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National Geographic : 1951 Oct
Contents
487 Ralph B. Hubbard, Jr. Do Eskimos Have High Blood Pressure? Bowdoin's Doctor Found None Medical scientists have long been interested in the health of Polar Eskimos, particularly the effect of their meat-and-fish diet. This Thule, Greenland, woman was one of many whom Dr. Edward Morse, of Camden, Maine, examined on the trip north. Though he found no instance of high blood pressure, he learned that hardening of the arteries was fairly common. Despite the absence of fruit and green vegetables, he saw no signs of vitamin deficiency. Some white explorers have lived years on Eskimo food without ill effects. Scot who had picked it up on the shores of the Orkney Islands. All along this south Greenland coast are deep fjords, with water, sometimes a brilliant green, leading far into the interior. These are bordered by big, black hills, many with gla ciers leading down through valleys (pages 476-7). You also see masses of purplish fire weed spread over rocks near tumbling streams, yellow Arctic poppies, buttercups, and dande lions nestled in sheltered nooks (pages 496, 505). Off Sukkertoppen and for the next 40 miles we sailed over the Hellesfiske (Halibut) banks, fairly dotted with four-masted schooners and dories. In each dory was a man pulling a line, tending a sail, or rowing to his next trawl. To meet this maze of boats and halibut nets in fog is uncomfortable, but this day the sky was clear and the waters mirrored the blue and red of tiny sails in some of the dories. One fisherman, singing loudly in Portuguese as he worked, added a joyful touch to the setting. From the rail of a big Portuguese four master, the captain, mate, and a line of fisher- men grinned at us. By their expressions I could tell that a woman on a ship beyond the Arctic Circle was a bewildering surprise. Holsteinsborg slipped by, and Jakobshavn, where from a hill behind the village you can see an ice-jammed fjord leading to the Jakobs havn Glacier. In 1875 a Norwegian geologist, Amund Helland, determined that the average daily movement of this glacier was 65 feet, its annual output of icebergs between three and six billion cubic yards! We continued on towards Disko, largest island on Greenland's west coast, and dropped anchor off Godhavn (Good Harbor), the prin cipal town of central Greenland. For over 200 years Godhavn was the gath ering place of English and Scottish whalers. The whaler's lookout, its frame constructed of jawbones of a whale, still stands on a hill overlooking the sea. Only a few yards away is a rusty cannon used to signal men to boats when whales were sighted. But the many racks of drying yellow shark meat hung above reach of dogs suggest there are more sharks than whales hereabouts now. The remains of the historic old ship, the
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