Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/397

Rh instead of being mere huts of stone and earth, approached by a subterranean passage, many have wooden fronts, glass windows, and excellent sleeping accommodation inside. ] was much pleased with the general cleanliness and hospitality of the Greenlanders. The great admixture of European blood amongst the inhabitants of Godhavn at once attracts attention ; I was struck to see light- haired, blue-eyed boys, of thoroughly Danish expression, paddling in the native kajaks, and dressed after the manner of the country, and talking the Eskimo language. These are the progeny or descendants of the Danish employés who have married Greenland women. Some of the young unmarried women were, I thought, remarkably pretty, and their dress extremely becoming. The married women, engrossed with household cares, as a rule, soon lose all interest in their dress, and become slovenly and careworn : they soon age and get wrinkled. The fashion of wearing the hair tightly drawn together in a top-knot is very injurious ; it causes the hair to fall off' in patches on the side of the head, and the expression of the face is altered. The Greenlanders are strictly moral, and their behaviour bears favourable comparison with far more favoured races. Syphilis was unknown in Greenland, until introduced of late years into the district of Frederikshaab, following ihe increased intercourse with foreigners, consequent on the working of the cryolite mine at lvigtnl.

On the opposite side of the harbour to the settlement of Godhavn a very accessible valley, called the Lyngmarken, leads the traveller up to the base of the basalt precipices, which there rest upon the gneiss; a more difficult path from thence conducts a person to the highlands of Disco Island. Accompanied by a friend we made the ascent one morning. The entire valley of the Lyng- marken being bare of snow, we walked through a copse of willow reaching above our knees. Lapland and Snow Buntings, with a single Ptarmigan, Lagopus rupestris, were the only birds we met with. The alpine plants were blooming in all their freshness; it was curious to notice that the blossoming of these plants appeared to keep pace with the retreat of the snow, and just as soon as the snow dissolved the flowers appeared. When we reached the junction of the gneiss and trap beds we took advantage of a torrent-course to aid our ascent. At an elevation of about 1000 feet the mountain torrent commences to cut out a vast cirque in the soft traps. The mountain side has been scooped out