GREENLAND. 109

render it highly probable that it is wholly detached from the continent. It ex-tends as far south as Cape Farewell, in lat. 59° 30' N. Its northern limits areunknown. The eastern coast is commonly called East Greenland , and thewestern, West Greenland, but the whale fishers call the whole West Green-land, and apply the name East Greenland to Spitzbergen and the adjacentislands. Nothing is known of this extensive country, but its coast. The in-terior is wholly inaccessible, on account of the everlasting ice with which itsmountains are covered. The eastern coast also has, for centuries, been cut offfrom European intercourse, by the vast bodies of ice with which its shores arelined. The severity of the climate forbids the growth of every thing but a fewstinted trees and shrubs. The whole population does not exceed 20,000 ; andthey are confined to the coast, deriving a miserable subsistence from seals,birds, and fishes; and are sometimes under the necessity of living on sea-weedand train oil. The natives were formerly Pagans , and addicted to some cruelcustoms, but through the instrumentality of the Moravian missionaries, theyhave, to a considerable extent, been converted to Christianity .

Icy Peak, an enormous mass of ice, rises near the mouth of a soil andriver, and diffuses such a brilliancy through the air, that it is seen at c0Unt| Tthe distance of more than 30 miles. The country along the sea shore presentsrugged masses of rock interspersed with huge blocks of ice, indicating theconflict of chaos and winter. The interior is covered with a chain of innu-merable mountains, most of which are unexplored. Coal and various mineralsand useful and beautiful fossils have been discovered here.

Smoke is frequently observed arising from the crevices of marine ice. Therare occurrence of rain, the small quantity of snow, and the intense degree of coldproduced by the north-east wind, lead us to suppose that the north-east partsof Greenland constitute a great Archipelago , encumbered with perpetual icewhich for many centuries has been piled together by the winds and currents.

Hares, reindeer, white bears, foxes, and large dogs, that howl in- Animals stead of barking, and are employed by the Greenlanders in drawingtheir sledges, comprise the animals of this country. Immense flocks of seafowl frequent the rivers and shores. The rivers abound in salmon and the seasin turbots and herrings. It is a curious fact, that those animals, whose bloodis of the temperature of the sea, are found in greatest numbers under these icyfields and mountains. The inhabitants of North Greenland pursue the whale—and those of South Greenland the seal. The flesh of the animals is theirchief food. The skins of the seals serve them for clothing, and as the mate-rial for their boats. Their tendons are used for thread, their bladders asbottles, their fat sometimes as butter, and at other times as tallow, and theirblood is considered by the Greenlander the richest broth.

The exports are in value from 50 to 100,000 rix-dollars.

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