Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/449

Rh in sledges drawn by dogs. During the summer, under the four months of continual daylight, the snow soon melts over the lower lands, and the heat is often extreme. Mosquitoes are troublesome, and, there being no shelter from the rays of the sun reflected, from the snow, ice, and bare rocks, traveling is frequently attended with great discomfort. The day may be bright and sunny in the morning, and in the evening snow, sleet, and all the concomitants of spring or winter. During the short summer season vegetation springs up apace and soon comes to maturity. In September the weather is uncertain and the nights are very dark and cold.

The trade of Danish Greenland is a strict crown monopoly, and is administered by government officials solely for the benefit of the natives. The principle adopted is to buy the natives' blubber, skins, ivory, etc., at a low price and to sell to them articles of European manufacture which are necessary to their comfort at an equally low figure; coffee and other luxuries are sold at a good, profit. The surplus is credited to each district, and expended for the public good, by the little local parliaments (Partisoks) of the districts, the members of which (partisæts) are elected by universal suffrage. The settlements are known as colonies, and each is presided over by a "colonibestyrer" (best man in the colony). The other notables of the colony are the colonibestyrer's assistant, the cooper, the carpenter, and, if the settlement is large, the Lutheran parson, and the schoolmaster—the latter generally an educated native. The most exciting event in the settlements is the arrival of the annual ship from Copenhagen. Pianos are not unknown in the houses of the Danish officials, and the Tauchnitz edition of the best English authors is to be found in the "governor's" house.

The Danish Government treat the natives with the most paternal care. No spirits are allowed to be sold to them, schools are provided, and altogether the rule of the little northern kingdom is productive of very good results. Theft is practically unknown in Danish Greenland.

The vegetation around Disco Bay is, during the brief summer, rather luxuriant; the rocks are bright with mosses, and gayly-colored flowers peep out from the crannies. In the Upernivik district the birch is said to grow high enough in localities to cover the reindeer. Such giant shrubs are looked upon with pride by the natives. They take visitors to see them, and point to these extraordinary specimens of vegetation with an air as of "See this and die!"

Hunting and fishing form the sole occupation of those natives who are not in the government service. The white bear is almost extinct in this region; farther north they are more numerous. The arctic fox is common. The native dog is threatened with extermination by a peculiar disease which first appeared in Greenland a few years ago. The cat has become domesticated. The mouse and rat are regularly