THE LAND OF DESOLATION:
Reading edition
BEING A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF OBSERVATION AND ADVENTURE IN GREENLAND.
By ISAAC I. HAYES, M.D.,
GOLD MEDALIST OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, LONDON, AND OF THE SOCIÉTÉ DE GÉOGRAPHIE, PARIS; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETIES OF BERLIN AND OF ITALY; AUTHOR OF “THE OPEN POLAR SEA,” “AN ARCTIC BOAT JOURNEY,” “CAST AWAY IN THE COLD,” ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1872.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by Harper & Brothers, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Persons Represented.
An Artist in search of the picturesque.
An Assistant given to caricature.
A Photographer, called “Colonel.”
Another, who was “Major.”
A Professor who made collections.
A Prince who enjoyed himself.
A great Hunter.
A roaring, tearing tar of a Captain.
A Mate with an inquiring turn of mind.
A Sagaman who made history.
A Parson.
The Belle of a Ball in seal-skin pantaloons.
Other Ladies in the same condition.
Also a Boat’s Crew.
Parliamentarians who smelled fishy.
Others equally agreeable.
The northernmost White Man and his family.
Numerous Governors.
Officers and Sailors unlimited.
A Raven.
An Antiquarian.
A Witch.
A Doctor.
Two Enemies, called “Cook” and “Steward.”
A Cabin-boy who woke up once.
Ladies from Denmark.
A great many other People.
Dogs, Polar Bears, and other Animals.
A Devil’s Thumb.
PREFACE.
The following pages are a record of a visit to Greenland, made in the summer of 1869, with a small party of friends, in the steam-yacht of Mr. William Bradford, whose widely celebrated pictures of Arctic scenery have received such deserved commendation; for, whether we consider the difficulties of the subject which that artist has undertaken, or the unusual exposures and hazards he has encountered, his success has been commensurate with his zeal, talent, and unflagging energy.
Since Mr. Bradford was desirous only of obtaining materials for his easel, the voyage was a leisurely one, being mostly near the coast, where halts were from time to time made at such places as presented special attractions to the painter. The summer was therefore devoted to the study of the picturesque rather than to the scientific; yet numerous opportunities were afforded in the latter direction, especially with respect to observing the formation of Greenland glaciers and icebergs—subjects which have not hitherto received much attention. Facilities never before enjoyed by Americans were also obtained for visiting the site of the colonies of the ancient Northmen, who occupied that country from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, and whose restless love of adventure led them even so far from their native homes as our own shores, at least five hundred years before the renowned voyage of Columbus.
Our range of the Greenland coast was more than a thousand miles, terminating a good way beyond the last outpost of civilization on the globe, in the midst of the much dreaded “ice-pack” of Melville Bay.
CONTENTS.
PART THE FIRST.
RUINS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Ice and Breakers 17
CHAPTER II.
Free from Danger 20
CHAPTER III.
A hopeful Town in a hopeless Place 26
CHAPTER IV.
Eric the Red 39
CHAPTER V.
“The Arctic Six” 45
CHAPTER VI.
Up the Fiord in an Oomiak 51
CHAPTER VII.
The Ruins of Ericsfiord 62
CHAPTER VIII.
The Northmen in Greenland 71
CHAPTER IX.
The Northmen in America 77
CHAPTER X.
The Last Man 82
CHAPTER XI.
A Disconsolate Lover 92
CHAPTER XII.
The Church at Julianashaab 98
CHAPTER XIII.
A Greenland Parliament 101
CHAPTER XIV.
A Greenland Ball 112
PART THE SECOND.
PALACES OF NATURE.
CHAPTER I.
Ice and Snow 125
CHAPTER II.
Glaciers and Icebergs 129
CHAPTER III.
The Solitary Hut of Peter Motzfeldt 137
CHAPTER IV.
The Glacier 146
CHAPTER V.
Crossing the Glacier 153
CHAPTER VI.
Speculations 166
CHAPTER VII.
Measurements of Glaciers 172
CHAPTER VIII.
The Birth of an Iceberg 175
CHAPTER IX.
A Narrow Escape 179
CHAPTER X.
Icebergs Critically Examined 186
CHAPTER XI.
Man versus Mosquitoes 197
CHAPTER XII.
A Picnic on the Glacier 201
CHAPTER XIII.
Bound for the Arctic Circle 206
PART THE THIRD.
UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN.
CHAPTER I.
Across the Arctic Circle 215
CHAPTER II.
Beyond Civilization 240
CHAPTER III.
Ice-Navigation 253
CHAPTER IV.
Hunting by Steam 263
CHAPTER V.
Among the Ice-fields of Melville Bay 284
CHAPTER VI.
The Last White Man 294
CHAPTER VII.
The Fiord of Aukpadlartok 309
CHAPTER VIII.
Upernavik 318
CHAPTER IX.
Disco Island 328
CHAPTER X.
Jacobshavn 339
CHAPTER XI.
A Week at Godhavn 348
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
The “Panther” among the Icebergs Frontispiece.
View of Julianashaab 27
The Oomiak and Crew 46
View of the Old Norse Ruins 63
Ground-plan of Ruins 67
Concordia at the Picnic 93
A Greenland Parliament in Session 104
Concordia Dressed for the Ball 119
Front View of the Glacier 147
Crossing the Crevasse on an Ice-bridge 160
Map of the Glacier 162
The Glacier of Sermitsialik 167
Vertical Section of Glacier 170
The Kryolite Mine at Arsut Fiord 207
The Peak of Kresarsoak 221
Entering the Fiord 224
The Lumme of the Arctic Sea 226
Shooting Lumme 228
Esac 231
Esac’s Hut 233
The Governor and Family 238
View of Upernavik and Kresarsoak 241
Eider-ducks 247
The Polar Bear 254
Seals 256
The Devil’s Thumb 261
The Panther after the Bears 268
The Captain after the Bear 278
Moored to a Floe in Melville Bay 287
The Iceberg Castle 291
We Steam away from the Midnight Sun 295
The most Northern House on the Globe 299
Jensen and his Family 303
An Arctic Witch 307
We go through an Iceberg to call on Philip 310
Philip, the Hunter, and his Sons 312
The Raven 317
Hans and his Family 322
The Great Auk 337
Iceberg in Jacobshavn Fiord 347
“Out upon time! it will leave no more Of the things to come than the things before! Out upon time! who forever will leave But enough of the past for the future to grieve O’er that which hath been, and o’er that which must be; What we have seen our sons shall see— Remnants of things that have passed away, Fragments of stone, reared by creatures of clay.” Byron’s Siege of Corinth.
THE LAND OF DESOLATION.