Greenland, an extensive region, stretching, so far as we know, from 59° 45' to 83½° N. lat. and from 17° to 73° W. long., its north-eastern extremity, however, being not yet accurately defined. It may be taken for proved that it constitutes an island engirt by smaller islands, but an island of almost continental size. Even its southern end has a thoroughly arctic character. It was discovered by the earliest Scandinavian settlers in Iceland. After having been sighted by Gunbjörn, it was visited by Erik the Red, who, after having explored it, founded there in the year 986 two colonies, the Osterbygd and Westerbygd (Eastern and Western Settlements). The colonies afterwards came under the dominion of Norway, but were neglected and suffered from disaster and privation. Finally, the Westerbygd was attacked and destroyed by Eskimo intruders from the north some years after 1340. Subsequently the connection with Europe gradually grew less and less, until, according to obscure accounts, it wholly ceased after 1448, and Greenland almost passed into oblivion. When it was rediscovered by John Davis in 1585 the Eskimo were the only inhabitants. In 1721 the modern Danish settlements on the west coast were founded by Egede (q.v.) as missionary stations. During the three centuries since Davis's discoveries the question of the site of the ancient colonies, and the possibility of remnants of a Scandinavian population being found somewhere, have been the subject of much discussion; they have even given rise to several expeditions. Remarkable ruins of undoubted Scandinavian origin were early discovered on two points of the west coast, one in the present district of Julianshaab between 60° and 61° N. lat., the other in Godthaab between 64° and 65°. In each case the ruins lie scattered over an area of some hundred square miles, occupying small flat and fertile spots around the heads of the fjords. The southern group contains about one hundred such spots, each with ruins of from two or three up to thirty houses (possibly the old Osterbygd); the northern group is smaller. In 1885 it was proved conclusively that no ruins of a similar description exist on the east coast. The part of the Greenland coast still unknown is that between Cape Bismarck in 76½° N. lat. and Independence Bay in 81° 37', discovered in 1891 by Peary, about half a degree south of the NE. corner of Greenland, which he was the first to reach, and which he visited again in 1895. In 1898 he planned an expedition to the North Pole to start from this corner of Greenland.
The whole coast-line of Greenland may be roughly estimated at 3600 miles, or 192,000, following every island, fjord, and peninsula. The area again may be variously estimated at 512,000 and 320,000 sq. m., according as one includes or omits the islands and fjords running inland, which are 60 miles long on an average. The interior of Greenland is of great interest with regard to physical geography in general. Owing to its size and continental character, it is the only known home on the northern hemisphere of real icebergs. Nearly half of the supposed circumference of the interior has recently been explored by a series of expeditions, whose results explain adequately how the icebergs are produced. It has been proved that a huge ice-sheet covers the whole of the interior like a deluge. The surface of this enormous glacier, only occasionally interrupted by protruding mountain-tops, rises slightly towards the interior. Several travellers have tried to penetrate into this unknown region, crossing the ice till they reached heights of 7000 feet; but it was not until 1888 that Greenland was crossed from east to west (by Nansen), when the 'divide' was found to attain some 10,000 feet above the sea. On account of this ice-cap Greenland has no rivers corresponding to its magnitude; instead of its being drained by rivers, the inland ice at certain points of the coast is thrust into the sea by forces which have their origin in extensive lateral glaciers in the interior. These points are represented by the so-called ice-fjords, of which six or eight of first-rate magnitude are found in Danish Greenland (between 67° N. lat. on the east coast and 75° on the west coast). Five of these have been narrowly explored, and it has been ascertained that the inland ice, which produces the bergs, and whose thickness may be estimated at 1000 feet, is pushed on an average with a velocity of 50 feet in twenty-four hours into the sea, where it breaks into fragments—the bergs. The mass thus annually delivered into one of the largest class of ice-fjords would be equal in size to a mountain more than 1000 feet high and covering 4 sq. m.
The coast-margin that surrounds the ice-covered inland is by no means devoid of perpetual ice itself, but its glaciers are more or less isolated. It is very mountainous; bold headlands, 3000 to 5000 feet high, are common in the north as well as in the south, and some mountains even rise to a height of 6000 to 7000 feet. Low flat land is found only in small patches, especially round the heads of some of the fjords. These inlets generally take the form of narrow channels, frequently more than 1000 feet deep. During the summer the whole east coast, and the west coast up to 64° N. lat., are more or less encumbered with drift-ice from the Spitzbergen sea.
The climate of Greenland, when contrasted with the climate of the eastern coasts of the Atlantic in the same latitude, shows a surprising difference. The southern point of Greenland has a mean temperature like that of the most northern shores of Iceland and Norway. But the difference consists more in the want of summer than in the severity of the winter. The following figures give the approximate mean temperature in Fahrenheit respectively of the summer, the winter, and the year for three stations on the west coast: Lichtenau (60½° N. lat.), 44°, 22°, and 33°; Upervik (73° N. lat.), 33·2°, -6·6°, and 13·3°; Reuselaer Harbour (78½° N. lat.), 33·4°, -28·6°, and -2·5°. The minimum observed in the north was -66·5°; the maximum in the south 68°. On the east coast, in 74½° N. lat., the summer heat was about 40°, the winter -10°; the maximum was 55·6°, the minimum -40·4°. The mean temperature of the winter months on the west coast is very variable from one year to another, owing especially to a warm wind from south-east and east.
The mountains of Greenland consist chiefly of granitic and gneissose rocks. On the west coast, between 69° 15' and 71° 20' N. lat., they are interrupted by high tablelands, consisting of trap and basalt, accompanied by sandstone and slate, with beds of coal. The fossil flora discovered in connection with the latter exhibits 613 species, partly Cretaceous, with subtropical forms, partly Tertiary, indicating a climate like that of southern Europe. Metallic ores have hitherto proved rather scarce. Besides coal, different varieties of graphite have been discovered, but the only mineral of real economical value hitherto made use of is cryolite, which is exported for the manufacture of soda and a very pure alum. The mine is situated at Ivigtut (61° 10' N. lat.). It is worked by foreign labourers, and the export is about 10,000 tons annually. A remarkable collection of different minerals occurs in close connection with the cryolite, comprising lead and tin ore, but only in small quantities. Another peculiar group of minerals occur in connection with eudialyte somewhat farther south; this mineral also has become an object of commercial speculation. A mineralogical rarity is finally the native iron, of which a mass found on Disco Island was estimated to weigh 46,200 pounds.
In sheltered slopes and valleys around the fjords south of 65° N. lat. copse-woods are found, consisting of alder, white birch, more rarely rowan-trees, which grow to 6 or 8 feet high. The highest birch discovered measured about 14 feet. Berries are abundant, especially crowberries and whortleberries. An attempt to grow potatoes at the southernmost settlement failed. The Greenland flora comprises 395 species of phanerogams and higher cryptogams, and 330 species of mosses.
The fauna numbers 33 species of mammalia, 124 of birds, 79 of fishes. It is from the animal kingdom, especially from the seals and whales, that the natives derive almost their whole subsistence. The number of these animals annually killed in the Danish trading districts on the west coast is estimated as follows: Phoca fatida, 51,000; Phoca vitulina, 1000; Phoca granlandica, 33,000; Phoca barbata, 1000; bladdernose seals, 3000; walrus, 200; white whales, 600; narwhals, 100; humpback whales, 1 or 2. Reindeer, of which 25,000 were shot annually in the years 1845-49, are now rather scarce. Of fish sharks only have any commercial value, but several other kinds afford food for the inhabitants. American ships have for some years tried halibut-fishery on the banks off the west coast. The dogs used for draught are of great importance in the north. A few goats and horned cattle have been kept by the Europeans, but more as a curiosity.
The inhabitants of Greenland (see ESKIMO) are of the Eskimo race, more or less mixed with European blood. The individuals of the mixed race hardly differ as to language and habits from the genuine Eskimo. Besides the natives, about 250 Europeans usually reside in the country, thirty to forty of whom have married native women. The number of natives, including the mixed race, was, in Danish West Greenland, 9648 in the year 1855, 9983 in 1886; in Danish East Greenland, 548 in 1884; the Smith Sound tribe may number 150; and lastly some few must be added for the imperfectly known north-eastern coast, where natives have been met with. The whole population in this way may amount to 11,000.
Since 1774 the trade of Greenland has been a royal monopoly; the service employs 2 inspectors, 30 agents and clerks, and 180 handicraftsmen, boatswains, and labourers, most of the latter being natives. There are 12 chief stations for trading and the Danish Mission; the southernmost is Julianehaab (60° 42' N. lat.), the northernmost Upervik (72° 48' N. lat.). At Godthaab there is a seminary for training native catechists; of late, too, natives have been appointed pastors. The Moravian Mission has four chief stations. Since 1863 a municipal system has been tried, for which native representatives are elected by their countrymen. During the twenty years from 1853 to 1872 the annual export by the royal trade was 1185 tons of oil and 40,000 skins, besides some eider-down, feathers, &c. In 1890-95 the exports and imports were each a value of between £25,000 and £30,000 a year.
Further information will be found in Danish Greenland, by the present writer (Lond. 1877), and the series Meddelelser om Grønland (Copenhagen, 1879-95), which give the results of investigations since 1876. As regards the rest of Greenland, our principal sources are, for the east, the works of Scoresby, Cluvering, and the second German north polar expedition; information about the north-western part is scattered over the reports of several well-known Arctic expeditions, especially those by Kane, Hall, Nares, and Greely. See also Nordenskiöld's record of his exploration on the east coast and the interior (German, 1886), and Nansen's account of his expedition across the interior of southern Greenland in 1888.