Two Summers in Greenland. An artist's adventures among ice and islands, in fiords and mountains ... Illustrated

Introduction

. What induced me to visit the home of icebergs, and why my experiences have been published — Hans Egede and the Eskimos — Discovery of Greenland by Gunbjorn — Settlement by Erik the Red — East and West Bygd — Bjarni Herjulfson went to drink yule-tide ale, and came in sight of new lands — Leif Eriksun called them Helluland, Markland, and Vinland — Thorwald went farther south and was slain in battle — Thorfin made new discoveries and traded with the natives — Greenland settlers kept trading-posts in Vinland — The bard Helge of Brattelid — Leif embraced Christianity — Thiodhilda built the first church — Bishop Arnold persuaded the Greenlanders to swear allegiance to the King of Norway — In the year 1266 explorers reached 75° 46' N. lat. — In the year 1235 seal-hunters erected a cairn, with Runic stone, in 73° N. lat. — The last ship to Markland — The colonies became neglected — -The men acquainted with Greenland navigation were murdered in Bergen in 1448 — Expedition for rediscovery despatched from Denmark in 1579— John Davis landed in Greenland in 1585 — Failure of an expedition in search of silver mines — No ancient record of the first Eskimo invasion — Norse records of the destruction of the West By^d — An Eskimo tradition of the final extermination of the Norsemen — Hans Egede landed in Greenland — The King of Denmark granted an annual sum, and commenced a trade to suppurt Egede's mission

Chapter I

In spring, when the birds wander north, I accept an invitation to join an expedition and follow them— Heavy weather in the North Atlantic — One of the party taken sick and dies — A burial at sea — Approaching Greenland, we meet the John Franklyn and hear news— Winter and its long days — Flocks of birds and the first iceberg — Kayak-men pay us a visit — Arrival of the pilot — The anchor i< dropped CONTENTS. VIII 70

Chapter II. Pack

Holstenborg— The colonies— Snowstorm and frost on Whit-Sunday —A colonist explains how a year passes for Europeans in Greenland—Improvidence of the natives— Scotch whalers and American fishermen— The church and the wooden buildings of the Danes— Eskimo buildings and their inhabitants— The girls dress for a ball and catch cold — We put on ski and ascend a mountain — A crew is selected — Yearly income of a Greenlander — Laws and municipal council . . . . . . • • ■ • • • 1°

Chapter III

We leave Holstenborg and go to the islands — The weather improves rapidly — A rotten hide in the boat splits — Ivar's tent — We get another boat— Sarfanguak— A seal-catch — Grand ball — A boydrowned — The island of Nepiset— Floating fat — The station of Ivtitlik and fjord of the same name — Flowers — A. reindeer hunt and a feast afterwards — Birds' rock — Ikertok fjord — A salmon river — Aggressive mosquitoes — The inland ice — A deserted " village — Carolus — The angmaset — Return to Holstenborg — Our men meet their sweethearts . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter IV

Off to the south — Stopped by bad weather — The shoals and Andreas Olzen's landmarks — Salmon-fishers — A suggestion of "Valhalla — Station of Kangamiut — South Strom fjord — Wild mountain scenery — -A grave — The landscape changes its aspect — Shoals in the fjord — We wander inland for three days and reach the inland ice — Mads — The reindeer hunting grounds — Strange appearance of the soil near the ice — Signs of prevailing south-east winds — Jensen goes to a nunatak — Whortle-berries — We return to our tent — Other parts to the north of the fjord are explored — A native clergyman — The coming winter casts a shadow before it — A magnesia lake — Farewell to South Strom fjord . . . . 51

Chapter V

On the coast — A fight between a fox and a falcon — We return to Kangamiut— Tales of winter life — Our crew gives a ball and prepares to go home— A boat is hired to take us to Sukkertoppen, where a fresh crew is engaged — Great catch of salmon — We enter Eternity fjord — Grand surroundings — Kayakers are sent to tell us to return— All hands " splice the main brace" — The Venice of Greenland— Mary Magdalena and Habakkuk — The reason why Claus Skifte left his native isle — Eskimo superstitions — The fox and the goose embark with us — We reach Copenhagen safely . . CONTENTS. IX 124

Chapter VI. Page

Off to Greenland again — All birds do not travel safely — The White Bear is presented at the capital of Greenland — Good seal-catching — Early spring — A Moravian mission — Early Moravians and Dr. H. Rink's remarks on them — The Holstenborgers disturbed in their sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Chapter VII

I meet old friends — Pay a visit to Sarfanguak — A Greenlander who is too soft-hearted to strike a seal — Ivar's tent — Beautiful scenery — Scotch whalers — A sailor's funeral — I go north with an anthropologist — We camp at Ukivik and cross North Strom fjord — A walrus embedded in ice — Strangers — A man who had lost his nose and one hand by frost-bite — Aito and its outposter — A town that lived half a year on a dead whale — Sad cases of men crippled by exposure — Kangitsiak — Why the dogs were so thin — E^edesminde — -North Greenland does not follow the fashion of the south — -The outposter on Dog Island, who for fifty years had not seen five of his countrymen at one time — Anthropological studies are sometimes difficult in Greenland — The black spot — Eskimo names for other nations — Ikamiut — Growth checked by starvation — Suicide — Among the Christianshaab — Dog disease — Warm winds — North Greenlanders proud of their winter — Claushavn . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Chapter VIII

Jakobshavn ice-fjord — Sword-fish — I am troubled by mosquitoes — Disco-land as a barometer — -The Rev. Mr. Rasmussen and his servant Godman — Greenlanders travel out to see the world, and I go with them — The island of Tusak — Kittiwakes and puffins have taken possession of the lands — Godman relates his hunting adventures — Kronprins's Islands — We cross Disco Strait and reach Godhavn — Trap mountains — Walrus-hunt in the harbour

Chapter IX

Native opposition to the inspector's authority — I let slip the opportunity of returning home by the steamer — Disco fjord — Interior of Disco-land is unexplored— The natives at church — The ceremony of rubbing noses is abandoned, and that of hand-shaking not quite established — We return to Egedesminde, where a brig is waiting for the arrival of Dr. Nansen — Mr. Meigaard — We pass Green Island and come to Claushavn — A strong current CONTENTS. X PAGB —The cause of the current and its results— Our crew find no place like home— Klokkerhuk— Fine sport with ptarmigan and eider-ducks— In a dense fog we reach Ritenbenk— The Waigat and Tesketok ice-fjords— Krikkertak— A grand dinner in Sar kak — Difficulties caused by ice — The first snow and the Sep tember moon — Read Bay — Au iceberg gone to pieces . . . . 137

Chapter X

Wonderful story of mirage and of a large animal — Akugdlet, whence explorers were sent in search of Nansen — Already very cold on the inland ice — I pass the islands again and find most birds gone — A sledge ride at Egedesminde — Remarks on the Eskimo dogs — Tales from the extreme north — Hostile demonstration in Upernivik — A benevolent Greenlander — Bear-hunting in winter — A woman supposed to have been devoured by bears — Footprints of unknown animals — A savset — -Seals come up to bask in the sun in the month of May .. .. .. .. ..153

Chapter XI

My impressions of Greenland and its people — Their life and industries — Musically gifted — Danish endeavours to cultivate the natives on an Eskimo basis — An express from Akugdlet announces that Nansen has not arrived — I embark and go to sea — " A life on the ocean wave " — We knock about for three weeks in Davis Strait; in two weeks we reach the North Sea, and undergo three weeks' buffeting by the waves —Drop anchor in the roads of Copenhagen .. .. .. .. FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. l'AC K Disco Fjord ... ... ... ... ... Frontispiece Aurora Borealis ... ... ... ... ... ... 8 Katakkbr in High Sea ... ... ... ... ... e4 Ocr Skin Boat under Sail ... ... ... ... 32 Ivtitlik Fjord ... ... ... ... ... ... 42 Carolus' Hut ... ... ... ... • ... ... 48 Among the Outer Islands ... ... ... ... ... 52 A Suggestion of Valhalla ... ... ... ... 54 The Inland Ice with a Nunatak ... ... ... ... 04 A Lake in the Snow-Fliee ... ... ... ...

INTRODUCTION.

. What induced me to visit the home of icebergs, and why my experiences have been published — Hans Egede and the Eskimos — Discovery of Greenland by Gunbjorn — Settlement by Erick the Red — East and West Bygd — Bjarni Herjulsson went to drink yule-tide ale, and came in sight of new lands — Leif Erikson called them Helluland, Markland, aud Vinland — Thorwald went farther south and was slain in battle — Thorfin made new discoveries and traded with the natives — Greenland settlers kept trading-posts in Vinland — The bard Helge of Brattelid — Leif embraced Christianity — Thiodhilda built the first church — Bishop Arnold persuaded the Greenlanders to swear allegiance to the King of Norway — In the year 1266 explorers reached 75° 46" N. lat. — In the year 1235 seal-hunters erected a cairn, with Runic stone, in 73° N. lat. — The last ship to Markland — The colonies became neglected — The men acquainted with Greenland navigation were murdered in Bergen in 1448 — Expedition for rediscovery despatched from Denmark in 1579 — John Davis landed in Greenland in 1585 — Failure of an expedition in search of silver mines — No ancient record of the first Eskimo invasion — Norse records of the destruction of the West Bygd — An Eskimo tradition of the final extermination of the Norsemen — Hans Egede landed in Greenland — The King of Denmark granted an annual sum, and commenced a trade to support Egede's mission. It was from a desire of becoming personally acquainted with the Polar zone that I went to Green-

INTRODUCTION.

. XIV land. It was but natural that I should be full of anticipations, and equally natural that at first I often felt disappointed. I soon, however, discovered that my labours were amply recompensed by what I saw, the novelty of which often impressed me strongly. Since my return, many questions have been asked me with regard to the climate and the people of that land, proving that but a little real knowledge of the subject exists, in spite of the great attraction to the mind of Polar lands in general. I therefore venture to place my experiences before the public, hoping that my shortcomings as a narrator may be excused, and this book received for what it is — not a scientific work, but as the mere impressions of a man who for two summers wandered over many parts of the Greenland coast, and whose main desire was to see the landscape and depict the effects of colour and light with the truthfulness felt by every artist possessed of regard for Mother Nature.

Everybody knows the name of Greenland, but comparatively few are acquainted with the fact that there is to be found in it a population of Eskimos who have been under the influence of Christianity for more than a century, differing in this respect from the Eskimos of other parts, who, with a few excep tions, still are heathens. This leaven of Christianity is the result of a single pious and energetic man, who went to Greenland to preach to the descendants

INTRODUCTION.

. XV of Northmen supposed still to inhabit the country. This man came to love the heathen Eskimos so much that he resolved to stay with them, regardless of privations and danger. He succeeded in per suading the Danish Government to assist him, and inspired others with a desire to follow him. Surely Hans Egede deserves to be included among the heroes of the world. Many have made sacrifices for their own nation or race. He settled among de graded savages. Many have gone to preach among savages in other parts — some sent by a mighty and ambitious Church, others actuated by a pure enthu siasm for the Word of God ; but few have expe rienced the hardships and difficulty of this man. What had finally become of the ancient Northmen has never been ascertained. Their ruined houses and churches may still be traced ; and it is not unlikely, as claimed by some, that they were extir pated by the Eskimos.

The following historical remarks are chiefly com piled from Dr. H. Rink's work on Greenland : — We learn from the Icelandic sagas of a certain Gunbjorn who, driven westward by storms, had there seen an unknown land. A few years later, another Icelander, Erik the Red, started on an expe dition in search of this new land, which he found and explored. He stayed two winters in it, and gave many places names. The third summer he returned to Iceland, and called the new country Greenland,

INTRODUCTION.

. "because much people will go thither if the land has a fair name." He succeeded in collecting and manning twenty-five ships, of which, however, but fourteen arrived ; the rest being either lost or com pelled to put back. This first settlement is supposed to have taken place in the year 986. The new-comers divided the land between them and formed two settlements — the East Bygd and the West Bygd; the East Bygd being the largest. Among the settlers was a man by the name of Herjulf, who had a son, Bjarni, of a roaming disposition. Having won both riches and esteem at an early age, Bjarni fitted out a vessel and made a voyage every other winter. On one occasion, when he came home, he found that his father had gone with Erik. He at once put to sea again to follow the expedition, saying that he intended to continue his old habit of spending every other winter with his father, and to drink the yule-tide ale with him, as had been his wont since a boy.

The fact that none of the party had ever been in the Greenland sea was a matter of little concern to him or his crew. They started with a favourable wind, but a dense fog arose and concealed both sun and stars, so that they did not know whither they went for many days. At length they sighted land, but Bjarni said it could not be Greenland. They sailed close up to it, and found it to be without mountains, only exhibiting small heights covered with trees.

INTRODUCTION.

. XVII Steering onward for two days more, they again came in sight of land, which was flat and also well wooded. The sailors insisted upon landing ; but Bjarni would not consent, and sailed north, with favourable winds, for three days, when he a third time beheld land, which looked barren and full of glaciers. Once more he put to sea, the strength of the wind soon compelling him to shorten sail ; but after the lapse of four days he again saw land, when his crew asked him whether he believed this to be Greenland. He answered, " It appears most like Greenland, according to what I have been told concerning it, and we will try to land." They did so, and disembarked on a promontory which they found to be the very spot where Bjarni's father lived, and there he took up his abode with him. The news of Bjarni's adventurous voyage soon reached Iceland and Norway, creating a great stir ; but people wondered that he could have been so devoid of curiosity as to have omitted to set his foot on any of the new places which he had dis covered, and that he had nothing at all to relate about them.

The first expedition in search of these new countries issued from Greenland, and was planned at Brattelid, the name of Erik the Red's settlement. Erik's son, Leif, bought Bjarni's ship. Erik himself reluctantly consented to undertake the leadership of the party. In riding, however, to the fjord from his b iviii INTR OD UCTION. house, the horse stumbled and he had a fall. Accepting this accident as a bad omen, he said, " It will never be my lot to discover any other land than the one we are now in possession of, and we shall henceforth make no more voyages together." He thereupon abandoned the command to Leif, who sailed with a crew of thirty-five men, all told. They first came to the coast which Bjarni had seen last, and, mooring their vessel, went ashore, but found the land a plain with flat stones without any grass, and some distance inland mountains covered with snow.

They called the country Helluland. Again they made sail, and after a time came to another coast, where they also landed. The country was level and covered with wood. They called it Markland. Making no stay there, they continued their voyage, with a wind from the north-east, for two days more, when they came to a third land. Here they found themselves at the mouth of a river, sailing up which they came to a lake, where the country was so pleasant that they resolved to take up their winter quarters there. They built large houses, and Leif so arranged that, while some remained at home, others explored the sur rounding country, always using great circumspec tion, and not separating from one another, or going out to a greater distance than enabled them to return home by nightfall. They found an abundance of large salmon and an exuberant vegetation.

INTRODUCTION.

. XIX Leif had a servant, or thrall, a German by birth, who had been with him from childhood, and was much devoted to him. He was found missing one day when a party returned home, and Leif immediately sent explorers in search of him. He was soon found, but in a state of perfect intoxication. When sober enough to tell what had happened, he related that he had found grapes, which he at once recognized owing to having been born on the Rhine, and had partaken of them, not wisely, but too well. It must be remembered that the author of the saga was not of the crew, and had never been to Greenland, or countries beyond. Being an Icelander, it is not to be wondered that his know ledge of the character of the grape was imperfect, and that he might believe the unfermented juice of wine to be intoxicating.

At all events, grapes were discovered in abundance, and Leif called the country Yinland. The next year he returned to Greenland with a cargo of timber and grapes. The next expedition mentioned is that by Lief's brother Thorwald, with the same ship and thirty men. It is supposed to have taken place between the years 1002 and 1005. He stayed at Lief 's house in Vinland, and explored the country without seeing any in habitants ; but next summer he went further south, where he came to a flat promontory which looked very beautiful, and was all covered with forest. Down on the sandy beach he discovered three skin

INTRODUCTION.

. XX boats, and three men in each of them. They at once gave chase to the strangers, and succeeded in catching and killing eight of them ; one, however, escaped and disappeared in the interior of the fjord. Soon after an immense crowd of skin canoes ap peared and begun a battle with the ship, in which fijHit Thorwald was killed with an arrow. His men stayed one more winter in Vinland, and next year returned to Greenland. Here, again, we may believe that the author has confused the skin boats of the Eskimos with the birch-bark canoes of the North American Indians, as there is no other record of Indians having used skin for boats, nor of Eskimos having lived so far south. A study of the sagas has led to the conclusion that Vinland was Connecticut, and the flat lands, with the sandy beach and the fjord, may consequently have been on the borders of the Hudson or Long Island Sound.

Two years later, a rich and active man, Thorfin Karlsefne, came from Norway to Greenland, where he married a relation of Erik. He sailed with one hundred and sixty men, and came likewise to Helluland, Markland, and Vinland, and made many discoveries. He began trading with the natives, selling cloth for fur, and was on friendly terms with them until some misunderstanding arose and an encounter ensued, ending in a murderous fight. Karlsefne returned from Vinland to Greenland in 1011, and after that time the Greenland settlers con-

INTRODUCTION.

. XXI tinued to have in Vinland outlying colonies which were visited on trading voyages, but they never retained possession of them for any length of time, most likely on account of their scanty number and the hostility of the natives. From the first century of the Norse settlements of Greenland, we have interesting records of some distinguished chiefs, giving detailed accounts of the life of the settlers, but subsequent to the death of the illustrious chief and bard, Helge of Brattelid, in 1070, the tidings from these colonies suddenly became rare. Leif spent a winter with King Olaf in Norway, and was converted to Christianity. He returned with a priest and some clerks, but Erik showed no disposition to embrace Christianity, and called the priests " evil men." His wife, Thiodhilda, however, was baptized, and built a church at Brattelid, where she often went to repeat her prayers, and the people of Greenland soon adopted the Christian faith.

The first bishop sent by the pope was Arnold, in 1126. In 1261 a bishop came out from Norway, and he persuaded the Greenlanders to swear alle giance to King Haken Hakensen, from which time Greenland, from being a republic, became subject to the Norwegian Government. Of about the same date is an interesting account of an exploring expe dition to the farthest north. It is related to have been made in the year 1266, and the detailed state-

INTRODUCTION.

. XXII ments lead to the conclusion that the explorers had passed through Lancaster Sound into the inlets of the Arctic archipelago, and reached a latitude of 75° 46'. It is stated that the colonists used to carry on seal-hunting in the northern regions, which asser tion is confirmed by a Runic stone found in a cairn on a small island in about 73° N. lat. The stone was presented to the Museum of Northern Antiquaries in Copenhagen. It has been read and interpreted by George Stephens as follows : — " Elling Sigvarthson and Baane Tolarson and Enrithi Osson on the Saturday before Gang Day * raised these beacons (landmarks) and ridded (made this clearing) 235 (= 1235)." During the fourteenth century periods of several years often seem to have passed by in which no ships at all came from Greenland to Norway.

In the year 1347 one ship arrived which had also visited Markland. This is the last trace of ancient communication between Scandinavia and the American continent. During the period subsequent to the year 1349, when the plague or "Black Death " broke out in Norway, the far-off colony was still more neglected. In 1379 it is said that the western settlement was attacked and destroyed by * Gang Day, Eogation Day, or St. Mark's Day, is the 25th of April. In 1235 St. Mark's Day fell upon Wednesday. The previous Saturday was April 21.

INTRODUCTION.

. XXIII Eskimos, and that the Northmen were thenceforth confined to the southernmost part of the country. A document of the year 1409 has been preserved, containing a wedding contract of a young Icelander who married during a visit to Greenland. It was drawn up in Garde, in Greenland, by the vicar of the bishop. In all likelihood none of the bishops appointed to Greenland after that time ever set foot in that country. The last titular Bishop of Greenland died in Denmark in the year 1540. After the year 1409 the tidings grew more and more rare and obscure. In 1432 a treaty was made between England and Denmark, according to which the English king promised that such people as had been carried off from Iceland and other northern countries should be sent home after having been duly paid compensation.

Also a brief, written in 1448 by the pope to a bishop in Norway, indicates that people had been carried away in thraldom by ships from the British Islands, where the pesti lence had caused great decrease in the population, and where labourers were sought for from such northern countries as had escaped the general calamity. The brief treats of the pitiful condition of the inhabitants of Greenland, who thirty-two years before had been attacked by a hostile fleet. The invaders had laid waste the land, and carried off people of both sexes into captivity. Many of the captives had come back and rebuilt their houses,

INTRODUCTION.

. but, being without priests, they had to perform long and troublesome journeys in order to repair to those whom the barbarians had spared. In the fifteenth century communication still seems to have existed. There has been found an old historical notice which tells us that in the year 1448 there lived in Bergen forty men who were acquainted with the Greenland navigation, and used annually to bring home precious cargoes from that country. On returning that year, they were asked by some German merchants, who resided in Bergen, to sell some of their wares, but they declined to let them have any. The Germans then took revenge by murdering them during a banquet. From this moment, it is said, it became impossible to sail for Greenland, because nobody knew the course thither. In 1579 and 1581, the first expeditions were despatched from Denmark for the re-discovery of Greenland and the resumption of trade with its inhabitants.

It seemed to have been a firm belief that people of Norse descent still lived there, "but so totally had the knowledge of. the colony been neglected, that these expeditions only tried to reach the east coast. It was John Davis who, in the year 1585, when in search of the North-West Passage, discovered the strait named after him, and, following the west coast of Greenland, succeeded in landing there in about 64° N. lat., where he entered a fjord and

INTRODUCTION.

. XXV bartered with the natives. An expedition sent out by King Christian the Fourth of Denmark, in 1605, brought home some silver ore, and the king, in the hope of acquiring a lucrative colony, levied a special Greenland tax throughout his dominions, and equipped the next year no fewer than five ships for an expedition, chiefly with the aim of mining silver ore ; but the result was utter disappointment, and no further mention has been made of any silver mines. The East Bygd is reported to have had eleven or twelve churches and one hundred and ninety villages or farms, while mention is made of only three or four churches and ninety farms in the West Bygd. Many ruins have been discovered, but, as the dwellings and also many of the churches may be supposed to have been built of wood, it is not strange that the ruins of all have not been traced.

A contemporaneous record written in Norway runs thus : — " The people of Greenland are obliged to import a great many things from other countries, such as timber for their houses, as well as iron, whereas they, on • the other hand, export sheep skins, ox-hides, seal-skins, tusks of walrus, and rope cut out of their hides. Some of the richest persons have made the experiment of sowing corn, but the people in general have no idea of bread, and have as yet never had the sight of it. There are, however, to be found pretty good pastures, and

INTRODUCTION.

. there are also fine large farms on which the owners keep plenty of cows and sheep, and prepare a good deal of butter and cheese ; from this produce a great part of their means of sustenance is derived, as well as from all manner of game, such as the flesh of reindeer, whales, seals, and bears." When the hostile invasion of Eskimos which finally conquered the Norsemen commenced is not mentioned in any of the Icelandic authors. The first settlers found traces of Eskimos, proving them to have been there before, and when they afterwards appeared in small numbers they seem to have lived on friendly terms with the Norsemen for a long time. The renowned Icelandic author, Are Tor gilson, who lived from 1068 to 1148, in his book, " On the Icelanders," writes as follows :— " The land called Greenland was peopled from Iceland. . . .