PART THE SECOND.PALACES OF NATURE.CHAPTER I.ICE AND SNOW.
Inthe previous chapters we have traced the history of the Norman-Greenlanders from their first appearance to their decay. We have witnessed their early struggles, have observed them in their prosperity, and have stood beside the ruined edifices erected by their hands, and read there a mournful story of a fallen race.
Upon the causes of their fall we have, however, barely speculated. Among them all, none possess an interest to equal that one mighty cause which has been silently working there for countless ages. Beside those determined Northmen, Nature herself was erecting edifices which, by destroying the life-giving heat of the atmosphere, paved the way for poverty and death. With just propriety we may call these edifices palaces of Nature; and now to examine them will be our task. To do that, we leave the fiord of “the deserted homes” and steam into one that lies to the north of it. This is called the fiord of Sermitsialik, which signifies “the place of ice.”
And here we will witness phenomena such as are not to be witnessed elsewhere in the whole known world. These phenomena exhibit results grand beyond any thing in or upon the earth, not excepting the earthquake and volcano.
This fiord of the ice is about of equal length with that of the “deserted homes.” The two are separated from each other by a mountain-ridge which culminates in the Redkammen. The same ridge continues to the south, and, reaching the sea again, incloses the region of Ericsfiord, and the little earthly paradise where dwelt the kings of the sea in ancient times.
The mountain-ridge which thus encircles Ericsfiord like a horse-shoe has no break in it, and it is therefore a barrier. Northward of it there is another great ridge, and between the two there is a wide valley. This valley comes down to the sea at the head of the fiord of Sermitsialik, but it is not green like the valleys that lie beneath the shelter of the ridge of the Redkammen, but is filled with ice. This ice is in places more than a thousand feet in depth, and from two to four miles wide—occupying the valley completely.
The ice which thus fills the valley is called a glacier.Ice-stream, however, the Danes distinguish it, thus marking the difference between it and theeis blinken, which we call themer de glace, or ice-sea.
The ice-sea is the great reservoir of ice which covers the interior of Greenland, and the glacier of the fiord of Sermitsialik is but a branch—a stream—that descends from it through the valley to the fiord. It is one of many hundreds of similar streams which are to be seen upon the Greenland coast, and by which the precipitations from the atmosphere are discharged into the ocean. They correspond to the rivers of other lands. These precipitations are in the form of snow. The air, which dispenses heat and cold, drought and moisture, life and death to the uttermost ends of the earth, is not neglectful of Greenland. The air soaks up the vapor from the sea, and drops it as snow-flakes upon the sides and summits of the Greenlandmountains. These snow-flakes harden to ice, and the process goes on until the mountains are covered, as Mont Blanc of the Alps is covered, and the ice flowing down their sides has filled the lower lands between them. In many places this process has so long continued, that the valleys between the mountains here and there have become level with the summits of the mountains themselves, and there is a desert waste of whiteness, smooth almost as the sea, as void of life as Sahara, and more dreary to look upon.
I ascended once to such a level plane, reaching eighty miles from the coast, at an altitude of five thousand feet. This ascent was upon the glacier, at an angle, when I first set out, of about six degrees with the horizon; but afterwards, upon themer de glace, it was by a scarcely perceptible acclivity. Unhappily I was set upon by a tempest. The temperature sank to thirty-four degrees below zero, having steadily fallen to that point as I climbed higher and higher in the air. Nothing could possibly be more terrible than a wind under such conditions, except, perhaps, a furnace-blast. Mercury hardened almost to the consistency of lead. The moisture of the breath froze on the beard in solid lumps of ice. The nose and cheeks grew white, and life was in danger. The drifting snow which came whirling along the icy plain was like the sand-clouds of the desert, which oftentimes overwhelm travellers. There was no chance for life except in flight. I was accompanied by five persons, who were all less accustomed to such exposure than myself. We turned our backs to the wind, and descended as rapidly as possible to the level of the sea, where the temperature was zero, at which degree of cold life is supported without inconvenience.
It would be difficult to inflict upon a man greater torturethan to expose him to such a storm. The effect, after a time, is to make life undesirable. First comes alarm, then pain, then lack of perception. When one dies from freezing, it is the brain which first suffers eclipse. True, the cold has not solidified it, but has made it torpid, like certain animals in the winter-time, with which one may do any thing and they will not resist, being quite incapable of receiving an impression. One of my comrades said, “I can not go any farther; I do not want to; I am sleepy; I can not walk.” Another said, “I am no longer cold; I am quite warm again; shall we not camp?” This proved that there was the greater need of haste and exertion, if we would not all be destroyed.
The whole continent of Greenland is, say, 1200 miles long by 600 broad. This gives 720,000 square miles of superficial area, and, assuming the ice, which covers the greater part of it, to have the very moderate average depth of 500 feet, we have a grand total of 70,000 cubic miles of ice—a result which seems almost fabulous.
It is not uninteresting to know that all this vast accumulation of ice is the property of Denmark. And there are probably few persons who understand fully the loss we suffered when we failed to purchase from that country the earthquake island of St. Thomas; for it was then in contemplation, should the Senate ratify the treaty of annexation, to open negotiations for buying up all these Greenland glaciers and the Iceland Yokuls besides. And there can be little doubt that the Danish king would have gladly sold out the whole of them. A king who does not appreciate the value of an earthquake can hardly be expected to bestow his confidence on glaciers.