culture of the Europeans they received such an overwhelming flood of new impressions and ex- periences that their language was naturally modified. The translators and adaptors of the native language were principally Europeans, and however sincere their endeavor not to violate the native language in its primitive form, the task they had set themselves was beyond their powers. The first book published in Eskimo was a small primer with short texts probably compiled by Hans Egede and printed in Copenhagen in 1739. The next book to be printed was a kind of instruction in Christian knowledge, the chief portions of which were taken up with the ordo salutis and Luther's catechism. These first textbooks were followed by a number of similar works compiled by successive missionaries (Poul Egede, 1756; Thorhallesen, 1777; Otto Fabricius, 1818; and others) with contents which were altered according to the demands of the times, and with an increasingly surer touch from the linguistic point of view. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 97 According to Dr. Schultz-Lorentzen these books in a way were pre- liminary to the translation of the Bible. Poul Egede began to send out the gospels in 1744. He was only a boy when he arrived in Greenland with his father Hans, and learned the language through playing with his native friends. In 1766 his translation of the New Testament appeared. Otto Fabricius, who succeeded Poul Egede in his capacity as a teacher of the Eskimo, was not so intimately acquainted with the language, but he was a more profound scholar and had received more systematic training. He retranslated the New Testament in 1799 and began a translation of the Old Testament, but only got as far as Exodus when he died in 1822. The work of Fabricius was continued by Niels Giessing Wolf, and after him by Peter Christian Kragh, who in the years from 1822 to 1836 translated and supervised the printing of one part of the Old Testament after another. About the middle of the nineteenth century when the work of the Danish Mission had come more or less to a standstill, at least from the point of view of literature, the Moravian Brethren took the lead. In 1851 and 1862 they brought out a revised translation of the Old Testament. It was one of their number, Samuel Kleinschmidt, who in various ways broke new ground in the field of Eskimo literature. In 1851 Kleinschmidt, the son of a Moravian missionary born in Greenland and educated in Europe, had published a grammar in which he attempted to explain the Eskimo language on the basis of its own laws. In 1871 he published a dictionary which is arranged methodically in accordance with the recog- nized stems. He had his own small printing press from which his numer- ous translations and other works emanated. His chief work was the new translation of the Bible published in parts at various times. It was not until 1900 that the first complete translation of the Bible was published. This translation, with a slight revision of the New Testa- ment in 1912 by Christian Vilhelm Rasmussen and C. W. Schultz- Lorentzen, is that in use today. The history of the translation of the Bible is important, because the language used in it has exercised, and will continue to exercise, a great influence on the popular language of Greenland. Through the translation of the Bible a kind of standard language has come into existence, which is continually gaining ground at the expense of the popular language. As through the schools the native population became proficient in reading, a craving for books arose that could not be satisfied by the Bible and textbooks. At an early period manuscript translations of Danish and foreign literature were circulated. But soon national subjects were introduced, such as the "Evening Talks" of Hans Egede, which 98 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 were printed in 1857. In the years 1859-1863 four volumes of "Green- landic Legends" appeared, with translations in Danish. The period after the middle of the nineteenth century became, generally speaking, a notable epoch in the cultural development of the Eskimo, centering around the names of Samuel Kleinschmidt and Dr. H. J. Rink. In 1861 a monthly magazine, atuagagdliutit ( = reading), was established, edited by native editors, which still continues. The first editor was Rasmus Berthelsen, who was succeeded by the printer Lars Moller, who died not very long ago. In this magazine, the contents of which are very diversified, there are a good many novels and stories, among them "Robinson Crusoe" and Kipling's "Captain's Courageous." It also contains articles on current events, on discoveries, and on scientific progress. More recently a special periodical, avangnamioq ( = North Greenlander) , has been established. In addition to these there are a few small religious papers. Originally the Eskimo were in the habit of expressing all emotions beyond the experience of everyday life to the accompaniment of drums. But from the very beginning this came under the ban of the missionaries because it was bound up with heathen worship. Instead of this, hymns in the European style were introduced. In the course of time many hymns were translated, and the Eskimo now have their own hymn book, which has passed through many editions. In the latest edition (1907) the names of a number of native psalmists are found. There has also developed a native secular poetry. In 1907 a Greenlandic book of songs appeared, a number of which were composed and set to music by natives; in later editions this book has been enlarged. It is now found in almost every household in Greenland. In recent years energetic efforts have been made toward creating an actual literature in the Greenlandic language under the auspices of a Greenland literary society, of which the chief moving spirit was the famous Arctic explorer the late Knud Rasmussen who, born in Greenland and with one-sixteenth native blood, was intimately familiar with the language and spirit of the Greenlanders. AMERICAN INTEREST IN GREENLAND It was in 1732 that American whaling ships first visited Davis Strait in search of the bowhead or Greenland whale. By 1737 a dozen vessels were fitted out at Provincetown alone for the Davis Strait whale fishery. But after 1741 the whalers were so molested by French and Spanish privateers that this fishery was abandoned for some years. It was finally ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 99 given up as a losing venture because of the scarcity of whales and the low price of whale products after 1897. Except for this, American interest in Greenland has been centered in exploration, especially in the northwestern and northern portions; in the use of Greenland as a base for the discovery of the North Pole; and more recently in detailed scientific investigations — geographical, meteorological, and biological — in cooperation with the Danes. The loss of Sir John Franklin's expedition in search of a northwest pas- sage was widely noticed in the press of that time, and several expeditions were sent out from England to search for Franklin and his companions, or at least to learn something of their fate. Interest in Franklin was not con- fined to England. In 1850 Henry Grinnell, a wealthy merchant of New York, fitted out two ships, the Advance and the Rescue, which he turned over to the United States Government for use on an expedition the chief objective of which was to search for Franklin and his men, with a secondary objective of obtaining scientific information. This expedition was placed under the command of Lt. Edwin Jesse de Haven, United States Navy, who had been with Wilkes in the Antarctic, with Dr. Elisha Kent Kane as chief surgeon. Later, in 1853-1855, Mr. Grinnell placed the Advance at the disposal of Dr. Kane, together with a considerable sum of money. Dr. Kane explored northwest Greenland and Grinnell Land, and reached the highest latitude ever reached by a sailing ship. Further search for traces of the Franklin expedition was made by Charles Francis Hall in 1860-1862, Mr. Grinnell again contributing toward the expenses. In 1860-1861 Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes wintered at Port Foulke and traversed the inland ice for 40 miles. In 1871-1873 Hall in the Polaris reached latitude 82° 11' N., a new record for this sector, but succumbed to the hardships. In connection with the First Polar Year, Lt. (later Maj. Gen.) Adolphus Washington Greeley commanded an Arctic expedition in 1881-1884. Lt. James Booth Lockwood, a member of this expedition, carried out some remarkable sledge journeys, reaching latitude 83° 24' N. in longitude 42° 45' W., the farthest north of that time, and filling in many geographi- cal details. Rear Admiral Robert Edwin Peary made his first polar expedition in 1886, traveling for 117 miles over the inland ice. In 1890-1894 he crossed the inland ice from north of Inglefield Gulf to Independence Fjord, and returned. In 1898-1902 he made his first attempt to reach the North Pole; though unsuccessful in this, he proved that Greenland is an island, 100 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 and charted the northern coast. In 1902 he traveled to Cape Hecla in Grant Land and thence northward over the ice to latitude 84° 17' N. in longitude 70° W., when he was compelled to return. In 1905, with Capt. Robert Abram Bartlett, he voyaged by Smith Sound and the north coast of Grant Land, sledged to Cape Hecla, and made a new record by reaching latitude 87°06' N. In 1908-1909 he reported having reached the Pole, where he made a sounding through the sea ice to a depth of 9,000 feet without reaching the bottom. In 1913-1917 Donald Baxter Macmillan commanded an expedition in search of Croker Land, sighted by Peary; further exploration was carried on in Ellesmere Land and the northwest. Prof. William Herbert Hobbs and his associates in 1930-1931 carried on extensive meteorological and other scientific work in Greenland. Greenland, including the surrounding seas, has been explored with great thoroughness by the Danes. Much supplementary work has also been done by investigators from other countries. Among those in this country may be mentioned Miss Louise Arner Boyd, well known for her explorations in East Greenland, and Columbus O'Donnell Iselin, who carried out oceanographic studies in Davis Strait. Ever since he first went north with Admiral Peary, Capt. Robert A. Bartlett has had a deep and lasting interest in Greenland. Spending many summers in Greenland waters, on both the west and east coasts, he and his associates have brought back extensive physical and geographical data and collections of all kinds which have contributed in no small degree to our knowledge of this area. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY The literature on Greenland, chiefly in Danish, English, and German, is extensive, but by far the greater part has been published in Copenhagen, largely under the auspices of the" Kommissionen for ledelsen af de geologiske og geografiske undersogelser i Gronland (Commission for the direction of the geological and geographical investigations in Greenland) . This Commission has published two encyclopedic works on Greenland, one in English entitled "Greenland," in three large volumes, 1928-1929, the other in Danish entitled "Gronland," in two volumes, 1921, on the two-hundredth anniversary of the first settlement by Hans Egede. Since 1879 the Commission has published a series of articles on Greenland, many of which are in English, under the title of "Meddelelser om Gronland"; this series now includes more than 140 volumes. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 101 The information given in the preceding pages is wholly from Danish sources, mainly from the publications of the Commission. The completed manuscript was most kindly examined and criticized by the Hon. C. A. C. Brun, Counselor of the Royal Danish Legation, Washington. INDIVIDUAL BOOKS Berlin, Knud Kugelberg. 1932. Denmark's right to Greenland; a survey of the past and present status of Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands in relation to Norway and Denmark. Oxford. Boas, Franz. 1909. The relationships of the Eskimos of East Greenland. Science, vol. 30. New York. Boyd, Louise Arner. 1935. Fiord region of East Greenland; with contributions by others. New York. Chapman, Frederick Spencer. 1936. Watkins' last expedition. London. Clavering, D. C. 1830. Journal of a voyage to Spitzbergen and the east coast of Greenland. Edinburgh. Damas, D. 1910. The oceanography of the Sea of Greenland. Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1909. Georgi, Johannes. 1935. Mid-ice; the story of the Wegner expedition to Greenland. New York. Graah, [Capt.] W. A. 1837. Narrative of an expedition to the east coast of Greenland. London. Greeley, [Maj. Gen.] A. W. 1910. Handbook of polar discoveries. Boston. Hayes, I. I. 1867. The open Polar Sea. London. Hobbs, W. H. 1926. The glacial anticyclones. New York. 1930. Exploring about the North Pole of the winds. New York. Jakhelln, Anton. 1936. Oceanographic investigations in east Greenland waters in the summers of 1930-'32. Oslo. Jensen, Ad. S., and Harder, Poul. 1910. Post glacial changes of climate in Arctic regions as revealed by inves- tigations on marine deposits. Stockholm. Joerg, W. L. G. (editor). 1928. Problems of polar research. New York. Kane, E. K. 1856. Arctic explorations; the second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853-'55. 2 vols. Philadelphia. 102 WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES, NO. 15 Kent, Rockwell. 1930. North by east. New York. 1932. Greenland. New York. Krabbe, Thomas Neergaard. 1930. Greenland; its nature, inhabitants and history. Oxford. Lindsay, Martin. 1932. Those Greenland days. Edinburgh. 1935. Sledge; the British trans-Greenland expedition, 1934. London. Markham, Sir Clements R. 1881. The voyages of William Baffin. London. Mathiassen, Therkel. 1937. The Eskimo archeology of Greenland. Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1936. Nansen, Fridtjof. 1911. In northern mists. 2 vols. New York. 1934. First crossing of Greenland. New York. Nares, Sir George S. 1878. Voyage to the Polar Sea in H.M.S. Discovery and Alert. 2 vols. London. Nordenskjold, Otto, and Mecking, Ludwig. 1928. The geography of the polar regions. New York. N0RLUND, Poul. 1936. Viking settlers in Greenland and their descendants during five hun- dred years . . . New York. Peary, [Rear Admiral] Robert Edwin. 1898. Northward over the great ice. 2 vols. New York. Putnam, David Binney. 1926. David goes to Greenland. New York. Rasmussen, Knud. 1908. People of the polar north. Philadelphia. 1921. Greenland by the Polar Sea. London. Rundall, Thomas. 1849. Narratives of voyages towards the north-west, in search of a passage to Cathay and India, 1496 to 1631. London. Sorge, Ernst. 1936. With 'plane, boat and camera in Greenland . . . New York. Van Patten, N. 1939. Printing in Greenland. Stanford University Press. Victor, P. E. 1939. My Eskimo life. New York. White, Adam. 1855. A collection of documents on Spitzbergen and Greenland. London. Wissler, Clark. 19 18. Archaeology of the Polar Eskimo. New York. ICELAND AND GREENLAND — CLARK 103 JOURNALS AND REPORTS atuagagdliutit. Godthaab. avangnamioq. North Greenland. The Danish /Kgo//-Expedition. Copenhagen. Geographical Journal (Royal Geographical Society) (see index volumes). London. Geographical Review. New York. Gronlands-Expedition der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde zu Berlin. Berlin. Hakluyt Society. London. Meddelelser on Gronland. Copenhagen. National Geographic Magazine (National Geographic Society) (see index vol- umes ) . Washington. Norwegian North-Atlantic Expedition 1876-'78. Christiania (Oslo). Scottish Geographical Magazine. Edinburgh, tark'igssut. Godthaab. University of Michigan; Reports of the Greenland Expeditions. Ann Arbor. 7 tii 5 9 0 8 8 0 tf/Hfitafafo£V 1 4 6 9 3 2 0 4