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the extensive surface of snow and the brilliant glass-like ice.

The heavens in this region exhibit another meteoric appearance hardly ever seen by us.

This

is the Aurora Borealis, or northern morning, as it is called. In the north part of the heavens long stripes of white light are continually streaming and flashing all over the sky during the night.

The natives sometimes fancy that a noise follows the northern flash, but that is not a fact. Perhaps they hear the cracking of ice at the same time. In one of Mr. Wordsworth's poems, the Forsaken Indian Woman, he represents a poor sick woman, left by her friends, and dying in the snow. dying woman, waking, exclaims,

"In sleep I heard the northern gleams,

I heard, and saw the flashes drive,
And yet they are upon my eyes."

The

Sometimes two or three meteors having the appearance of the sun are apparent to the eye at once, and this is called the parhelion.

CHAPTER VII.

IN Greenland there is neither pasturage for cattle nor wood for firing,-nor indeed does any part of the arctic regions afford fruits and flowers, nor any of the vegetable products which contribute to our subsistence and comfort. What then do the poor inhabitants feed upon who have neither milk, nor bread, nor coals, nor firewood, and are exposed to a degree of cold which we can hardly conceive of?

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God has provided, with wonderful goodness, for his large family. Those who live in the torrid zone, as you have read in the account of Mexico and the West Indies, and in the warm countries bordering that zone, are supplied, almost without their own thought and care, with delicious fruits, and a variety of animal food. And in somewhat colder countries, the inhabitants, by their own industry in cultivating the soil, procure bread, meat, fruits, and garden vegetables.

But in the colder tracts of the earth, the ocean, rather than the land, furnishes the necessaries of life. Great rivers, like Mackenzie's in North America, and the Lena and Oby in Asiatic Russia, pour into the Arctic Ocean. On the banks of these rivers grow immense forests. Every year many of these trees fall into the rivers,-torn up by storms from the roots, or precipitated by their own weight into the streams as they are let loose by the crumbling soil.

When these trees are forced by the rivers into the ocean, they are carried by the waves to great distances, and being dashed upon many shoresupon islands and continents, are thrown up on the land, and afford welcome supplies to destitute people in these poor countries. This is called drift-wood. The arctic people, when they see the drift-wood, eagerly take possession of it. It serves to make frames for their boats, posts and rafters for their cabins, and shafts for their arrows.

Among the drift-wood are different sorts of trees, pine and fir, alder and birch, willow and aspen,hard and soft, flexible and firm woods, that can be applied to manifold uses.

For tools northern savages are not for the most part supplied with iron till they become acquainted with civilized Europeans. Until then they sharpen flints and shells, and fish-bones, for edge-tools and pointed instruments. You have been told that the southern savages point their arrows with flints, and these stones suffice also to those of the north. They make a hatchet of hard shells, and needles and pins of fish-bones and birds' bones.

The Greenlanders are a small race, like the rest of the arctic family. Five feet is the common stature, and they are sometimes a little taller. That you may the better judge of their appearance, you can look at a man and woman who are represented in the print of Greenlanders. (See Frontispiece.)

The man is carrying along a kajak, or man's boat, in which a single person ventures out to sea, and which he manages with great dexterity. At his feet lies a seal, and in the distance may be seen a Greenland house. In his hand he carries the weapon with which he attacks the seal.

The woman in the print is dressed in the fashion of the country, and she has in one hand what we call a chopping-knife, This is the only knife they use at meals. Forks are unknown among the Greenlanders, though they have spoons of bone. In the left hand the woman has a pail,—a vessel which they construct and use as we do.

Near the Greenland woman lies some dead game -sea-fowl perhaps. These sea-fowl are not very good food; they taste strongly of fish. The woman is going to fetch water, and take it to the tent, which is near. The Greenlanders occupy tents in summer, and roofed houses in winter. The

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points, back and front, in the woman's tunic, distinguish male from female apparel.

The Greenlanders make their clothes of the skins of reindeer, of seals, and of birds. And instead of caps and hats, they fasten a hood to the collar of their upper garment, and draw it over their heads or throw it off at their pleasure. The woman's hood often serves to carry about a child, as may be seen in the print. They make a distinction between common and holyday clothes.

The complexion of the Greenlanders is a dark or dirty gray, which may be owing to the grease and dirt in which they live, and from which they rarely clear themselves. When washed, their complexion is of a pale olive, not without that tinge of red which indicates health in white persons. Their hair is that coarse, straight, and black kind which is common to Indians. The men cut their hair, and the women fasten theirs in knots on the top of the heads, and bind their heads with a band.

They do not tattoo themselves, but they have a practice somewhat like tattooing, which is also found among the Esquimaux. They black a thread with soot, and the mother takes up as much of the skin of a young girl's face, hands, or feet as she can hold between her thumb and finger, and draws through it the smutted thread, which leaves indelible black spots. This is designed to make the girl look prettier than she otherwise would.

They are light and nimble, and use their hands with dexterity. There are few infirm or deformed persons among them, and they excel in their own business. A Greenlander who has eaten nothing but sea-grass for three days can manage his little

kajak in the most furious waves; and a woman will carry in her arms a whole reindeer ten or twelve miles; or she will lift a piece of timber, or stone, which a white man could not readily move.

The Europeans found the Greenlanders goodhumoured and friendly, merry in their discourse, and unconcerned for the future. Seeing the awkwardness of Europeans in seal-catching, and in other arts familiar to them, they regarded themselves as superior to the Kablunaks.

They were peaceable and quiet among themselves, and when they saw a European unusually modest and civil, they would say, in their language, "He is almost as well-bred as we are." The Greenlanders are more industrious than southern savages, for they must be very active and vigilant or they cannot subsist at all.

A print of the interior of a Greenland house, or winter residence, is attached to this book. It is about six feet in height, and six feet in depth. The apartments in such houses are arranged like stalls in a stable, and the house is larger or smaller, according to the number of families that it is designed to accommodate.

These houses are usually set upon the surface of some elevated rock, that the water may run off when the ice about them thaws. The walls are formed of flat stones, laid one upon another, and the interstices, or open spaces, are filled with sods and loose earth.

When the wall is high enough, they lay beams, tied together with leather straps, the whole length of the wall, across the open front of the building

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