ing and ages hence
more ground will be laid bare.

The present inhabitants number about ten thousand, most of whom are
Eskimos. They are lacking in thrift and live chiefly by hunting and
fishing. Among the wild animals living here are the arctic fox, the
arctic hare, the musk ox, the seal, the polar bear, the ermine, and the
walrus.

The principal resources of the island are sealskins, eider-down, oil, and
cryolite.

Cryolite is a mineral from which common soda is easily extracted, and
also from which the light silver-like aluminum was formerly prepared.
The mines near the village of Ivigtut furnish practically the world's
supply of this mineral. Formerly it was carried to Philadelphia, but in
recent years not much is used. The fisheries are a monopoly of Denmark,
and each station is visited from one to three or four times a year.

CHAPTER XV

WHERE THE TWO GREAT OCEANS MEET

Perhaps there is no section of the globe about which most well-informed
persons know so little as the southern part of South America. Judged by
the reports of early discoverers and explorers, this region until
recently has been considered a desolate stretch of snow mountains,
barren plains, and extensive morasses, sparsely inhabited by a few
thousand human beings of the lowest type and worthless to civilized man.

Such a picture is but partly true. Many of the highest mountains are
snow-capped throughout the year and are scored by immense glaciers which
are constantly moving down their grooved sides; but there are also
heavily forested slopes flanked by valleys and plains covered with rich
grasses, making most excellent pasturage. The best land, comprising a
large area, is now occupied as grazing grounds principally by sheep
farmers.

In the early part of the sixteenth century it was rumored that a water
passage traversed the southern part of South America. This rumor was
proved true in 1520, when Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator in
the service of Charles V of Spain, sailed through the strait which now
bears his name. He called the passage Todos los Santos--literally, "All
Saints"--but later the name was changed to commemorate the bold captain
who discovered the route.

Magellan was the first not only to sail through the strait, but to cross
the broad Pacific Ocean, which was so named by him on account of the
quietness of its waters. Because he saw the fires built by the natives
blazing on the islands along the south s