having reached their goal, the trading-settlements, or accomplished their errand.
Journeys along the west coast were of course easier and more rapid, as the drift ice did not there present impediments.
By means of this habit of wandering they escaped the evil effects of too great seclusion in separate villages; they met together and kept up intercourse with other people, so that there was all through the summer a certain life and traffic from which they reaped many benefits. Their minds were enlivened, interest in hunting was stimulated, and skill was developed in many different ways, to say nothing of the fact that the frequent changing of hunting-grounds brought much more game within their reach.
This summer life in the comparatively clean, airy tents, besides being exceedingly pleasant, was,as we may easily understand, very much healthier than confinement in the close, evil-smelling earth cabins. No wonder, then, that the Greenlanders' fairest dreams of happiness were associated with the woman-boat and the tent.
Here again, alas! we Europeans have brought about melancholy changes. Hans Egede, indeed, complained bitterly of the difficulty of getting the Greenlanders to leave off their perpetual wanderings
