3

domestic animals along with them into every colony they established;1 and the same ancient records, Ivar Bardson, and all subsequent writers testify that all wellto-do people continued to have large cattle.2 The cathedral of Gardar, especially, owned a great number of oxen, horses, and sheep, which in the summer season used to graze in a wooded district on the right bank of the upper Einarsfiord. Domestic animals must, in olden times, have found sheltered places where they could winter in open air, even far away to the North; for when Ivar Bardson, about the year 1350, was sent to the rescue of the western settlers, he found these to have been exterminated by the Esquimaux; but their horses, oxen, and sheep were still roaming about, as the game of that country. Until this day the Danes in Greenland have a small number of bovines that provide them with milk and butter all the year round.* Hayes, who in the year 1869 was at Julianashaab, a guest of the Moravian minister, relates that one afternoon they went up a small brook that runs behind the church. "We soon reached a large valley," he says, "in the centre of which there is a lake surrounded by extensive meadows, where goats and cows were grazing. I was quite surprised, for, although I knew that at one time cattle had thrived in that country, I had imagined that they could not live there any more. One obstacle, but a serious one, to success in cattle-growing, the minister said, is the difficulty in procuring forage for the winter season. The grass at Julianashaab does not grow tall enough to be mowed, and, though it attains

1 Cf. Moosmüller, S. 24.

2 Codex Regius Annalium; Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. vii. p. 46; Maltebrun, Geografia Universale, t. i. p. 360; Vivier de Saint Martin, art. Groenland; De Costa, Preco

lumbian Discovery, p. 31; Winsor, vol. i. p. 68.

3 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. vii. pp. 46, 51.

Gravier, p. 35.

the desired height at the head of the firth, it must be hauled down in boats; and this is a tiresome and expensive operation. As a consequence the minister and the governor have but three cows each; the physician has two, and each of the other families, only one.'

The difficulty of laying in a supply of hay was evidently much less a thousand years ago, when the temperature of Greenland was considerably higher than it is to-day, and the meadows were flourishing where the grass is stunted now. If at present the angelica grass grows still to a height of over three feet along the streamlets of Igalikko Firth, we should not wonder at the statement of the historian Ziegler, who says that Greenland earned its name by its abundant crops of fodder; and adds that it is evident how plentiful the grass must have been, and how numerous the bovines, from the fact that when European vessels landed there they took back great piles of butter and cheese and all kinds of white meats.3 The ancient Icelandic records relate that while the northern sides of Greenland's mountains were covered with moss, their southern slopes produced the finest grasses; and Ivar Bardson tells us that the firth "Ollum-lengri," the Longest of all, had both its level shores covered with grass, than which no herbage grows thicker or taller in any other country.5

From all this information we may readily conclude that the Greenland settlements of the Northmen were rather favorable to the maintenance of all ordinary domestic animals, and more so than Iceland and Nor

way itself. Eric the Red rode on horseback in Greenland, as the sagas testify, and it was a fall from his horse that prevented him from earning the honors conferred on his son for the exploration of the American continent. Although horses could be kept in Greenland to-day, yet with much expense, they are generally replaced by dogs; but it appears that in former ages horses were numerous on the island, and they continued to live, even in the severer latitudes of the northern settlements, when deprived of the care of their exterminated owners.3

The ancient chorographer, Bardson, also speaks of smaller domestic animals in Greenland, and it is generally admitted that these were in great numbers.*

6

5

While the richer colonists had all kinds of cattle, goats and sheep were the only live-stock of the less industrious people. Crantz, in his "History of Greenland," relates that "in the year 1759 one of our missionaries brought three sheep with him from Denmark to New Herrnhuth. These have so increased," he adds, "by bringing some two, some three lambs a year, that they have been able to kill some every year since, to send some to Lichtenfels for a beginning there, and, after all, to winter ten at present. We may judge how vastly sweet and nutritive the grass is here from the following tokens: that tho' three lambs come from one ewe, they are larger, even in autumn, than a sheep a year old in Germany." He says that in summer they could pasture two hundred sheep around New Herrnhuth.

De Costa, Precolumbian Discovery, p. 93, n. 3; Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. i. p. 74, ap. De Costa, Sailing Directions, p. 74, n. 5.

2

Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xi. p. 86; Peyrère, p. 196; Winsor, vol. i. p. 68.

3 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. vii. p. 51; supra, p. 162.

Winsor, vol. i. p. 68; Hayes, p. 10; Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. vii. p. 46; Peyrère.

5 Maltebrun, t. i. p. 360.

6 Vol. i. p. 74, ap. De Costa, Sailing Directions, p. 74, n. 5.

There was plenty of land for all to provide their animals with grass in summer and with hay in winter, and even to raise for themselves sufficient vegetables, small fruits, and a moderate supply of some cereals.

2

Cooley mistakes when assuring us that the Scandinavians of Greenland did not eat bread nor till the soil;1 yet we readily admit that the farming interests of the colonists were very limited, when we learn that hardly any grain was raised in their mother country at that time. Although more favorable than in the northern parts of Norway, the climate was too cold for any extensive agriculture, and only some exceptional spots, well sheltered against the north winds, repaid the labors of the husbandman. Such were the numerous islands and the coasts about the mouth of Eiriksfiord or Igalikko, Fossasund, and the Mid-, Breidi-, and Isafiords. Bardson concludes his description of Greenland by saying that in these localities as beautiful wheat did grow as anywhere else, but Torfason takes exception to the statement." Maltebrun writes that in the southern portions of the island there are stretches of land fit for the plough where barley might thrive, and, in an interesting description of the firth of Igalikko, the explorer Hayes tells us that "the sloping land on the northern side, where once stood the church of Kakortok, is very much cut up, but offers here and

1 Histoire Générale, t. i. p. 215; taxat vita inibi sustentatur hufrom Maltebrun, t. i. p. 360.

2 Archivium Secretum Apostolicum Vaticanum, Regestum 38: Joannis XXI. Bullarium anno i. t. i. Epistolæ 96 et 258, anno 1267: "Intimasti nobis . . . quod in quibusdam partibus Regni Norwagie non crescunt segetes, nec frugum alia genera producuntur: sed lacticiniis et piscibus fere dum

mana.

there tracts perfectly level, still covered with luxuriant vegetation, that seem to have been cultivated at one time and would undoubtedly repay for tillage yet. Along the streamlets grass is growing over three feet high, and tradition has it that the Northmen harvested barley there. To judge from the temperature we enjoyed during our ride on the fiord," he says, "we should think that it could be done still to-day. At present," he continues, "there is not in all Greenland any more cultivation of the soil, with the exception of a few garden spots, where they raise some vegetables, such as cabbage, radish, and lettuce, which grow and prosper wonderfully up to the latitude of the Polar Circle." He might as well have mentioned turnips, cress, chervil, celery, carrots, beans, and potatoes, all of which are still raised by the Danish population of Greenland.2

The slightest examination of the ruins at Kakortok and in the neighborhood reveals the fact that every building, every residence of the Northmen, had its garden and a portion of cultivated land, which, together with their bays, their table-lands, and wild mountains, provided them not only with the necessaries, but also with many a luxury of daily life. They lived, says Torfason, on the flesh of game, of oxen, sheep, goats, whales, and seals; on milk, butter, and cheese, and on various kinds of fish. The bill-of-fare to which Mr. Hayes was treated by the minister of Julianashaab consisted of trout, Greenland beef, butter, and milk, smoked salmon, game of the country, radishes and lettuce fresh from the garden.5

17.

4

1 Hayes, La Terra, cap. vi. p.

2 Maltebrun, t. v. p. 256; Gravier, p. 35; Vivier de Saint Martin, art. Groenland.