[Contents]CHAPTER IIICHAPTER IIIWE REACH GREENLANDOur first sight of Greenland was on Monday, July fifth. It was very pretty with the great lofty mountain peaks sticking up out of the fog with snow on their tops. All afternoon we followed along the shore northward, and pretty well out. We had come a long way over from the other shore at the Straits of Belle Isle, and what with fog and currents and the ice we had dodged through, it was hard to be sure exactly where we were.The next morning Captain Bartlett was worried because there was a strong breeze blowing and we did not know whether we had passed our port or not. We wanted to get in to Holsteinsborg. On account of the fog[31]and mists he had not been able to take observations.We kept a constant lookout with the glasses and about nine o’clock saw something like a big white flag being waved near some small huts on shore. Probably it was a dried seal skin or something like that. Anyway the Greenlanders were signalling us, and we stopped because we were very anxious to get someone on board and find out exactly where we were.We put over a small boat, and Dad, Peary the engineer, the Mate and Carl went ashore and brought the first man back to the boat. Three kayaks came out to meet them. Carl spoke Norwegian to them and asked where Holsteinsborg was. He didn’t understand so we showed him a chart and named the place. He understood that and made motions that he would show us the way there.It was great fun to see him go up and down in the little kayak without tipping over. The[32]kayak is the native Eskimo boat, a sort of little canoe made of seal skin stretched over a light frame of small wood. It is decked over all except for a hole, or sort of cockpit where the man gets in sticking his feet out forward out under the deck, where it is only about six inches deep. They have a kind of skin covering that fits over the opening of the cockpit and ties up around their waist tightly so as to keep the water out entirely. The paddle is all one piece of wood, with a blade on each end. They use it holding it in the middle and dipping first one side and then the other. In South Greenland the paddle usually has bone on the end and is smooth in the handle. The northern Eskimo usually has no bone on the paddle, and has a couple of notches cut for each hand hold.Harry Raven drew pictures of Arctic animals and the Eskimo gave us names for them in his language.We arrived in Holsteinsborg about four[33]o’clock. It has a very good little harbor just inside the mouth of a fjord. A fjord is an indentation in the land, like a long narrow bay or sound, and usually the hills rise steeply on both sides. Dad says this Greenland scenery is very much like Norway.The houses are all different colors making a very gay sight. There was a little red church on top of the hill, and all around the bottom was the village, houses made mostly of wood with sods around them to keep the cold out. Some of the native sod houses had tunnels leading into them like the igloos of the North.The place where we landed was a little dock with a cannery on one side and a big sort of rack for kayaks belonging to the Eskimos on the other.I had great fun trading at Holsteinsborg. Three of the sailors, Jim, Joe and Ralph, and myself went on shore with some old shirts and one pair of old pants. We went into about[34]ten or fifteen of the huts. There were only about twenty-five huts in the town. They were one-roomed houses with a raised sort of platform for a bed in the back of the room. The cooking and everything was done in the same room. The whole family sleep in one bed. The houses were very stuffy and smelt of skins and dogs. The dogs were all over the place, even lying in the tunnels so that you could hardly get through.We Get a Basking Shark at Holsteinsborg.We Get a Basking Shark at Holsteinsborg.At nine o’clock that night we left for a fjord called Ikortok, to drop Professor Hobbs and his party. We went inland about forty miles. We tied three dories together making a raft to move his stuff in from the boat. One trip the raft was a little too heavily laden and almost went down when one of the dories partly filled up with water.While the last part of the unloading was going on, Dad, Carl and I went off to try the fishing, without any luck. On shore we saw a bird’s nest that looked as if it might be[35]a good specimen. We tried to get at it, climbing up a cliff, but couldn’t.Carl Shows a South Greenland Youngster How to Use a Pathex Motion Picture Camera.Carl Shows a South Greenland Youngster How to Use a Pathex Motion Picture Camera.When we went out from the land in our little boat we were in very shallow water. The propeller of our Johnson engine hit the bottom and the little engine jumped loose and fell overboard. Luckily we were able to get it again. We rowed all the way back to theMorrissey, as the engine was full of salt water and couldn’t be made to run. The tide was coming in the fjord with great force and it was a hard row, about four miles. When we came to a beach we pulled the boat up and worked on the engine. I took our gun to try and get some birds for eating or for specimens. By the time I was up at the other end of the beach they had given up hope of drying the engine and started to row, calling out that I was to walk back along the shore as that would make the rowing easier. I didn’t like the idea much but I either had to walk or stay there. I had on native skin[36]boots called kamiks which made it pretty hard to walk on rocks. I was afraid of dogs, too, because we had found a litter of dog pups on shore not far from where theMorrisseywas anchored. And a mother dog in the North is apt to be as fierce as a wolf when she has pups. I saw one a few hundred yards away so I sat down behind a rock and waited for him to move on.When I reached the shore near the boat they sent in a dory to take me off.The next day we stopped at some little villages along the fjord. The Eskimos came out in small boats and kayaks, to trade with us and to see the white men and their strange schooner. They brought out a porpoise because we asked for any fish they had, for specimens.That afternoon we arrived at a big bird rookery. It was a wonderful sight. The whole side of the cliff was covered with thousands of kittywakes nests. That is a sort of[37]small gull which sometimes gets down to New York in the winter. The birds were making a terrible noise, chattering continuously.We went up beside the cliff in dories and shot a few birds for specimens and others for eating. We took movies of the birds flying around the cliff. At a distance the flying birds, great clouds of them, looked like a blizzard.Then we started for Holsteinsborg to drop two men we had picked up there. We arrived at three o’clock in the morning and instead of having theMorrisseygo in, we sent them in in the launch, as we wanted to go on to Disko as fast as we could.[38]
[Contents]CHAPTER IIICHAPTER IIIWE REACH GREENLANDOur first sight of Greenland was on Monday, July fifth. It was very pretty with the great lofty mountain peaks sticking up out of the fog with snow on their tops. All afternoon we followed along the shore northward, and pretty well out. We had come a long way over from the other shore at the Straits of Belle Isle, and what with fog and currents and the ice we had dodged through, it was hard to be sure exactly where we were.The next morning Captain Bartlett was worried because there was a strong breeze blowing and we did not know whether we had passed our port or not. We wanted to get in to Holsteinsborg. On account of the fog[31]and mists he had not been able to take observations.We kept a constant lookout with the glasses and about nine o’clock saw something like a big white flag being waved near some small huts on shore. Probably it was a dried seal skin or something like that. Anyway the Greenlanders were signalling us, and we stopped because we were very anxious to get someone on board and find out exactly where we were.We put over a small boat, and Dad, Peary the engineer, the Mate and Carl went ashore and brought the first man back to the boat. Three kayaks came out to meet them. Carl spoke Norwegian to them and asked where Holsteinsborg was. He didn’t understand so we showed him a chart and named the place. He understood that and made motions that he would show us the way there.It was great fun to see him go up and down in the little kayak without tipping over. The[32]kayak is the native Eskimo boat, a sort of little canoe made of seal skin stretched over a light frame of small wood. It is decked over all except for a hole, or sort of cockpit where the man gets in sticking his feet out forward out under the deck, where it is only about six inches deep. They have a kind of skin covering that fits over the opening of the cockpit and ties up around their waist tightly so as to keep the water out entirely. The paddle is all one piece of wood, with a blade on each end. They use it holding it in the middle and dipping first one side and then the other. In South Greenland the paddle usually has bone on the end and is smooth in the handle. The northern Eskimo usually has no bone on the paddle, and has a couple of notches cut for each hand hold.Harry Raven drew pictures of Arctic animals and the Eskimo gave us names for them in his language.We arrived in Holsteinsborg about four[33]o’clock. It has a very good little harbor just inside the mouth of a fjord. A fjord is an indentation in the land, like a long narrow bay or sound, and usually the hills rise steeply on both sides. Dad says this Greenland scenery is very much like Norway.The houses are all different colors making a very gay sight. There was a little red church on top of the hill, and all around the bottom was the village, houses made mostly of wood with sods around them to keep the cold out. Some of the native sod houses had tunnels leading into them like the igloos of the North.The place where we landed was a little dock with a cannery on one side and a big sort of rack for kayaks belonging to the Eskimos on the other.I had great fun trading at Holsteinsborg. Three of the sailors, Jim, Joe and Ralph, and myself went on shore with some old shirts and one pair of old pants. We went into about[34]ten or fifteen of the huts. There were only about twenty-five huts in the town. They were one-roomed houses with a raised sort of platform for a bed in the back of the room. The cooking and everything was done in the same room. The whole family sleep in one bed. The houses were very stuffy and smelt of skins and dogs. The dogs were all over the place, even lying in the tunnels so that you could hardly get through.We Get a Basking Shark at Holsteinsborg.We Get a Basking Shark at Holsteinsborg.At nine o’clock that night we left for a fjord called Ikortok, to drop Professor Hobbs and his party. We went inland about forty miles. We tied three dories together making a raft to move his stuff in from the boat. One trip the raft was a little too heavily laden and almost went down when one of the dories partly filled up with water.While the last part of the unloading was going on, Dad, Carl and I went off to try the fishing, without any luck. On shore we saw a bird’s nest that looked as if it might be[35]a good specimen. We tried to get at it, climbing up a cliff, but couldn’t.Carl Shows a South Greenland Youngster How to Use a Pathex Motion Picture Camera.Carl Shows a South Greenland Youngster How to Use a Pathex Motion Picture Camera.When we went out from the land in our little boat we were in very shallow water. The propeller of our Johnson engine hit the bottom and the little engine jumped loose and fell overboard. Luckily we were able to get it again. We rowed all the way back to theMorrissey, as the engine was full of salt water and couldn’t be made to run. The tide was coming in the fjord with great force and it was a hard row, about four miles. When we came to a beach we pulled the boat up and worked on the engine. I took our gun to try and get some birds for eating or for specimens. By the time I was up at the other end of the beach they had given up hope of drying the engine and started to row, calling out that I was to walk back along the shore as that would make the rowing easier. I didn’t like the idea much but I either had to walk or stay there. I had on native skin[36]boots called kamiks which made it pretty hard to walk on rocks. I was afraid of dogs, too, because we had found a litter of dog pups on shore not far from where theMorrisseywas anchored. And a mother dog in the North is apt to be as fierce as a wolf when she has pups. I saw one a few hundred yards away so I sat down behind a rock and waited for him to move on.When I reached the shore near the boat they sent in a dory to take me off.The next day we stopped at some little villages along the fjord. The Eskimos came out in small boats and kayaks, to trade with us and to see the white men and their strange schooner. They brought out a porpoise because we asked for any fish they had, for specimens.That afternoon we arrived at a big bird rookery. It was a wonderful sight. The whole side of the cliff was covered with thousands of kittywakes nests. That is a sort of[37]small gull which sometimes gets down to New York in the winter. The birds were making a terrible noise, chattering continuously.We went up beside the cliff in dories and shot a few birds for specimens and others for eating. We took movies of the birds flying around the cliff. At a distance the flying birds, great clouds of them, looked like a blizzard.Then we started for Holsteinsborg to drop two men we had picked up there. We arrived at three o’clock in the morning and instead of having theMorrisseygo in, we sent them in in the launch, as we wanted to go on to Disko as fast as we could.[38]
CHAPTER IIICHAPTER IIIWE REACH GREENLAND
CHAPTER III
Our first sight of Greenland was on Monday, July fifth. It was very pretty with the great lofty mountain peaks sticking up out of the fog with snow on their tops. All afternoon we followed along the shore northward, and pretty well out. We had come a long way over from the other shore at the Straits of Belle Isle, and what with fog and currents and the ice we had dodged through, it was hard to be sure exactly where we were.The next morning Captain Bartlett was worried because there was a strong breeze blowing and we did not know whether we had passed our port or not. We wanted to get in to Holsteinsborg. On account of the fog[31]and mists he had not been able to take observations.We kept a constant lookout with the glasses and about nine o’clock saw something like a big white flag being waved near some small huts on shore. Probably it was a dried seal skin or something like that. Anyway the Greenlanders were signalling us, and we stopped because we were very anxious to get someone on board and find out exactly where we were.We put over a small boat, and Dad, Peary the engineer, the Mate and Carl went ashore and brought the first man back to the boat. Three kayaks came out to meet them. Carl spoke Norwegian to them and asked where Holsteinsborg was. He didn’t understand so we showed him a chart and named the place. He understood that and made motions that he would show us the way there.It was great fun to see him go up and down in the little kayak without tipping over. The[32]kayak is the native Eskimo boat, a sort of little canoe made of seal skin stretched over a light frame of small wood. It is decked over all except for a hole, or sort of cockpit where the man gets in sticking his feet out forward out under the deck, where it is only about six inches deep. They have a kind of skin covering that fits over the opening of the cockpit and ties up around their waist tightly so as to keep the water out entirely. The paddle is all one piece of wood, with a blade on each end. They use it holding it in the middle and dipping first one side and then the other. In South Greenland the paddle usually has bone on the end and is smooth in the handle. The northern Eskimo usually has no bone on the paddle, and has a couple of notches cut for each hand hold.Harry Raven drew pictures of Arctic animals and the Eskimo gave us names for them in his language.We arrived in Holsteinsborg about four[33]o’clock. It has a very good little harbor just inside the mouth of a fjord. A fjord is an indentation in the land, like a long narrow bay or sound, and usually the hills rise steeply on both sides. Dad says this Greenland scenery is very much like Norway.The houses are all different colors making a very gay sight. There was a little red church on top of the hill, and all around the bottom was the village, houses made mostly of wood with sods around them to keep the cold out. Some of the native sod houses had tunnels leading into them like the igloos of the North.The place where we landed was a little dock with a cannery on one side and a big sort of rack for kayaks belonging to the Eskimos on the other.I had great fun trading at Holsteinsborg. Three of the sailors, Jim, Joe and Ralph, and myself went on shore with some old shirts and one pair of old pants. We went into about[34]ten or fifteen of the huts. There were only about twenty-five huts in the town. They were one-roomed houses with a raised sort of platform for a bed in the back of the room. The cooking and everything was done in the same room. The whole family sleep in one bed. The houses were very stuffy and smelt of skins and dogs. The dogs were all over the place, even lying in the tunnels so that you could hardly get through.We Get a Basking Shark at Holsteinsborg.We Get a Basking Shark at Holsteinsborg.At nine o’clock that night we left for a fjord called Ikortok, to drop Professor Hobbs and his party. We went inland about forty miles. We tied three dories together making a raft to move his stuff in from the boat. One trip the raft was a little too heavily laden and almost went down when one of the dories partly filled up with water.While the last part of the unloading was going on, Dad, Carl and I went off to try the fishing, without any luck. On shore we saw a bird’s nest that looked as if it might be[35]a good specimen. We tried to get at it, climbing up a cliff, but couldn’t.Carl Shows a South Greenland Youngster How to Use a Pathex Motion Picture Camera.Carl Shows a South Greenland Youngster How to Use a Pathex Motion Picture Camera.When we went out from the land in our little boat we were in very shallow water. The propeller of our Johnson engine hit the bottom and the little engine jumped loose and fell overboard. Luckily we were able to get it again. We rowed all the way back to theMorrissey, as the engine was full of salt water and couldn’t be made to run. The tide was coming in the fjord with great force and it was a hard row, about four miles. When we came to a beach we pulled the boat up and worked on the engine. I took our gun to try and get some birds for eating or for specimens. By the time I was up at the other end of the beach they had given up hope of drying the engine and started to row, calling out that I was to walk back along the shore as that would make the rowing easier. I didn’t like the idea much but I either had to walk or stay there. I had on native skin[36]boots called kamiks which made it pretty hard to walk on rocks. I was afraid of dogs, too, because we had found a litter of dog pups on shore not far from where theMorrisseywas anchored. And a mother dog in the North is apt to be as fierce as a wolf when she has pups. I saw one a few hundred yards away so I sat down behind a rock and waited for him to move on.When I reached the shore near the boat they sent in a dory to take me off.The next day we stopped at some little villages along the fjord. The Eskimos came out in small boats and kayaks, to trade with us and to see the white men and their strange schooner. They brought out a porpoise because we asked for any fish they had, for specimens.That afternoon we arrived at a big bird rookery. It was a wonderful sight. The whole side of the cliff was covered with thousands of kittywakes nests. That is a sort of[37]small gull which sometimes gets down to New York in the winter. The birds were making a terrible noise, chattering continuously.We went up beside the cliff in dories and shot a few birds for specimens and others for eating. We took movies of the birds flying around the cliff. At a distance the flying birds, great clouds of them, looked like a blizzard.Then we started for Holsteinsborg to drop two men we had picked up there. We arrived at three o’clock in the morning and instead of having theMorrisseygo in, we sent them in in the launch, as we wanted to go on to Disko as fast as we could.[38]
Our first sight of Greenland was on Monday, July fifth. It was very pretty with the great lofty mountain peaks sticking up out of the fog with snow on their tops. All afternoon we followed along the shore northward, and pretty well out. We had come a long way over from the other shore at the Straits of Belle Isle, and what with fog and currents and the ice we had dodged through, it was hard to be sure exactly where we were.
The next morning Captain Bartlett was worried because there was a strong breeze blowing and we did not know whether we had passed our port or not. We wanted to get in to Holsteinsborg. On account of the fog[31]and mists he had not been able to take observations.
We kept a constant lookout with the glasses and about nine o’clock saw something like a big white flag being waved near some small huts on shore. Probably it was a dried seal skin or something like that. Anyway the Greenlanders were signalling us, and we stopped because we were very anxious to get someone on board and find out exactly where we were.
We put over a small boat, and Dad, Peary the engineer, the Mate and Carl went ashore and brought the first man back to the boat. Three kayaks came out to meet them. Carl spoke Norwegian to them and asked where Holsteinsborg was. He didn’t understand so we showed him a chart and named the place. He understood that and made motions that he would show us the way there.
It was great fun to see him go up and down in the little kayak without tipping over. The[32]kayak is the native Eskimo boat, a sort of little canoe made of seal skin stretched over a light frame of small wood. It is decked over all except for a hole, or sort of cockpit where the man gets in sticking his feet out forward out under the deck, where it is only about six inches deep. They have a kind of skin covering that fits over the opening of the cockpit and ties up around their waist tightly so as to keep the water out entirely. The paddle is all one piece of wood, with a blade on each end. They use it holding it in the middle and dipping first one side and then the other. In South Greenland the paddle usually has bone on the end and is smooth in the handle. The northern Eskimo usually has no bone on the paddle, and has a couple of notches cut for each hand hold.
Harry Raven drew pictures of Arctic animals and the Eskimo gave us names for them in his language.
We arrived in Holsteinsborg about four[33]o’clock. It has a very good little harbor just inside the mouth of a fjord. A fjord is an indentation in the land, like a long narrow bay or sound, and usually the hills rise steeply on both sides. Dad says this Greenland scenery is very much like Norway.
The houses are all different colors making a very gay sight. There was a little red church on top of the hill, and all around the bottom was the village, houses made mostly of wood with sods around them to keep the cold out. Some of the native sod houses had tunnels leading into them like the igloos of the North.
The place where we landed was a little dock with a cannery on one side and a big sort of rack for kayaks belonging to the Eskimos on the other.
I had great fun trading at Holsteinsborg. Three of the sailors, Jim, Joe and Ralph, and myself went on shore with some old shirts and one pair of old pants. We went into about[34]ten or fifteen of the huts. There were only about twenty-five huts in the town. They were one-roomed houses with a raised sort of platform for a bed in the back of the room. The cooking and everything was done in the same room. The whole family sleep in one bed. The houses were very stuffy and smelt of skins and dogs. The dogs were all over the place, even lying in the tunnels so that you could hardly get through.
We Get a Basking Shark at Holsteinsborg.We Get a Basking Shark at Holsteinsborg.
We Get a Basking Shark at Holsteinsborg.
At nine o’clock that night we left for a fjord called Ikortok, to drop Professor Hobbs and his party. We went inland about forty miles. We tied three dories together making a raft to move his stuff in from the boat. One trip the raft was a little too heavily laden and almost went down when one of the dories partly filled up with water.
While the last part of the unloading was going on, Dad, Carl and I went off to try the fishing, without any luck. On shore we saw a bird’s nest that looked as if it might be[35]a good specimen. We tried to get at it, climbing up a cliff, but couldn’t.
Carl Shows a South Greenland Youngster How to Use a Pathex Motion Picture Camera.Carl Shows a South Greenland Youngster How to Use a Pathex Motion Picture Camera.
Carl Shows a South Greenland Youngster How to Use a Pathex Motion Picture Camera.
When we went out from the land in our little boat we were in very shallow water. The propeller of our Johnson engine hit the bottom and the little engine jumped loose and fell overboard. Luckily we were able to get it again. We rowed all the way back to theMorrissey, as the engine was full of salt water and couldn’t be made to run. The tide was coming in the fjord with great force and it was a hard row, about four miles. When we came to a beach we pulled the boat up and worked on the engine. I took our gun to try and get some birds for eating or for specimens. By the time I was up at the other end of the beach they had given up hope of drying the engine and started to row, calling out that I was to walk back along the shore as that would make the rowing easier. I didn’t like the idea much but I either had to walk or stay there. I had on native skin[36]boots called kamiks which made it pretty hard to walk on rocks. I was afraid of dogs, too, because we had found a litter of dog pups on shore not far from where theMorrisseywas anchored. And a mother dog in the North is apt to be as fierce as a wolf when she has pups. I saw one a few hundred yards away so I sat down behind a rock and waited for him to move on.
When I reached the shore near the boat they sent in a dory to take me off.
The next day we stopped at some little villages along the fjord. The Eskimos came out in small boats and kayaks, to trade with us and to see the white men and their strange schooner. They brought out a porpoise because we asked for any fish they had, for specimens.
That afternoon we arrived at a big bird rookery. It was a wonderful sight. The whole side of the cliff was covered with thousands of kittywakes nests. That is a sort of[37]small gull which sometimes gets down to New York in the winter. The birds were making a terrible noise, chattering continuously.
We went up beside the cliff in dories and shot a few birds for specimens and others for eating. We took movies of the birds flying around the cliff. At a distance the flying birds, great clouds of them, looked like a blizzard.
Then we started for Holsteinsborg to drop two men we had picked up there. We arrived at three o’clock in the morning and instead of having theMorrisseygo in, we sent them in in the launch, as we wanted to go on to Disko as fast as we could.
[38]