File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18163218721).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo18amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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THE DAXrSIf ARCTIC STATION AT GODIIAVN 587 but Elgstroiii found so imicli of interest tlint he lias ))ul)lishe(l a highly eiiter- tainini;- hook as a i-csuh of his studies. Under the eneoura,<ienient of Hcrr Por- sild a nuniher of l^skinios at (iodliavn are atteuiptiii,!;' to ))ortray their life and envininnicnt in wati'r eoUn' and erayon ; thi'y (h) very wi-ll eonsidering that they must develop their own teehniqnc with- out any instruction or guidance. That Herr Porsild is thorough in his methods of training young would-))e Arctic scientists, no better evidence is needed than the record that T^iauge Koch has made as an associate of Knud Rasmussen. Except for the summer that Koch spent with Ilerr Porsild on Disco Island, he had had no field train- ing whatever until he accompanied Kasmussen by dog sledge from Hol- stensborg to Xorth Star Bay. Although a novice at sledge work, he drove his own team of dogs the latter half of the trail, lived almost exclusively on seal and walrus meat for a month after hav- ing just left the "fleshpots"' of Den- mark, and successfully completed a most careful survey of the entire shore of Melville Bay. Xow word comes from Greenland that Koch survived a journey wdiich was too much for so experienced and tried a traveler as Dr. Thorild Wulff ; — not only survived the journey, but achieved the most important results at- tained by the party. Herr Porsild said last summer while I was his guest, "Oh. Koch will come out all right! He learned here how to adapt himself to difficult conditions. He found out that Arctic exploration is no child's play, when he was here with me; I sent him out on several long tours with Eskimos with whom he could converse only by signs, with barely enough food to get back safe, and to places where the mos- quitoes almost ate him alive. And yet he always did what he set out to do, al- though I must say there were times when he looked a little rebellious." The work accomplished by Herr Por- sild and the otlier men who have made the station their base is extensive. Herr Porsild has already published many important ))apers, not only in botany, hut in zoology, anthroi)ology, ethnology, and divers other sciences. He has com- pleted exhaustive studies of the flora and the vegetation of the west Green- land coast; he has studied the habits of the Arctic salmon, of the caribou, of the narwiial; he has investigated many of the old Eskimo ruins and kitchen middens, and delved deep into former and present arts and customs of the Eskimo; and he knows the history and geography of Greenland as no one else
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I'liotoiiraph by E. O. Ilovey Two native Greenland women living at God- havn. — Their richly adorned trousers and boots are almost their chief pride. Usually they wear also a heavy bead collar of complicated design that extends down over the breast, shoulders, and back

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