A Description of Greenland/Chapter 5

by Hans Egede

CHAP. V.

Of the Land Animals, and Land Fowls or Bird of Greenland; and how they hunt and kill them.

Greenland has no poisonous or ravenous Animals.There are no venomous Serpents or Insects, no ravenous wild Beasts to be seen in Greenland, if you except the Beat, which some will have to be an Amphibious Animal, as he lives chiefly upon the Ice in the most northern Parts, and feeds upon Seals and Fish. He very seldom appears near the Colony, in which I had taken up my Quarters. He is of a very large Size, and of a hideous and frightful As- pect, with white long Hairs; he is greedy of human Blood^[1]. The Natives tell us moreover of another kind of ravenous Beasts, which they call Amarok, which eagerly pursue other Beasts as well as Mne; yet none of them could say, they ever had seen them, but only had it from others by hearsay; and whereas none of our own People, who have travelled up and down the Country, ever met with any such Beast, therefore I take it to be a mere Fable. Rain-Deer are in some Places in so great Numbers, that you will see whole Herds of them^[2]; and when they go and seed in Herds, they are dangerous to come at. The Natives spend the whole The whole Summer is spent in Rain-Deer hunting.Summer Season in hunting of Rain-Deer, going up to the innermost Parts of the Bayts, and carrying, for the most part, their Wives and Children along with them, where they remain till the Harvest Season comes on. In the mean while they with so much Eagerness hunt, pursue and destroy these poor Deer, that they have no Place of Safety, but what the Greenlanders know; and where they are in any Number, there they chase them by Clap-hunting, setting upon them on all Sides, and surrounding them with all their Women and Children, to force them into Defiles and narrow Passages, where the Men armed lay in wait for them and kill them. And when they have not People enough to surround them, then they put up white Poles (to make up the Number that is wanted) with Pieces of Turf to head them, which frightens the Deer, and hinders it from escaping. There are also vast Numbers of Hares,Greenland Hares very good. which are white Summer and Winter, very fat and of a good Taste. Great Number of Foxes, white and grey.There are Foxes of different Colours, white, grey and blueish; they are of a lesser Size than those of Denmark and Norway, and not so hairy, but more like Martens. The Natives commonly catch them alive in Traps, built of Stones like little Huts. The res of fourfooted Animals, which ancient Historians tell us are found in Greenland, are Sobles, Marterns, Wolves, Losses, Ermins, and several others; I have met with none of them on the Western Side. See Arngrim Jonas's History of Greenland; as also Ivarus Beni's Relation mentioned by Undalinus. Tame Animals none, but Dogs.Tame or domestik Animals there are none, but Dogs in great Numbers, and of a large Size, with white Hairs, or white and black, and standing Ears. They are, in their kind, as timorous and stupid as their Masters, for they never bay or bark, but howl only. In the northern Parts they use them instead of Horses,Are used instead of Horses. to darg their Sledges, tying four or six, and sometimes eight or ten to a Sledge, loaden with five or six of the largest Seals, with the Master setting up himself, who drives as fast with them, as we can do with good Horses, for they often make 15 German Miles with them, in a Winter Day, upon the Ice: And though the poor Dogs are of so great Service to them, yet they don't use them well, Are left to provide for themselves.for they are left to provide for, and submit themselves, as wild Beasts, feeding upon Muscles thrown up on the Sea-side, or upon Berries in the Summer Season; and when there has been a great Capture of Seals, they give them their Blood boil'd and their Entrails.

As for Land Fowls or Birds, Greenland knows of none but Rypper, which is a sort of large Partridges,Here are large white Partridges in abundance. white in Winter, and grey in Summer-time, and these they have in great Number. Ravens seem to be domestick Birds with them, for they are always seen about their Huts, hovering about the Carcasses of Seals, that lie upon the Ground. There are likewise very Eagles,As likewise Eagles and Falcons. their Wings spread out being a Fathom wide, but they are seldom seen in the Northern Parts of the Country. You find here Falcons or Hawks, some grey, some of a whitish Plumage, and some speckled; as also great speckled Owls. There are different sorts of little Sparrows,Singing Birds. Snow Birds, and Ice Birds, and a little Bird not unlike a Linnet, which has a very melodious Tune.

The Gnats are here very troublesome.Amongst the Insects of Greenland, the Midge or Gnats are the most troublesome, whose Sting leaves a swelling and burning Pain behind it; and this Trouble they are most exposed to in the hot Season, against which there is no Shelter to be found. There are also Spiders, Flies, Humble-Bees and Wasps. They know nothing of any venomous Animals, as Serpents and the like; nor have they any Snakes, Toads, Frogs, Beetles, Ants, or Bees; neither are they plagued with Rats, Mice, or any such Vermine.

 

1. The Bears here pursue Men, and other Beasts.In the 76th Degree of Latitude the Number of Bears is so great, that they in Droves surround the Natives Habitations, who then, with their Dogs, fall upon them, and with their Spears and Lances kill them. In Winter, instead of Dens or Caves under the Earth, as in Norway and other Places, here the Bears make theirs under the Snow; which, according to the Information the Natives have given me, are made with Pillars, like stately Buildings.
2. The farther you go Northwards, the seldomer you meet with Rain-Deer, except in the 3d or 4th Degree to the North of Disco, where they are in great Numbers; perhaps by reason either of its joining to America, or else because the Deer pass over to the Islands upon the Ice, in quest of Food, which the main Land, covered with Ice and Snow, does not afford them. The Natives, instead of Reason, give us a very childish A Greenland Tale of Disco-Island's being towed from South to North.Tale for the vast Number of Rain-Deer being found upon Diso-Island, as follows: A mighty Greenlander (one Torngarsuk, as they call him, who is Father to an ugly frightful Woman, who resides in the lowermost Region of the Earth, and has Command over all the Animals of the Sea, as we shall see hereafter) did, with his Kajar, tow this Island to the Place where it now lies, from the South where it was before. Now, as the Face of this Island resembles, very much, the Southern Coasts, and the Root Angelica is likewise found upon it, which grows no where else in the neighbourind Parts, this confirms them in their Credulity. And furthermore, they will assure, that a Hole is seen to this Day in the Island, through which the Towing-Rope had been fastened by Torngarsuk.

 

 

Illustration of native Greenland seals and other animals, 1745.

Illustration of Greenlandic Inuit hunters, 1745.