the nights in the beginning of September, and the minimum during
the winter may probably sink to −90° F. in the interior of the inland
ice. These low temperatures are evidently caused by the radiation
of heat from the snow-surface in the rarefied air in the interior.
The daily range of temperature is therefore very considerable,
sometimes amounting to 40°. Such a range is elsewhere found only
in deserts, but the surface of the inland ice may be considered to be
an elevated desert of snow.[1] The climate of the east coast is on the
whole considerably more arctic than that of the west coast on
corresponding latitudes; the land is much more completely snow-covered,
and the snow-line goes considerably lower. The probability
also is that there is more precipitation, and that the mean temperatures
are lower.[2] The well-known strangely warm and dry föhn-winds
of Greenland occur both on the west and the east coast;
they are more local than was formerly believed, and are formed by
cyclonic winds passing either over mountains or down the outer
slope of the inland ice.[3] Mirage and similar phenomena and the
aurora are common.
Fauna and Flora.—It was long a common belief that the fauna and flora of Greenland were essentially European, a circumstance which would make it probable that Greenland has been separated by sea from America during a longer period of time than from Europe. The correctness of this hypothesis may, however, be doubted. The land mammals of Greenland are decidedly more American than European; the musk-ox, the banded lemming (Cuniculus torquatus), the white polar wolf, of which there seems to have been a new invasion recently round the northern part of the country to the east coast, the Eskimo and the dog—probably also the reindeer—have all come from America, while the other land mammals, the polar bear, the polar fox, the Arctic hare, the stoat (Mustela erminea), are perfectly circumpolar forms. The species of seals and whales are, if anything, more American than European, and so to some extent are the fishes. The bladder-nose seal (Cystophora cristata), for instance, may be said to be a Greenland-American species, while a Scandinavian species, such as the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus), appears to be very rare both in Greenland and America. Of the sixty-one species of birds breeding in Greenland, eight are European-Asiatic, four are American, and the rest circumpolar or North Atlantic and North Pacific in their distribution.[4] About 310 species of vascular plants are found, of which about forty species are American, forty-four European-Asiatic, fifteen endemic, and the rest common both to America and Europe or Asia. We thus see that the American and the European-Asiatic elements of the flora are nearly equivalent; and if the flora of Arctic North America were better known, the number of plants common to America might be still more enlarged.[5]
In the south, a few goats, sheep, oxen and pigs have been introduced. The whaling industry was formerly prolific off the west coast but decayed when the right whale nearly disappeared. The white whale fishery of the Eskimo, however, continued, and sealing is important; walruses are also caught and sometimes narwhal. There are also important fisheries for cod, caplin, halibut, red fish (Sebastes) and nepisak (Cyclopterus lumpus); a shark (Somniosus microcephalus) is taken for the oil from its liver; and sea-trout are found in the streams and small lakes of the south. On land reindeer were formerly hunted, to their practical extinction in the south, but in the districts of Godthaab, Sukkertoppen and Holstensborg there are still many reindeer. The eider-duck, guillemot and other sea-birds are in some parts valuable for food in winter, and so is the ptarmigan. Eggs of sea-birds are collected and eider-down. Valuable fur is obtained from the white and blue fox, the skin of the eider-duck and the polar bear.
At Tasiusak (73° 22′ N.), the most northern civilized settlement in the world, gardening has been attempted without success, but several plants do well in forcing frames. At Umanak (70° 40′ N.) is the most northern garden in the world. Broccoli and radishes grow well, turnips (but not every year), lettuce and chervil succeed sometimes, but parsley cannot be reared. At Jacobshavn (69° 12′ N.), only some 15 m. from the inland ice, gardening succeeds very well; broccoli and lettuce grow willingly; the spinach produces large leaves; chervil, pepper-grass, leeks, parsley and turnips grow very well; the radishes are sown and gathered twice during the summer (June to August). In the south, in the Julianehaab district, even flowering plants, such as aster, nemophilia and mignonette, are cultivated, and broccoli, spinach, sorrel, chervil, parsley, rhubarb, turnips, lettuce, radishes grow well. Potatoes give fair results when they are taken good care of, carrots grow to a thickness of 112 in., while cabbage does poorly. Strawberries and cucumbers have been ripened in a forcing frame. In the “Kongespeil” (King’s mirror) of the 13th century it is stated that the old Norsemen tried in vain to raise barley.
The wild vegetation in the height of summer is, in favourable situations, profuse in individual plants, though scanty in species. The plants are of the usual arctic type, and identical with or allied to those found in Lapland or on the summits of the highest British hills. Forest there is none in all the country. In the north, where the lichen-covered or ice-shaven rocks do not protrude, the ground is covered with a carpet of mosses, creeping dwarf willows, crow-berries and similar plants, while the flowers most common are the andromeda, the yellow poppy, pedicularis, pyrola, &c. besides the flowering mosses; but in South Greenland there is something in the shape of bush, the dwarf birches even rising a few feet in very sheltered places, the willows may grow higher than a man, and the vegetation is less arctic and more abundant.
Government and Trade.—The trade of Greenland is a monopoly of the Danish crown, dating from 1774, and is administered in Copenhagen by a government board (Kongelige Grönlandske Handel) and in the country by various government officials. In order to meet the double purposes of government and trade the west coast, up to nearly 74° N., is divided into two inspectorates, the southern extending to 67° 40′ N., the northern comprising the rest of the country; the respective seats of government being at Godthaab and Godhavn. These inspectorates are ruled by two superior officials or governors responsible to the director of the board in Copenhagen. Each of the inspectorates is divided into districts, each district having, in addition to the chief settlement or coloni, several outlying posts and Eskimo hunting stations, each presided over by an udligger, who is responsible to the coloni-bestyrer, or superintendent of the district. These trading settlements, which dot the coast for a distance of 1000 m., are about sixty in number. From the Eskimo hunting and fishing stations blubber is the chief article received, and is forwarded in casks to the coloni, where it is boiled into oil, and prepared for being despatched to Copenhagen by means of the government ships which arrive and leave between May and November. For the rest of the year navigation is stopped, though the winter months form the busy seal-killing season. The principle upon which the government acts is to give the natives low prices for their produce, but to sell them European articles of necessity at prime cost, and other stores, such as bread, at prices which will scarcely pay for the purchase and freight, while no merchandise is charged, on an average, more than 20% over the cost price in Denmark. In addition the Greenlanders are allowed to order goods from private dealers on paying freight for them at the rate of 212d. per 10 ℔, or 1s. 6d. per cub. ft. The prices to be paid for European and native articles are fixed every year, the prices current in Danish and Eskimo being printed and distributed by the government. Out of the payment five-sixths are given to the sellers, and one-sixth devoted to the Greenlanders’ public fund, spent in “public works,” in charity, and on other unforeseen contingencies. The object of the monopoly is solely for the good of the Greenlanders—to prevent spirits being sold to them, and the vice, disease and misery which usually attend the collision between natives and civilization of the trader’s type being introduced into the primitive arctic community. The inspectors, in addition to being trade superintendents, are magistrates, but serious crime is very rare. Though the officials are all-powerful, local councils or parsissaet were organized in 1857 in every district. To these parish parliaments delegates are sent from every station. These parsissoks, elected at the rate of about one representative to 120 voters, wear a cap with a badge (a bear rampant), and aid the European members of the council in distributing the surplus profit apportioned to each district, and generally in advising as to the welfare of that part of Greenland under their partial
- ↑ H. Mohn, “The Climate of the Interior of Greenland,” The Scott. Geogr. Magazine, vol. ix. (Edinburgh, 1893), pp. 142-145, 199; H. Mohn and F. Nansen, “Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse,” &c. Ergänzungsheft No. 105 zu Petermanns Mitteilungen (1892), p. 51.
- ↑ On the climate of the east coast of Greenland see V. Willaume-Jantzen, Meddelelser om Grönland, part ix. (1889), pp. 285-310, part xvii. (1895), pp. 171-180.
- ↑ See A. Paulsen, Meteorolog. Zeitschrift (1889), p. 241; F. Nansen, The First Crossing of Greenland (London, 1890), vol. ii. pp. 496-497; H. Mohn and F. Nansen, “Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse,” &c. Ergänzungsheft No. 105 zu Petermanns Mitteilungen (1892), p. 51.
- ↑ H. Winge, “Grönlands Fugle,” Meddelelser om Grönland, part xxi. pp. 62-63 (Copenhagen, 1899).
- ↑ See J. Lange, “Conspectus florae Groenlandicae,” Meddelelser om Grönland, part iii. (Copenhagen, 1880 and 1887); E. Warming, “Om Grönlands Vegetation,” Meddelelser om Grönland, part xii. (Copenhagen, 1888); and in Botanische Jahrbücher, vol. x. (1888-1889). See also A. Blytt, Englers Jahrbücher, ii. (1882), pp. 1-50; A. G. Nathorst, Ötversigt af K. Vetenskap. Akad. Forhandl. (Stockholm, 1884); “Kritische Bemerkungen über die Geschichte der Vegetation Grönlands,” Botanische Jahrbücher, vol. xiv. (1891).
