introduced every summer with the European ships, but rarely survive the winter. The arctic hare is common. The reindeer is now so rare in the vicinity of Disco Bay that few natives care to go hunting it. The seals are the main staple of the Esquimaux hunt. Large numbers are killed, both in summer and winter, but chiefly on the ice-fields during the latter season. The right-whale is now only a rare visitor. The white whale and the narwhal are often killed.
All the more common arctic birds visit Disco Bay in the summer, but, with the exception of the ptarmigan and some of the raptorial birds, they migrate during the winter. There are no reptiles in Greenland, but the salt-water fishes are numerous. Shark-fishing forms a considerable branch of industry. The kalleraglek, or small halibut, is caught in Disco Bay; among the Danes it forms a favorite dish, when sliced and dried. About six species of Salmo are found in Greenland. Both the trout and the salmon are excellent, though they have a thick layer of fat beneath the skin. The marine invertebrata are numerous. Insect-life is poor; a few butterflies are seen during the summer months; some Coleoptera a few Diptera, Hymenoptera, etc., go to make up the limited insect fauna of the region of Disco Bay.
SCIENCE AND RELIGION.[1] |
By Rev. CHARLES F. DEEMS, D. D.
THIS recent cry of the "Conflict of Religion and Science" is fallacious, and mischievous to the interests of both science and religion; and would be most mournful if we did not believe that, in the very nature of things, it must be ephemeral. Its genesis is to be traced to the weak foolishness of some professors of religion, and to the weak wickedness of some professors of science. No man of powerful and healthy mind, who is devout, ever has the slightest apprehension that any advancement of science can shake the foundations of that faith which is necessary to salvation. No man of powerful and healthy mind, engaged in observing, recording, and classifying facts, and in searching among them for those identities and differences which point to principles and indicate laws, ever feels that he suffers any embarrassment or limitations in his studies by the most reverent love he can have for God as his Father, or the most tender sympathy he can have for man as his brother, or that hatred for sin which produces penitence, or that constant leaning of his heart on God which
- ↑ Extract from the opening address at the inauguration of Vanderbilt University, by Charles F. Deems, D.D., pastor of the Church of the Strangers, New York, October 4, 1875.