CHAPTER VIII.

RESOURCES AND POPULATION OF ANCIENT GREENLAND.

UNDER an atmosphere equal or even preferable to that of their native country, the ancient settlers of Greenland were not altogether deficient in means of relative comfort and prosperity.

It is easily understood that there was no building stone wanted in a country where the natural rocks would form entire walls, and the ancient ruins are proof until this day that Greenland was always rich in both harder and softer stone which might be required for building purposes. On "Rinseya" or Reindeer Island was found a peculiar kind of stone which Ivar Bardson called the most precious of Greenland. It was fit for all kinds of fine carving, was often worked into plates or jars and sometimes hollowed out into vats. of the dimension of ten or twelve barrels. One of its qualities was that of being perfectly fireproof.1

Lumber was scarce, if we may judge from the import of building-timber from the American continent and from the care with which driftwood was caught all along the coast. Where this driftwood-these trees floating between the ice-originated is a puzzle to us after careful consideration. We have noticed that the Northmen supposed it to come down from some warmer portion of northwestern Greenland. Rafn states that

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it was mainly found about the northern parts called Kroksfiardarheidi, where it was dragged along by the polar current from the pineries of Siberia.1 Gaffarel thinks, on the contrary, that it was driven up from the coasts of Markland or Nova Scotia, but his opinion appears less probable when we consider that the downward cold current of Baffin's Bay wedges itself in between the Gulf Stream and the Atlantic coast.

Whether coming from the North or from the South, drifting wood was always welcome in a country where no trees of any size were to be found then, as now. It is true, the ancient topographer speaks of woods on Rinseya and on the left shore of the upper Einarsfjord, but they likely did not amount to much more than the birch and willow brush, which grows yet near the present Julianashaab and in a few more sheltered places.*

These shrubs were undoubtedly used with great economy for heating and cooking purposes, but Divine Providence had not left this cold country without an adequate supply of fuel. As noticed already, coal-beds exist on the island of Disco, and enormous veins of the same mineral are found along Greenland's coast, particularly to the north of Waigat and on the streams of Oumenak's great firth, where the ancient Eysunes was located."

The colonists also found in their new country sufficient-nay, abundant-resources for the sustenance of themselves and of the animals which they had im

1 Antiq. Amer., p. 275; Gravier, p. 150; von Humboldt, Kosmos, S. 271.

Gravier, p. 35; Maltebrun, t. v.

p. 256.

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Hayes, Land of Desolation, ch.

Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 413.

'Histoire, t. i. p. 341; cf. Win- xxiv. p. 127. sor, vol. i. p. 60.

'Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. vii. pp. 44, 46.

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ported. Kind Nature pointed out to them, at their first landing, her unlimited stock of fish and game, besides her grassy patches for their smaller and larger cattle.

1

Hunting was at all times the principal occupation of both colonists and natives of Greenland, and a means of subsistence and of wealth, for game is as varied as plentiful in the northern regions. On the Spitzbergen, at a latitude of eighty degrees, game is found feeding on vegetable substances. No wonder, therefore, if on the relatively mild coast of western Greenland there should have been and yet be a great many attractions for a hunter's ambition. We are informed, indeed, that it abounded with sable, pine marten, lynx, wolf, fox, hare, wild goat, and, above all, with reindeer on land, and both on land and sea with bear, mostly white.2

It is but natural that the chase should have been the most profitable in spots where game could find, in shrubby thickets, some shelter against the freezing blasts of winter. Such was the island of Rinseya, so called from the number of reindeer which congregated in its miniature forests. We shall notice hereafter that when the northernmost settlers had been exterminated by the natives, their cattle continued to roam with the wild goats along the upper coast of Baffin's Bay.* Birds of different kinds, such as the white falcon, the white stork, the crow, the white eagle, and especially the eider-duck, paid their tribute to the support and comfort of the Northmen." But it was to the adjacent seas that the colonists, lovers of the waves,

looked for the principal means of subsistence. Before

deciding upon the location of their new homes, they had carefully surveyed the neighboring country and more accurately ascertained the piscatorial prospects in the neighboring bays. How much attention they have paid to this important concern is evidenced yet by the ruins of their ancient villas, which are until this day trustworthy guides for enterprising fishermen.1 Ivar Bardson gives a short notice of two ancient fisheries in Greenland. The one was the lake of Foss, at a small distance above the head of Siglufjord. "As often," he says, "as a larger flow of these head-waters had been caused, either by rains or melted snow, fish ran up to it in such numbers that, when the water fell again, piles of them lay scattered on the sandy beach.” The other was situated east of Herjulfsnes in Skagafjord. This inlet was barred by a sand-bank in such a manner that larger vessels could not enter it, except when wind and tide would combine to roll deeper waves across the bank. On such occasions a great number of whales would also run up into the firth, together with many other fishes. In this bay was a large cave called "Hvalshola" or "Hvalsgap," the Whales' Hole or Whales' Gap, into which the ocean giants fled in stormy tides.2 The seas around Greenland contained, indeed, an incredible number of whales and of other large fish.3

The narwhal was not uncommon, and the walrus abundant, while the islands along the coast were the habitual resort of thousands of seals or sea-calves. Seahogs or porpoises were seen in every direction spanning the waves; turbot, codfish, and halibut afforded rich captures; and no net, how large soever, could stop the shoals of migratory herrings. Besides these, sev

1 Maltebrun, t. i. p. 360; Cooley, Histoire Générale, t. i. p. 215. 2 See Document XXXV.

3 Von Humboldt, Kosmos, S. 271; Peyrère, p. 197; Vivier de St. Martin, art. Groenland.

eral other kinds of fish were making the waters of Greenland the richest of the globe.1

Such were the native supplies which Greenland liberally placed at the disposal of her ancient Scandinavian settlers. Another spontaneous product, the grasses, afforded to the colonists the means of attaining the height of their modest ambition. They were not disposed to give up the services and pleasant food which they were accustomed to derive from their domestic animals in Iceland and Norway; and, to their great satisfaction, they soon discovered several patches and plots where their valuable cattle would live and thrive.

It is discouraging for a student to read in the books of professedly learned men such inaccuracies presented with such distressing assurance as we find, in regard to the present subject, in the late publications of two scientific bodies. One of the contributors to the Scientific Congress of Catholics in Paris in A.D. 1891 makes the following declaration: "We know that there were no oxen in Greenland, and that the people of that country paid their tithes with the proceeds of their fishing. The cowhides, therefore, which the agents of the apostolic exchequer received from Greenland were contributed by the faithful of Vinland." These assertions, as full of errors as of words, are almost identically reaffirmed by the Revista Storica Italiana.3

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It is, on the contrary, a fact well known to all common people that the ancient Northmen, as the Danes until this day, were in possession of cattle in their colonies of Greenland. From several From several passages of the sagas we learn that it was their custom to take their

1 Cooley, Histoire Générale, t. i. p. 216; Peyrère, p. 197; Gravier, p. 149; Vivier de St. Martin, art. Groenland; Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xi. pp. 85, 89.

2 Compte rendu du Congrès Scientifique international des Catholiques tenu à Paris, 1891, 5me sec.,

p. 175.

3 See Document XXXVI.