Chapter I: 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