With the "Doctor Boat" along the Greenland Coast

American Geographical Society

With the "Doctor Boat" along the Greenland CoastAuthor(s): Naomi JacksonSource: Geographical Review, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Oct., 1943), pp. 545-568Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/209911 .

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WITH THE "DOCTOR BOAT" ALONG THE GREENLAND COAST

NAOMI JACKSON

T I 1HE following account of a two-hundred-mile trip along the west coast of Greenland, from Godthaab to Lichtenfels and back, has been written up from notes made during the journey. It does not attempt

to be a scientific report but rather to give a glimpse of the general habits and habitats of the semidomesticated natives of that part of the country and some idea of their relations to the medical supervision of the Danish author- ities.

The very fact that I, a nonprofessional visitor and a Canadian, was able to be there and gather these details is a sign of how much closer we have come in the last few years to our onetime remote neighbor to the northeast.

Until the outbreak of the present war Greenland, although belonging geographically to North America, has had practically all its outside connections with Europe, first through the Icelandic-Norwegian colonization and Catholic bishopric of the tenth century to the fifteenth, subsequently through the modern Danish colonization and Protestant mission, started in I72I. In I774 the Royal Danish Greenland Trading Company was established, with a monopoly on the trade of the country. Cut off and in perilous plight through the Nazi occupation of Denmark in I940, Greenland opened its doors to the west to admit the Americans as armed protectors and to import vital supplies from the United States and Canada. In return it has been sup- plying us with a valuable war material-the entire output of the world's only mine of the aluminum ore cryolite. Increasing quantities of local products, chiefly salted fish and fish oil, are also being exported to us, and the colony's older Danish children now come to the States and Canada to school, helping to make our friendly connections even firmer. American and Canadian consulates have been established in Godthaab, local center of the administration, which works in conjunction with the Royal Danish Legation in Washington and the Consulate General in New York.

On the invitation of a friend, at that time secretary to the governor of Greenland, I sailed from Canada inJuly, I94I, as sole passenger on a Nor-

*Acknowledgments are due to the Danish Consulate General in New York City for kindly reading the text and revising certain points; and to others for helpful suggestions. Special thanks are also due to Miss Else Bjarne and Miss Grethe T0nnesen for permission to use their photographs. Figures 5 (orig- inal in color), I9, 21, and 27 are reproduced by courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor.



546 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

wegian freighter northbound with provisions and returned via New York in October on a ship of the Greenland fleet, with two other passengers and six hundred tons of fish and cod-liver oil.

In Godthaab, which boasts a population of about eighty Danes and seven hundred natives, I stayed for three months with my friend and an-

other Danish girl, also in the civil service, in their comfortable little wooden house on the hillside over- looking the bright-yellow hospital -in fact, our "gardens" adjoined. Multicolored washing flapped in the breeze; patients bundled in red blankets lay on cots in the sun; white-clad nurses and native attend- ants hurried back and forth; and in and out of the white doors went an almost constant stream of patients and visitors, so that there was plenty to observe and learn concerning the workings of the medical system in Greenland. A few words about that system are in order before we start our medical tour.

GREENLAND'S MEDICAL SYSTEM

Greenland's medical system is financed and controlled by the state for the benefit of the inhabitants. These total, according to local au-

thority, dated January I, I94I, about I7,000 native Greenlanders, of mixed Eskimo and European stock, and about 500 Danes, including the I50 or so at the cryolite works in Ivigtut, which until I940 was operated by a private con- cession. With the exception of the two small settlements of Angmagssalik and Scoresby Sound on the East Coast and the Polar Eskimos or "Arctic Highlanders" around Thule in the extreme northwest corner,' the entire

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I "According to the census of Oct. I, I930, there were 877 natives on the East Coast. Reports dated Jan. I, I94I, indicate a native population of ii5i persons" (The Danish Consulate General, New York City). Most of these would be in the Angmagssalik district; there are probably not more than Ioo



ALONG THE GREENLAND COAST 547

population lives on the west coast of the I760-mile-long island, roughly between 600 and 740 N.

Hospital accommodation, with one or more Danish nurses in residence and a Danish doctor almost constantly in attendance, is provided at twelve of the fourteen main settlements (Fig. i) on the West Coast, from Thule, in the far north, to Nanortalik, in the south, and at Angmagssalik, on the East Coast (nurse only). Ivigtut, which is administered separately, has two hospitals, one for the Greenlanders and one for the European mine workers. The Faeroe Island fishing fleet has its own hospital at Faeringerhavn (see below). Then there are two sanatoriums for tubercular native children under fourteen years of age-in the northern district at Umanak (opened in I929)

and in the southern district at Sukkertoppen-with a Danish nurse in charge at each, and a third is planned for Julianehaab.2 These were supported pri- vately by the Danish Society for the Protection of Greenland Children until the outbreak of the war, since that time by the Greenland administration. A Danish nurse has been stationed at Thule to take the place of Dr. Bjarnov, who died in I942. There are at present, according to the latest reports available to me in Gronlandsposten, twelve doctors in the country (including one woman, Dr. G. Christiansen, at Umanak), two itinerant dentists, and twenty-two Danish nurses, of whom two or three are on vacation at a time; the American armed forces in Greenland have, of course, their own medical officers.

The largest hospital, in Julianehaab, accommodates about sixty patients, that in Godthaab thirty-five, most of the smaller ones from fifteen to twenty. In addition to the Danish doctor and nurse (the five largest hospitals have each two nurses), there are several native assistants-at least six at a time in Godthaab, for instance. Suitable Greenland girls receive a free training course of three years, with about ten kroner ($2.00) a month to cover outside expenses. Many of them later take positions as midwives in outlying settlements, often their birthplaces, receiving 20 kroner a month and free fuel.3

around Scoresby Sound. According to Gronlandsposten, Vol. I, No. 2, 1942, p. 19, "75 people altogether took part in the sun festival at the residence of the manager, H. Hoegh." For the Polar Eskimos in the Thule district north of Melville Bay on the West Coast, the figure 280 in I942 iS given by Dr. A. G. Beck in Gronlandsposten, Vol. I, No. I2, I942, p. I34. The excellent I2-page periodical Gronlandsposten has been published twice a month since March, I942, at the South Greenland Printing Press in Godthaab, editor Christian Vibe.

2 Mentioned in Gronlandsposten, Vol. I, No. I0, I942, p. II2.

3 In 1935 it was estimated that there was one midwife for every 45 married women in Greenland and that one-tenth of the native midwives received full nurse's training in Denmark (from the booklet on Greenland, "Le Groenland-Une centaine d'illustrations" published at Copenhagen in 1935 in connection with the Brussels Exposition).




These low sums may be misleading; for the cost of living, like the salaries, is much lower than ours, a circumstance that incidentally makes for considerable difficulty when Greenlanders have to buy from us at our rates.

Treatments, hospital accommodation, and medical supplies are provided without charge to the natives; the Danes receive the doctor's service free of charge but pay four kroner (80 cents) daily for a room in the hospital.The state defrays the bulk of the expense, in keeping with the general and excellent system in Denmark.

One of the doctor's chief duties is to make inspection tours of his district at least two or three times a year, visiting the outlying coastal settlements to examine and report upon health conditions, to perform vaccina- tions, minor operations, and a certain amount of dentistry, and, when necessary, to take cases back with him for hospitalization.

The Godthaab doctor's territory, at the time of my visit, extended east- ward to the innermost tip of Godthaab Fiord, some 55 miles, and southward down the coast to Ivigtut, an additional 280 miles, in all about 335 miles-as far as from Montreal to Boston. The doctor estimated that his professional travels averaged more than 3000 miles and several weeks of time each year.4

Rather a large district for one "country doctor"-and what a country! Not a road or a train in the place-or a plane, except when one from the United States base drops in for a friendly visit, eliciting shrieks of "Ame- rika!" from all the little Greenlanders. A few of the coastal settlements have radio senders as well as receivers, but the most usual way to report a case still is to send a "kayak man," sometimes for several days' distance, to fetch the doctor and the "doctor boat."

THE DOCTOR BOAT

Up and down the Greenland coast go the doctor boats, piloted by natives, through coastal waters bordered by jagged mountains and fringed by deep fiords, full of countless rocky islands and shoals, without a buoy or a bell or a lighthouse; navigating past drifting icebergs and against tricky tides and currents, through storm and fog; obliged to seek shelter at night; tending a partly nomadic population that averages one person for every i.2

miles of coast line, not including the East Coast!

4In the summer of I94I, the time of my visit, two of the Greenland-Danish doctors were visiting America, but in September Dr. Saxtorph, district medical officer, returned to take up duties at Godt- haab, and the Godthaab doctor, Bisgaard-Frantzen, moved to Frederikshaab, down the coast. The territory to be covered by each was thus considerably reduced.




These are the conditions the medical supervisor has to face, yet it is amazing how thorough the supervision is, and how fascinating a journey on the doctor boat can be-for me one of the most interesting experiences in a country full of wonders.

The Godthaab doctor boat was named AdolfJensen, after the famous

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FIG. 2-Map of the coast between Godthaab and Lichtenfels. Scale II,650,000.

Danish scientist, but as "Adolf" is currently a bit in disrepute and "Jensen" may have for many a sterling-silver sound, plain "doctor boat," as the Danes call it, will have to do. Ours was a sturdy little craft, 30 feet in length and nearly as much in the beam "stout" is a good word for it-and built for comfort rather than speed, which was about six knots, though more, of course, when the emergency sail was hoisted. The boat had been specially rebuilt for its present purpose, and every inch of space was well planned. There were three sections: the native patients had quarters fore, in two-



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FIG. 3-Painted mountains often "stick up" better than photographed ones. Here is "Sadlen," the Saddle (386o feet), at the entrance to Godthaab Fiord, which runs about 70 miles inland (Fig. 2).

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FIG. 5-Mountain on Korkut Bay in Godthaab jiord, site of one of the early Norse settlements. The Eskimos prefer the outer coast and open waters and visit the inner fiords only to fish for salmon trout and to hunt reindeer.

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trout, and edged by blueberry bushes and other shrubs and flowers. Behind are weather-worn rocks reminiscent of sleeping walruses; above typical mountain forms.




decker, metal-frame bunks; the native crew were aft; the middle sec- tion provided compact but comfortable quarters for the doctor and Euro- pean passengers. Every- thingwaskeptshipshape. Dr. Bisgaard-Frantzen was extremely proud of "his" boat, and I was glad to accept his invitation to see the two of them in action on a short tour of inspection down the coast.

As is customary on excursions on the colony boats, each one provided his own food and bedding. My eider down was in one rucksack, my sketch- ing materials in another; my food, as I remember, consisted of a large loaf of rye bread from the Godthaab bakery, jars of pickled herring, coffee, tea, canned milk, a cake, and lettuce and radishes from our little garden. My contributions represented rather the "extras" in our diet, since everybody's food was pooled, in good Eskimo style, and the doctor provided a haunch of reindeer, seal steak, various root vegetables (chiefly imported), and so on. In addition, we were to pick up local produce as we went along.

As for clothes, kind friends insisted that I try out a wonderful pair of kamiks made in North Greenland-fur boots that laced up to the knees, silver-gray sealskin outside and husky-dog fur inside, the warmest foot- gear I have ever worn. On loan also was a huge black overcoat with a red- fox collar, likewise lined with husky, "to wear on deck in cold weather." It certainly was warm, especially since this was only the end of August!

On board were Dr. Bisgaard and Fr0ken Primdahl, one of Godthaab's two nurses, the doctor's kivfak (Eskimo for "employee" or "servant") Helene, who prepared the meals and acted as interpreter when necessary (though the doctor has a good command of Eskimo, after five years in the country), the crew of two or three Greenlanders, and an indefinite number of passengers going various distances. All sorts of letters and bundles were sent along with us. Postal service is free in Greenland, and somewhat casual;

FIG. 7-A corner of Godthaab with cheerful red and white houses and neat gardens. On the hill stands a statue of Hans Egede, the Lutheran pastor who in I72I founded this first Dan- ish colony in Greenland.



ALONG THE GREENLAND COAST 5 53

one address, for instance, read simply "Margarete, Fisken- Xs.

Occasionally we took smaller craft in tow, usually row- boats, once an umiak or "woman boat," a large, ungainly, skin- covered craft piled high with all kinds of gear, including two kayaks, all bound for the hunting grounds in the fiords. We could see the cheerful copper-colored faces of the "hitchhikers" grinning at us through the cold green spray.

FAERINGERHAVN AND COD FISHERIES

The evening we left Godthaab the temperature was near the freezing point; a number of icebergs were floating about, and a stiff norther was whipping up the sullen gray sea; the mountains were purple brown and the sky cool yellow. After a brief stop at Narssak, a small settlement just south of Godthaab, we went on for nearly 40 miles and then dropped anchor for the night in Faeringerhavn, the Faeroe Islanders' harbor, opened for the use of the large Faeroe fishing fleet, which, since I925, has been coming annually to fish from May to October on the codbanks twenty-five miles offshore, and since 1937 opened for the ships of all nations. Faeringerhavn is located conveniently between two of the main banks-Fylla and Fisken- aes. The harbor, including the hospital, is operated by the Greenland administration. The foreign fishermen have no traffic with the Greenlanders, who fish along the coast and in the fiords.5

In recent years there has been a remarkable fishing boom along the southwest coast of Greenland as far north as Disko Bay, a direct result of a "warm period" that began about twenty-five years ago6 and shows no

FIG. 8-View of the Godthaab hospita.. In the foreground.is

FIGha 8 Vimew of the brgodthcloaab hsptall bfetin the foreground i

white reproduction.

5I am indebted to the New York office of the Danish Consulate General for details on the Faeroe fishermen.

6 See "A New Cod Fishery off Western Greenland," Geogr. Rev., Vol. i6, I926, p. I47.




sign of abating. Similar warm periods were observed about I820 and I840, of shorter duration than the present one; Atlantic cod was fished off the Greenland coast then but was not recorded in any quantity between I85I, the end of the last warm period, and 19I7,

when the present one began.7

Since about I926 cod fishing has engaged the attention of the natives of

southwest Greenland more than ever before. They sell the bulk of their catch to the administration, which has established sbout sixty stations along the coast. Here fishing gear is sold at cost and salt is provided for packing -3000 tons in I94I, more in I942, when the catch exceeded the previous record (I930) by more than two million kilograms.8 The fish, cleaned, salted, and packed, largely by native women, are exported, before the war chiefly to Southern Europe, at present to America. The profits are turned back into the administration of the colony, the Danish policy being not to revolutionize the economic status but to keep the natives busy and happy by providing them with employment if and when they wish it and by helping to tide them over lean years in their more favored occupation, sea- mammal hunting.9

Because of the war, the Faeroe Islanders have not been able to come to

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FIG. 9-View of the oldest part of Godthaab. In the foreground is the hospital roof. Farther back the old white and pink-washed houses bake in the summer sun. To the far left the doctor's house, and round about the homes of Danes and Greenlanders.

7 Along with the expansion of the northern range of Atlantic fauna can be observed a definite de- crease and change in Arctic fauna. An interesting case is the progressive change noted in the dates of the annual southward migration of certain Arctic mammals, such as the white whale and the Greenland seal. Until about twenty years ago the first southbound white whales were sighted and hunted around Pr0ven (730 N.) about September i5, by I926 ten days later, at present between October S and io, so that their migration lasts into the dark period in that region, a considerable disadvantage for the hunters (Andreas Lund-Drosvad: Garnfangsten ved Pr0ven, Gronlandsposten,Vol. 2, No. 2, I943, pp. 13-I5).

8 In I930 the figure for fresh-caught cod was 8,j60,733 kilograms; since then it has ranged between 6 and 7 million kilograms; the all-time record, in 1942, was I0,228,243 kilograms, equaling 7305 tons of cleaned and salted fish (A. Malmquist: Torskefiskeriet I942, GrOnlandsposten,Vol. 2, No. I, I943, p. 5).

9 The Statistics Branch of the Dominion of Canada Department of Fisheries very kindly permitted me to refer to a report on the Greenland fisheries prepared by M. J. Dunbar in 1942.




Greenland. Their harbor was empty at the time of our visit, and the lonely caretaker, Hr. Olsen, was very glad to see us. Next morning, while the nurse was checking supplies in the clean, new hospital, I roamed about and incidentally discovered a hymn- book with our good old "Work, for the night is coming" in Faeroese (Arbei6, ti nat- tin kemur), which looked strangely archaic to me, closer to Icelandic than to modern Danish. I could picture the hardy fishers working throughout the nightless summer to reap their rich harvest before the Arctic darkness put an end to their labors for another year.

GRAEDEFJORD

Heading south from Faeringerhavn, we soon left the open sea and the cold weather and followed a channel between low-lying, flat-topped islands of gravel and clay weatherworn into strange "scalloped" shapes. Be- hind them, to the east, gleaming in the sun, the majestic, snow-capped mountains rose four thousand feet above the sea. Presently we passed Ser- milik, "the place of inland ice," and there, spilling down between the mountains, was an outpost of the Greenland icecap. The day was warm and serene, and a slight haze lay over the river of ice, from which two mountain peaks stood up like islands. I tried to sketch from the deck, but we changed posi- tion so rapidly that there was time only for color notes, a poor substitute. "Now heading into Graedefjord, 'weeping fiord'; in Eskimo it is called Kangerdluarssugssuak, 'the fiord that looks like a big fiord'-water here a translucent emerald, merging into jade-Dr. B. says that is the clay from the glacial streams-up ahead the water is just a shade darker than the am- ethyst mountains, and the snow on them just a shade lighter than the smooth cream cloud behind ........

FIG. io-A sunny October afternoon in Godthaab. These old buildings are now used as machine shops and storage rooms; some youngsters were "rolling out the barrels"-of fish oil.




The farther we sailed into the fiord, the more plentiful the animal and bird life became. We saw many families of eider ducks flying in fours and fives, sometimes "braking" along the surface with a great splash, like little speedboats. Occasionally a head bobbed up from the green water, black in shadow, sleek silver in the sun a seal. I kept very quiet, with my fingers crossed so that our native passengers would not see him, but of course they always did. Fortunately for my tender heart, they seemed pretty punk shots, and after one of them had missed the mark everybody roared with laughter, including the lille Storfanger, "little mighty hunter," or "small big shot."

AN ALL-GREENLANDER SETTLEMENT

In the late afternoon we came to Gracdefjord-udsted, my first all-Green- lander settlement. As the boat maneuvered between the islands, the natives on board were crying out excitedly, but my untrained eyes saw only a grassy stretch of sloping shoreline ahead, with some green bumps on it. Then people appeared suddenly, out of the bumps, which turned out to be their homes igloos of stone and turf, instead of the red and yellow wooden shacks of Godthaab, doubtless the envy of the less plutocratic "provincials."IO

The inhabitants, all forty of them, stood in a group to greet us, grinning from ear to ear, while the red and white flag flew up the mast in our honor. Soon the medical party, escorted by the kateket or "catechist" (native teacher-preacher trained at the Seminary in Godthaab) and followed by almost everyone else, moved up the path to the little red church-school- pro-tem-hospital. In went the younger children to be examined for vac- cination, and of course their proud parents went in too, plus one or two sick cases, or would-be sick, including a decrepit ancient in a faded blue anorak (hooded jacket)-Gracdefjord's venerable grandfather, no doubt.

I stayed outside and looked discreetly through the window, as the re- mainder of the population were doing when not looking at me. Inside, the doctor questioned and examined, referring to his big report book from time to time. First came the old man, but his case must have been chronic old age, maybe and he soon departed, hobbling a bit more briskly. Then a girl who seemed to be complaining of something abdominal was told to wait until later for a closer examination (a good dose of "American oil," known to us as castor, apparently cured her). Then the children were vaccinated, little stoics, without a whimper.

IO The turf igloos, which fall apart after a couple of years, are more healthful than the wooden

shacks, the doctor believes, because they have a smaller chance to collect dirt.




Presently, for variety, I climbed a small hill near by to get a general view and discovered that I was in the cemetery. All around were piles of stones covered with black and yellow lichen, almost indistinguishable from the hillside, the bedrock surface of which makes underground burial im- possible. The mounds with most lichen, and therefore the oldest, were cir- cular, the later ones oblong, some of them topped by a small wooden cross -a sign of affluence in this treeless country. One recent grave had a wreath of evergreens and paper flowers. It was hard to count the number of mounds; I gave up after sixty.

Down below lay the settlement: the red Lutheran church surrounded by six or seven rectangular turf huts, two in ruins used to store moss for fuel; a bit farther back, two wooden houses, one the catechist's, the other painted red, like a Noah's ark on waves of grass. Grass grew luxuriantly around the settlement, over the accumulation of generations of humans, and in all directions went narrow paths made by soft-soled kamiks trotting back and forth.

My great desire was to see the inside of an igloo, and I waited hopefully beside the modest little one into which the old man had disappeared. I knew that the thing to do was to walk i.e. crawl right in without special invitation, but my courage failed me. Just then along came the catechist. In my best Danish I asked him, "May I go in there?"

He smiled but gave no sign of understanding, got down on his hands and knees, and disappeared into the entrance tunnel. I waited, but nothing happened, so finally I crawled in myself

A black tunnel about two feet high and wide, full of earthy and indefinite human smells. "Literally can't back out now," I told myself firmly and knocked at the small wooden door.

No answer. Greenlanders do not knock, so why should they answer a knock? In Godthaab they simply move in quietly and wait behind you in the kitchen or bedroom, as the case may be until you notice them. In I now went myself, as an uninvited guest, saying "Goddag," as politely as one could when entering a strange house on one's hands and knees. Then I stood up, measuring the height of the ceiling as less then five feet two inches by banging my head on it.

Light filtered in through the single windowpane and lay across the wide stone ledge and the old man sitting by it on a stool, a toothless grin on his wrinkled-parchment face. He had a few whiskers, like a Chinese mandarin, and considerable dignity. He spoke to me in Eskimo, but I could only shake



FIG. II -Skibshavn the landlocked harbor behind Godt- FIG. I2-General view of Godthaab. To the upper left is the

haab, with Saddle Mountain in the background, the Norwegian hospital, in the foreground the doctor's home, to the right of the freighter which carried supplies from Canada in July, I94I, and, church the home of the colony manager. (Photograph by G. in the foreground, the "doctor boat." Tonnesen.)

FIG. I13 -Snapshot taken at I o p M. July 29, from the veranda FIG. I4-Church is over, and out come people in native dress, of the colony-manager's home in Godthaab. Captain Bob in European clothes, and in "half-and-half. Beyond the church

Bartlett's ship, the Effie M. Morrissey, has just called in on her way is the home of the Dean of Greenland; the flag is up for Sunday. to the magnetic pole. (Photograph by E. Bjarne)

FIG. 15-Corner of our house in Godthaab, showing refriger- FIG. iTheN_ natives of Godthaab can use their kayaks for seal atonan wa . al

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FIG. I5-Conapshof oure hous In Godthaaby2, showin thefrierand FIG. I6-Thurc naivs over Godthaab canmue peopeir kaaksv forsess, aton and "waterworksger's thoe walhng Gdha.Cptarmgn andauk andwlu Eurpenclthe,ing in wineraswlfadhlf." sumer,ond the seaurch

Jorgen, a colony kivfak, has just delivered our daily supply of not freeze over in this district. (Photograph by E. Bjarne.) spring water. (Photograph by E. Bjarne.)

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FIG. 17-Typical igloo at Graedefjord-udsted, with thick stone FIG. i8-A Greenlander at his summer hunting camp in and turf walls and low entrance tunnel, in front of which the Graedefjord spends the long summer evenings building his new girls are standing; they are watching a "community building kayak, with three children to hold the cross sections in place project." for him.

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FIG. i9-A serene August morning at Fiskenocsset. The doctor FIG. 20o-The fishing center, Fiskenaesset, with racks for drying boat anchored at left school building in center and Danish-style and sheds for storing codfish and halib whitewashed storehouse at right

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FIG. 2i-In summer, small "stray" icebergs in Godthaab Fiord FIG. 22-Typical rock formation in the Ivigtut district, where are handy for filling the iceboxes. Sometimes they are lassooed the valuable cryolite is mined for export to the United States and towed in. and Canada.

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5 60 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

my head regretfully. Behind him, against the far wall, was a small iron stove, on it a dish of seal "innards" in readiness for supper; a cut of dried fish lay on the ledge, beside an old-fashioned blubber lamp carved in soapstone. The interior of the house must have measured about six by ten feet at most. The turf walls were not covered; the floor was of earth worn smooth and hard. The whole back part was taken up by the wooden sleeping platform. On the edge of the platform sat a young boy, probably a grandson, and at a small table on my side of the room sat the catechist, smiling but still silent. I started the conversation by asking:

"Does he live here alone?" "Namik. Seks mere." (Seven people in one bed!)" "How old is he?" This took some discussion between the two of them; finally the catechist

solved the problem by telling me he was "many old," a twist I was familiar with in "Eskimo-Danish." Later I learned from the doctor that he was seventy-six.

"How many children has he had?" This also was a bad one. I could see the old man counting on his fingers

and thought of Rockwell Kent's story of the girl who could count to twenty provided she took her kamiks off. Finally it appeared that he had six children (or more?) and nine grandchildren and that some of each lived here with him.

I felt that I was being rather rude, asking and not telling, so I spoke to the old man my best Greenlandic word, "Umiarsuak," which means "big boat," then pointed to myself and vaguely westward, adding, "Amerika."

At that magic name the old man began to talk to me, slowly and clearly. I listened with the "inner ear" and understood him to say:

II I have no statistics on the Godthaab district except that it comprises about I500 souls, but I can give details recently published on the Upernavik district, which is somewhat smaller in population and poorer than the Godthaab district. A census of the Upernavik district taken in I94I-I942 by Dr. Axel Beck, acting district physician, shows a population of I390, living in 260 houses (5.34 to a house). According to Dr. Beck's estimate, 98 of the houses are built entirely of wood, mostly in two layers with excelsior or sawdust in between. The remaining I62 are of turf and wood combined, and 38 of these are so poor that wood was used for the platform and door only. Taking as "average" a house

with a floor space 2 by 3 meters, Dr. Beck counted 6o "large" houses, including I3 occupied by the

colony factors, catechists, and colony kivfaks, and 70 "very small" houses. Thirty-one houses have more

than i room; only I7 have more than i sleeping platform (these include the I3 occupied by colony

appointees). Dr. Beck worked out the density per house as follows (Gronlandsposten, Vol. i, No. I2,

I942, p. I34):

Density I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 I 0 I I I 2 I S

No. of houses 7 22 38 36 39 44 29 24 8 4 4 4 I



ALONG THE GREENLAND COAST 56I

"You come from America, and that is a good land, good like Denmark. Greenland, too, is a good land, with many good things, though different from America. Here we have good meat, seal and reindeer, and good fish, and they have told us to catch fish to send to America, so maybe you have not enough fish there. But in America you have pipes and tobacco, as in Denmark. No ships come from Denmark to Greenland now, because the enemies have taken Denmark and all the ships. It is very bad there now. And I have cracked the stem of my pipe and have almost no tobacco left. So I take great care of my tobacco; first I chew it, but not too much, then I dry it out again and smoke it in my pipe, with my finger over the broken part, like this. But it is very bad, because the enemies are in Denmark. So maybe you could get me something in America to mend my pipe with, and I will buy it from you with fine codfish from Kangerdluarssugssuak."

Most of this I gathered from his gestures and confirmed later with the doctor as "typical." As it was, however, I could only nod and say "Ap, ap" ("Yes") and wish that I had something to give him. But I had not even a cigarette, only my camera, so I took his picture, said "Farvel," and departed, followed by the Herre Kateket, who was off like a shot, no doubt in order to avoid further embarrassing situations.

I found the doctor and most of the inhabitants in the "grand" red wooden house, which had two rooms and three windows, a fine metal stove, and kerosene lamps. On the walls hung cutout pictures, a mirror, strings of birds' eggs, expertly blown, and a clock, which they asked me to set right by the time of the outside world. There were two sleeping plat- forms, with thirteen eider downs piled neatly at the back, and presently I discovered, though it sounds like an elaboration of "Snow White," that thirteen people actually did live there, one-third of the population, seven children and six grownups, including dwarf twin sisters, famed all over Greenland.

When the doctor had finished binding up a bad foot and prescribing a few more doses of "American oil," apparently a great treat, we were rowed back to the doctor boat. On board for the ride was my old freind in the blue anorak. I vanished below deck for an instant, helped myself to a pinch of the doctor's good Prince Albert Smoking Mixture, and slipped it in a twist of paper to the old man: "Tabak fra Amerika." He grinned and nodded; we understood each other perfectly! The boat swung out into open water, and the mountains towered up and swallowed the turf igloos of Graxdefjord.




On we went southward, stopping at several summer camping grounds, where the Greenlanders were hunting seal, fishing, and building themselves new kayaks. Occasionally the doctor had to extract a tooth for one of them; he said that the traditionally fine teeth of the natives who live within reach

~~~~~~~~~.... ........ g ;.

m

: 1 ...

. .... ...; .; i: : -, . H - .... . .;.; ... //,......... ..

FIG. 23-The coastline near Ivigtut in early summer, seen from on board S Is Julius Thomseni which, in 1940, was the first Greenland ship since Viking days to sail direct to North America. (Photograph by E. Bjarne.)

of the colonies suffer considerably from the introduction of European food into their diet, especially bread, to which they are partial, consuming in the Fiskenes settlement, for instance, a quarter of a large loaf of dark rye bread (about four pounds a loaf) a person daily.'I2

FiSKENAISSET AND LiCHTENFELS

One of our chief stops was Fiskernesset, an important fishing center, as its name- the fish point"-implies. Fiskenacsset has both a church and a school. The latter was taken over for the medical examination, while I "cvisited," at the rectory this time, with Fru Chemenitz, the only Dane in the settlement and the wife of the Lutheran pastor, who is a member of a noted native family. Their comfortable house, its windows filled with sweet peas and pansies, its furniture and pictures from Denmark, all seemed

12 In connection with the introduction of rationing of all imported foodstuffs for Danes and Green- landers alike, Governor Brun in a recent number of Gronlandsposten exhorts the natives to return to the "daily bread" of their forefathers-fish, which is so much more healthful for them than the Europeans' bread.




like a bit of the old country transplanted to the Arctic. Fru Chemnitz was glad to receive visitors and showed me many things of interest, including some beautiful weaving. But the enterprise I admired most of all was the orphanage she and her husband have started for native children.

FIG. 24-In the iow winter sun the hills cast long shadows over the wild country behind Godthaab (Photograph by E. Bjame).

Next stop, and farthest south for this trip, was Lichtenfels. This "shin-

ing cliff" mission of the Moravian Brethren, founded more than a century ago, was taken over by the Danish Lutheran Church when the Moravians left the country in i9o0. Their red and white mission church is still in use. Inside are three large benches on each side and a small one for the children. The periwinkle-blue walls and oyster-gray trim and the fine brass chan- deliers make a charming picture; a service there must look colorful indeed with the women in their crimson and blue blouses and their bright vermil- ion kamiks.

We saw one native lady in full regalia in honor of the doctor's visit- one of the community's most important members, the midwife. She had a

particularly fine head and face, and the doctor said she was doing well in the community, which had been rather backward.

We were now ready to head north again, having completed the general health survey to the doctor's satisfaction, vaccinated all the "new" children

against smallpox, and taken on board three cases for hospitalization in Godt- haab, all tuberculosis suspects-from Fiskenxsset a young man and a




woman with her year-old baby (who had to come along, since Green- land children are usually breast-fed until they are about three, in that way getting the vitamins necessary for young growing things in a cowless country), from Lichtenfels a nice old woman, who came on board with tears in her eyes and waved to her family in front of the turf igloo on the hillside long after they were out of sight. I was glad to learn, before leaving Green- land in October, that she and the mother and child had been released from the Godthaab hospital in good health.

THE RETURN

The fair weather held as the doctor boat headed back north. On the way we stopped at Kugssuak, "big stream," in Graedefjord, where a cataract of foaming water, white with clay, rushed into the fiord. We stopped at other streams also, where the natives on board were ashore in a trice, leaping from rock to rock to spear the salmon trout (arctic char), fine four and five- pounders, which they brought on board in rope baskets. The doctor and Helene had good luck in bagging ptarmigan (snow partridge), and the native women picked luscious blueberries, which grew so thick they could be "milked" into the pails, also a kind of low-growing black berry that makes fine jelly. I was the only "impractical" one, trying to do a sketch from a hilltop or exploring for Old Norse ruins-we were in the midst of the former "Western Settlement," dating back to the end of the tenth century-or picking mushrooms.I3

Finally, five days after we had set out, the sturdy little doctor boat rounded the last island that hid Godthaab's mighty mountain landmarks, "The Saddle" and "The Hart's Horn," and there lay the colony between them: first the red buildings of the fox farm, then the "town," with the governor's big house, the red church, the yellow hospital, our tiny buff house up behind it, and all the inhabitants hurrying to the landing place to welcome back this "great expedition" as we sailed in proudly, with green branches tied to the mast, a greeting from the fertile fiords.

13 Only edible ones are supposed to grow in Greenland. One or two, however, such as Russula

emetica and Amanitopsis hyperborea ("mediocre as an esculent"), did sound rather alarming when iden-

tified. Dr. Walter H. Snell of Brown University was kind enough to examine the specimens I had

picked casually around Godthaab (64oIo' N.). Several of these may be of interest in showing how Green-

land does not tally with the mainland of North America; for instance, Russula emetica subspecies alpestris

is not recorded for this country, neither is Amanitopsis vaginata subnamed hyperborea (Karst). Two others

of which Dr. Snell had no record so far north in Canada were Laccaria laccata and a boletus, Leccinum

scabrum subspecies rotundifolia, found only under a dwarf birch (Betula rotundifolia).




WARTIME HEALTH CONDITIONS

I shall conclude with a few general notes on health in Greenland in the present situation. Health conditions throughout the country seem to have been remarkably satisfactory-normal or even above normal, according to the reports in Gronlandsposten. There have been occasional epidemics of colds in summer (they say there that "the first ship up in the summer brings

......~~~~~~~~~~~~~.. .......

FIG. 25-Greenland girls taking the three-year hospital attendant course at Godthaab. Henrik, on the left, helps in the hospital and on the doctor boat. (Pho- tograph by courtesy of G. Tonnesen.)

FIG. 26-The midwife of Lichtenfels. She is wearing her best snow-white

kamiks in honor of the doctor's visit; red blouse and Roman sash help make a brilliant outfit.

a cargo of colds"), but lately there have been no epidemics, thanks to careful examination of all who land.'4

That the death rate nonetheless is very high is due to two factors: the hazards of the Greenlanders' main occupation-hunting in high seas in all kinds of weather, lashed into their frail, skin-covered kayaks"5-and the

14In the unofficial reports for I942 from the different districts on general conditions, including health, Gronlandsposten (Vol. i, No. 8, I942, p. 9I) mentions, in the way of diseases, three cases of chicken pox in Frederikshaab, two of typhoid in Jakobshavn, and two of paradysentery in Angmagssalik, none of which were allowed to spread any farther. General health was reported as good. In Julianehaab the attendance of the school children set a record-only four days were missed, by three children, in the I941-1942 school year.

Is Almost every fortnight there is news of a kayak accident, with death from drowning or expo- sure. Birket-Smith gives the rate of mortality at the end of the nineteenth century for men in the age




prevalence of tuberculosis. This disease, contracted through contact with Europeans, has been firmly established in the country since the early days of the whaling ships. Hans Egede, first modern European to live in the country, remarked soon after his arrival in I72I on the prevalence of "chest weakness" among the Eskimos. Crowded living and sleeping quarters with no isolation from sources of infection (few houses except some in the neigh-

F2 So l lit G wt thei homes m th bcgon

prvaene deadn etreel raicl som sa suehmn soia

refrm to oe m t

...... ...... .. B.

FIG. 27-Some jolly little Godthaabers, with their homes in the background and a much-interrupted sketch of the fiord in the foreground. The children's fea- tures show the typical "Greenland" mixture of Eskimo and white stock.

borhood of the Danish colonies have more than one sleeping platform), lack of cleanliness, lack of understanding, and a sort of fatalistic apathy re- garding the insidious enemy are among the main reasons for its continued prevalence, demanding extremely radical, some say superhuman, social reforms to overcome them.'6

group 25-30 on the southern West Coast as six times as great as that for the corresponding age group in Denmark and estimates that there are about three times as many widows as widowers and that as against iooo men over 60 there would be no less than I79I women, although the birth rate amounts to I00

girls as against io6 boys. The birth rate itself is extremely high: for West Greenland, 37. 6 per mille for I88I-1900; 40.2 for I9I2-I92I; higher yet with the increase in total population since I92I from ap- proximately I4,000 tO I9,000. One hundred years ago (I840) the population of West Greenland was only 7877 (Kaj Birket-Smith: The Greenlanders of the Present Day, in Greenland, edited by M. Vahl and others, published by the Commission for the Direction of the Geological and Geographical Inves- tigations in Greenland [3 vols., Copenhagen and London, I928-I929], Vol. 2, pp. I-207; references on pp. 20-26).

i6 An interesting article and two letters on this matter were published in Gronlandsposten (Vol. I,

I942, No. I2, pp. I33-I37; No. 14, pp. i6o-i6i; No. I9, pp. 222-223), which, however, leave the subject in a state of controversy. The figure 72 per Io,ooo a year as the rate for deaths from tuberculosis




The total isolation of Greenland from Denmark, the difficulties of getting supplies up from America in wartime, and the presence of foreign forces in the country do not seem to have had the serious consequences that might have been expected. For one thing, the recent hunting and fishing seasons have been exceptionally good, contributing to general prosperity and, therefore, general health. Governor Brun, looking back on 1942 in his "New Year's Status," announced that the various local occupations netted higher results in that year than ever before in the history of the country:

Both the cod fisheries and the sheep farming have gone far beyond the former records; the seal hunting also has been good.'7 All in all, the Greenland populace have had in I942

considerably higher incomes than ever before in the history of the country. Work in church and school and health services have been continued without interruption. I attribute to this factor greater importance than perhaps to any other, because this work is the cornerstone on which rests the whole justification for the existence of Danish activity in Greenland. (Gronlandsposten, Vol. 2, No. I, I943, p. 4.)

Dr. Sylvester M. Saxtorph writes that the medicalservicewasthankful to have been able to pursue its work without interruption.

Practically speaking, we have been furnished with all the necessities for this work, and we appreciate the fact that our orders for supplies have been filled so well, and almost always according to our needs and desires, which certainly has not been possible without overcoming considerable difficulties.

I wish also to express my gratitude for the fact that the native population has been kept free from the introduction of diseases new and serious for this country, and I am glad to be able to say that, in all cases in which they have been required, we have encountered great understanding and friendly assistance on the part of the outsiders concerned-something that cannot be appreciated sufficiently. (Gronlandsposten, Vol. 2, No. I, I943, pp. 2-3.)

As for the welfare of the Arctic colony's five hundred Danish people, whose isolation from their home has now entered its fourth year, there is bound to be a much more serious situation, which they are facing sensibly

for Greenland as a whole, as against 4 per io,ooo for Denmark, is given by Dr. Axel Beck of Uper- navik. He and the other doctors agree on the extreme difficulty of obtaining a scientific diagnosis among so scattered and nomadic a population.

I7 Figures on the codfish catch have already been given (see above, p. 554). There are many notes on the seal catches in Gronlandsposten; for example, in the winter of 1940-1941 the fiord or ringed seal (Phoca hispida) was present in many places in greater numbers "than before in man's memory." In the last half of December, 1941, I200 were killed in the Egedesminde district; at Christianshaab II0 in 4 days; at a small settlement with Io hunters at Scoresby Sound as many as 65 a day; injanuary at Scoresby Sound 350. The hunters there could see them through the ice in swarms, like fish; they attributed the increase to the presence of the polar cod. Polar-bear and reindeer hunting were also good. An interesting side light on the abundance of seals is that the natives will have plenty of material for kamiks-re- lieving the critical problem of importing rubber boots!




and handling to the best of their ability, in both its spiritual and its physical aspects. So far as food is concerned, they feel most the lack of fresh fruit and vegetables, commodities especially affected by the difficulties of wartime transportation.

Determined efforts are being made to gather and to cultivate plants that do or can grow up there; hotbed culture of vegetables is receiving a great impetus, and many sturdy varieties can be grown outdoors or gathered in the neighborhood.'8 Careful studies and recommendations are also being made on the vitamin values of well canned goods available from the United States and Canada, to supplement the rich resources in local fish and meat. The way in which the Danes of Greenland seem to be meeting the many trials and responsibilities of the present difficult time demands the sincere admiration and respect of all those who, like myself, are beginning to know them better.

i8 Early greens (patience dock, Rumex patientia [not native], and the local dandelion, Taraxacum

lapponicum); the cresslike Cochlearia groenlandica; and two members of the fireweed family, Epilobium latifolium and E. angustifolium (Gronlandsposten, Vol. i, No. I3, I942, p. I49).



Documents

With the "Doctor Boat" along the Greenland Coast