NORTHERN LIGHTS—‘THE DEAD AT PLAY’

But apart from their intercourse with us, another danger threatens the Eskimos: to wit, the alarming decrease in the number of seals. This is not due to their own fisheries, in which the ‘take’ is infinitesimal in comparison with the hundreds of thousands of newly born seal-whelps which the European and American sealers slaughter every year, especially upon the drift-ice off Newfoundland. Here it is again the white race which injures the Eskimo; but even if he knew of it, he would not have the power to set any limits to the abuse; his voice cannot make itself heard. Yet seal-hunting is an industry with which our society could very well dispense, while for the Eskimo the seal means life itself.

Thus we find this loveable people inevitably destined either to pass utterly away or to decline into the shadow of what it once was. But the Greenlander bears up cheerfully, and is perhaps happier than we are apt to be; he does not realise his own ruin, and does not hate us, but gives us a friendly welcome when we come to him.

Greenland was once an excellent source of revenue to the Danish Government; but that time is past. Now the Royal Greenland Company and the mission cost large sums every year, and the sums will grow ever larger. Is it to be expected that the Danish Government will keep this going for ever? Would it not be better and wiser for us first to recall our outposts, and then gradually to withdraw the colonies and hand over the warehouses and buildings to the natives? In my own opinion, the very best thing we could do in the end would be to pack up all the stores, put them and the traders on board the Company’s nine ships, and set sail with the whole back to Denmark. This will have to be done sooner or later, but perhaps not until there are no natives left behind to inhabit the land. The lifeless numbness of the inland ice will extend to the margin of the sea, where only the mournful wail of the seagulls will be heard along the unpeopled shores. The sun will rise and set and waste its glory over a deserted land. Only once in a while will some storm-driven ship skirt the desolate coasts. But in the long winter nights the dead will dance in shimmering sheets of light over the eternal silence of the snow-fields.

THE END.

PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON

August, 1893
A
Classified Catalogue
OF WORKS IN
GENERAL LITERATURE

PAGE
BADMINTON LIBRARY (THE)[9]
BIOGRAPHY, PERSONAL MEMOIRS, ETC.[6]
CHILDREN’S BOOKS[20]
CLASSICAL LITERATURE, TRANSLATION, ETC.[14]
COOKERY AND DOMESTIC MANAGEMENT[22]
EVOLUTION, ANTHROPOLOGY, ETC.[14]
FICTION, HUMOUR, ETC.[16]
HISTORY, POLITICS, POLITY, AND POLITICAL MEMOIRS[3]
INDEX OF AUTHORS[2]
LANGUAGE, HISTORY AND SCIENCE OF[13]
MENTAL, MORAL, AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY[10]
MISCELLANEOUS AND CRITICAL WORKS[23]
POETRY AND THE DRAMA[15]
POLITICAL ECONOMY AND ECONOMICS[13]
POPULAR SCIENCE[18]
SILVER LIBRARY (THE)[21]
SPORT AND PASTIME[8]
TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE[7]
WORKS OF REFERENCE[20]