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API Security in Action 1st Edition Neil Madden Digital
Instant Download
Author(s): Neil Madden
ISBN(s): 9781617296024, 1617296023
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 10.17 MB
Year: 2020
Language: english
Neil Madden

MANNING
Security mechanisms ACLs

Identity-based Roles

Capabilities ABAC
Authorization
OAuth2

Passwords Cookies

Audit logging Token-based Macaroons

Authentication Certificates JWTs

API security Encryption End-to-end

Rate-limiting

Mechanism Chapter Mechanism Chapter

Audit logging 3 Oauth2 7

Rate-limiting 3 Roles 8
Attribute-based access
Passwords 3 8
control (ABAC)
Access control lists (ACL) 3 Capabilities 9

Cookies 4 Macaroons 9

Token-based auth 5 Certificates 11

JSON web tokens (JWTs) 6 End-to-end authentication 13

Encryption 6
API Security
in Action
NEIL MADDEN

MANNING
SHELTER ISLAND
For online information and ordering of this and other Manning books, please visit
www.manning.com. The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in quantity.
For more information, please contact
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Manning Publications Co.
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ISBN: 9781617296024
Printed in the United States of America
In memory of Susan Elizabeth Madden, 1950–2018.
 contents
preface xi
acknowledgments xiii
about this book xv
about the author xix
about the cover illustration xx

PART 1 FOUNDATIONS ....................................................1

1 What is API security?

1.1
3
An analogy: Taking your driving test 4
1.2 What is an API? 6
API styles 7
1.3 API security in context 8
A typical API deployment 10
1.4 Elements of API security 12
Assets 13 Security goals
■
14 ■
Environments and
threat models 16
1.5 Security mechanisms 19
Encryption 20 Identification and authentication 21
■

Access control and authorization 22 Audit logging 23

■

Rate-limiting 24

v
vi CONTENTS

2 Secure API development

2.1 The Natter API 27
27

Overview of the Natter API 28 Implementation overview

■
29
Setting up the project 30 Initializing the database 32
■

2.2 Developing the REST API 34

Creating a new space 34
2.3 Wiring up the REST endpoints 36
Trying it out 38
2.4 Injection attacks 39
Preventing injection attacks 43 ■
Mitigating SQL injection
with permissions 45
2.5 Input validation 47
2.6 Producing safe output 53
Exploiting XSS Attacks 54 ■
Preventing XSS 57
Implementing the protections 58

3 Securing the Natter API

3.1
62
Addressing threats with security controls 63
3.2 Rate-limiting for availability 64
Rate-limiting with Guava 66
3.3 Authentication to prevent spoofing 70
HTTP Basic authentication 71 Secure password storage with
■

Scrypt 72 Creating the password database 72 Registering

■ ■

users in the Natter API 74 Authenticating users 75

■

3.4 Using encryption to keep data private 78

Enabling HTTPS 80 ■
Strict transport security 82
3.5 Audit logging for accountability 82
3.6 Access control 87
Enforcing authentication 89 Access control lists 90
■

Enforcing access control in Natter 92 Adding new members to■

a Natter space 94 Avoiding privilege escalation attacks 95

■

PART 2 TOKEN-BASED AUTHENTICATION ........................99

4 Session cookie authentication

4.1 Authentication in web browsers
101
102
Calling the Natter API from JavaScript 102 Intercepting form ■

submission 104 Serving the HTML from the same origin 105
■

Drawbacks of HTTP authentication 108

 CONTENTS vii

4.2 Token-based authentication 109

A token store abstraction 111 ■
Implementing token-based
login 112
4.3 Session cookies 115
Avoiding session fixation attacks 119 Cookie security ■

attributes 121 Validating session cookies 123

■

4.4 Preventing Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks 125

SameSite cookies 127 Hash-based double-submit cookies
■
129
Double-submit cookies for the Natter API 133
4.5 Building the Natter login UI 138
Calling the login API from JavaScript 140
4.6 Implementing logout 143

5 Modern token-based authentication 146

5.1 Allowing cross-domain requests with CORS 147
Preflight requests 148 CORS headers■ 150 ■ Adding CORS
headers to the Natter API 151
5.2 Tokens without cookies 154
Storing token state in a database 155 The Bearer authentication
■

scheme 160 Deleting expired tokens 162 Storing tokens in

■ ■

Web Storage 163 Updating the CORS filter 166 XSS

■ ■

attacks on Web Storage 167

5.3 Hardening database token storage 170
Hashing database tokens 170 Authenticating tokens with
■

HMAC 172 Protecting sensitive attributes 177

■

6 Self-contained tokens and JWTs

6.1 Storing token state on the client
Protecting JSON tokens with HMAC
181
182
183
6.2 JSON Web Tokens 185
The standard JWT claims 187 The JOSE header 188 ■

Generating standard JWTs 190 Validating a signed JWT ■ 193

6.3 Encrypting sensitive attributes 195
Authenticated encryption 197 Authenticated encryption with
■

NaCl 198 Encrypted JWTs 200 Using a JWT library 203

■ ■

6.4 Using types for secure API design 206

6.5 Handling token revocation 209
Implementing hybrid tokens 210
viii CONTENTS

PART 3 AUTHORIZATION .............................................215

7 OAuth2 and OpenID Connect

7.1 Scoped tokens 218
Adding scoped tokens to Natter
217

220 ■ The difference between scopes

and permissions 223
7.2 Introducing OAuth2 226
Types of clients 227 Authorization grants
■
228 ■
Discovering
OAuth2 endpoints 229
7.3 The Authorization Code grant 230
Redirect URIs for different types of clients 235 Hardening code ■

exchange with PKCE 236 Refresh tokens 237

■

7.4 Validating an access token 239

Token introspection 239 Securing the HTTPS client
■

configuration 245 Token revocation 248 JWT access

■ ■

tokens 249 Encrypted JWT access tokens 256 Letting the

■ ■

AS decrypt the tokens 258

7.5 Single sign-on 258
7.6 OpenID Connect 260
ID tokens 260 ■ Hardening OIDC 263 ■ Passing an ID token
to an API 264

8 Identity-based access control

8.1 Users and groups
LDAP groups 271
268
267

8.2 Role-based access control 274

Mapping roles to permissions 276 Static roles 277
■

Determining user roles 279 ■ Dynamic roles 280

8.3 Attribute-based access control 282
Combining decisions 284 Implementing ABAC decisions 285
■

Policy agents and API gateways 289 Distributed policy ■

enforcement and XACML 290 Best practices for ABAC 291

■

9 Capability-based security and macaroons

9.1 Capability-based security 295
294

9.2 Capabilities and REST 297

Capabilities as URIs 299 Using capability URIs in the Natter
■

API 303 HATEOAS 308 Capability URIs for browser-based

■ ■
 CONTENTS ix

clients 311 Combining capabilities with identity

■
314
Hardening capability URIs 315
9.3 Macaroons: Tokens with caveats 319
Contextual caveats 321 A macaroon token store 322
■

First-party caveats 325 Third-party caveats 328

■

PART 4 MICROSERVICE APIS IN KUBERNETES ...............333

10 Microservice APIs in Kubernetes

10.1 Microservice APIs on Kubernetes 336
335

10.2 Deploying Natter on Kubernetes 339

Building H2 database as a Docker container 341 Deploying ■

the database to Kubernetes 345 Building the Natter API as a

■

Docker container 349 The link-preview microservice 353

■

Deploying the new microservice 355 Calling the link-preview

■

microservice 357 Preventing SSRF attacks 361

■

DNS rebinding attacks 366

10.3 Securing microservice communications 368
Securing communications with TLS 368 Using a service mesh ■

for TLS 370 Locking down network connections 375

■

10.4 Securing incoming requests 377

11 Securing service-to-service APIs

11.1 API keys and JWT bearer authentication 384
383

11.2 The OAuth2 client credentials grant 385

Service accounts 387
11.3 The JWT bearer grant for OAuth2 389
Client authentication 391 Generating the JWT■ 393
Service account authentication 395
11.4 Mutual TLS authentication 396
How TLS certificate authentication works 397 Client certificate ■

authentication 399 Verifying client identity 402 Using a

■ ■

service mesh 406 Mutual TLS with OAuth2 409

■

Certificate-bound access tokens 410

11.5 Managing service credentials 415
Kubernetes secrets 415 Key and secret management
■

services 420 Avoiding long-lived secrets on disk 423

■

Key derivation 425

x CONTENTS

11.6 Service API calls in response to user requests 428

The phantom token pattern 429 ■
OAuth2 token exchange 431

PART 5 APIS FOR THE INTERNET OF THINGS ...............437

12 Securing IoT communications

12.1 Transport layer security
Datagram TLS 441 ■
439
440
Cipher suites for constrained devices 452
12.2 Pre-shared keys 458
Implementing a PSK server 460 The PSK client 462
■

Supporting raw PSK cipher suites 463 PSK with forward ■

secrecy 465
12.3 End-to-end security 467
COSE 468 Alternatives to COSE
■
472 ■
Misuse-resistant
authenticated encryption 475
12.4 Key distribution and management 479
One-off key provisioning 480 Key distribution servers
■
481
Ratcheting for forward secrecy 482 Post-compromise
■

security 484

13 Securing IoT APIs

13.1
488
Authenticating devices 489
Identifying devices 489 Device certificates
■ 492
Authenticating at the transport layer 492
13.2 End-to-end authentication 496
OSCORE 499 ■ Avoiding replay in REST APIs 506
13.3 OAuth2 for constrained environments 511
The device authorization grant 512 ■ ACE-OAuth 517
13.4 Offline access control 518
Offline user authentication 518 ■ Offline authorization 520

appendix A Setting up Java and Maven 523

appendix B Setting up Kubernetes 532
index 535
 preface
I have been a professional software developer, off and on, for about 20 years now, and
I’ve worked with a wide variety of APIs over those years. My youth was spent hacking
together adventure games in BASIC and a little Z80 machine code, with no concern
that anyone else would ever use my code, let alone need to interface with it. It wasn’t
until I joined IBM in 1999 as a pre-university employee (affectionately known as
“pooeys”) that I first encountered code that was written to be used by others. I remem-
ber a summer spent valiantly trying to integrate a C++ networking library into a testing
framework with only a terse email from the author to guide me. In those days I was
more concerned with deciphering inscrutable compiler error messages than thinking
about security.
Over time the notion of API has changed to encompass remotely accessed inter-
faces where security is no longer so easily dismissed. Running scared from C++, I
found myself in a world of Enterprise Java Beans, with their own flavor of remote API
calls and enormous weight of interfaces and boilerplate code. I could never quite
remember what it was I was building in those days, but whatever it was must be tre-
mendously important to need all this code. Later we added a lot of XML in the form
of SOAP and XML-RPC. It didn’t help. I remember the arrival of RESTful APIs and
then JSON as a breath of fresh air: at last the API was simple enough that you could
stop and think about what you were exposing to the world. It was around this time
that I became seriously interested in security.
In 2013, I joined ForgeRock, then a startup recently risen from the ashes of Sun
Microsystems. They were busy writing modern REST APIs for their identity and access

xi
xii PREFACE

management products, and I dived right in. Along the way, I got a crash course in
modern token-based authentication and authorization techniques that have trans-
formed API security in recent years and form a large part of this book. When I was
approached by Manning about writing a book, I knew immediately that API security
would be the subject.
The outline of the book has changed many times during the course of writing it,
but I’ve stayed firm to the principle that details matter in security. You can’t achieve
security purely at an architectural level, by adding boxes labelled “authentication” or
“access control.” You must understand exactly what you are protecting and the guar-
antees those boxes can and can’t provide. On the other hand, security is not the place
to reinvent everything from scratch. In this book, I hope that I’ve successfully trodden
a middle ground: explaining why things are the way they are while also providing lots
of pointers to modern, off-the-shelf solutions to common security problems.
A second guiding principle has been to emphasize that security techniques are
rarely one-size-fits-all. What works for a web application may be completely inappro-
priate for use in a microservices architecture. Drawing on my direct experience, I’ve
included chapters on securing APIs for web and mobile clients, for microservices in
Kubernetes environments, and APIs for the Internet of Things. Each environment
brings its own challenges and solutions.
 acknowledgments
I knew writing a book would be a lot of hard work, but I didn’t know that starting it
would coincide with some of the hardest moments of my life personally, and that I
would be ending it in the midst of a global pandemic. I couldn’t have got through it
all without the unending support and love of my wife, Johanna. I’d also like to thank
our daughter, Eliza (the littlest art director), and all our friends and family.
Next, I’d like to thank everyone at Manning who’ve helped turn this book into a
reality. I’d particularly like to thank my development editor, Toni Arritola, who has
patiently guided my teaching style, corrected my errors, and reminded me who I am
writing for. I’d also like to thank my technical editor, Josh White, for keeping me hon-
est with a lot of great feedback. A big thank you to everybody else at Manning who has
helped me along the way. Deirdre Hiam, my project editor; Katie Petito, my copyedi-
tor; Keri Hales, my proofreader; and Ivan Martinović, my review editor. It’s been a
pleasure working with you all.
I’d like to thank my colleagues at ForgeRock for their support and encouragement.
I’d particularly like to thank Jamie Nelson and Jonathan Scudder for encouraging me to
work on the book, and to everyone who reviewed early drafts, in particular Simon
Moffatt, Andy Forrest, Craig McDonnell, David Luna, Jaco Jooste, and Robert Wapshott.
Finally, I’d like to thank Jean-Philippe Aumasson, Flavien Binet, and Anthony
Vennard at Teserakt for their expert review of chapters 12 and 13, and the anonymous
reviewers of the book who provided many detailed comments.
To all the reviewers, Aditya Kaushik, Alexander Danilov, Andres Sacco, Arnaldo
Gabriel, Ayala Meyer, Bobby Lin, Daniel Varga, David Pardo, Gilberto Taccari, Harinath

xiii
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England again. Next year in the spring, he went upon the same expedition
with three ships. After having gone through many great dangers of the ice
and storms, he at length reached the shore, where he found a wild and
savage nation; who, when they saw the English coming to them, being
frightened, left their huts, and ran away to hide themselves. Some from the
highest rocks threw themselves into the sea; whereupon the English entered
their huts, where they met with nobody but an old woman, and a young one,
who was pregnant, and those they carried away with them. It is also
reported, that they here found some sand which contained particles of gold
and silver, of which they filled three hundred tuns, and brought it home
with them to England. As to this gold and silver sand, I cannot help
questioning whether they found any such on the Greenland shore, inasmuch
as Sir Martin, in the same strain, relates wonderful things of the politeness
and civility of a nation that dwelt in those parts; of which he says, they were
governed by a prince, whom they called Kakiunge; and carried him in state
on their shoulders, clothed in rich stutfs, and adorned with gold and
precious stones, which does not at all agree with the meanness and
coarseness of Greenland and its inhabitants; but rather seems to belong to
the rich kingdoms of Peru and Mexico, where gold and silver abounds; and
from whence he may have brought the above-mentioned gold and silver
sand.
But I think it high time to leave such uncertain relations to their worth;
and turn our thoughts towards the pious endeavours of our most gracious
sovereigns the Kings of Denmark to discover and recover Greenland again.
An we find, that after the expeditions of Frederick the Second, Christian the
Fourth, his successor, with great cost, ordered four different expeditions for
this discovery. The first was undertaken, under the command of Godske
Lindenow, with three ships. And, as the history tells, Lindenow with his
ship arrived upon the East coast of Greenland (which I hardly can believe),
and found none but wild, uncivilised people there, like those Frobisher is
said first to have met with. He staid there three days, during which time the
wild Greenlanders came to trade with him; changing all sorts of furs and
skins with pieces of precious horns, against all kinds of small trifling iron
ware, as knives, scissars, needles, common looking glasses, and other such
trifles. When he set sail from thence, there were two Greenlanders
remaining in the ship, whom he carried off, and brought them home along
with him: these as they made all their endeavour to get away from him, and
sometimes would have jumped into the sea, they were obliged to tie and
secure them; which, when their countrymen observed, who flocked together
upon the shore, they made a hideous outcry and howling, flung stones, and
shot their arrows at the sailors, upon which they from the ship fired a gun,
which frightened and dispersed them; and so the ship left them. The two
other ships, that set sail in company and under the command of Lindenow,
after they had doubled Cape Farewell, steered directly for the Strait of
Davis; in which navigation they discovered many fine harbours and
delightful green meadow lands, but all the inhabitants along the coast wild
and savage as before. It is pretended also, that they in some places found
stones, which contained some silver ore, which they took along with them;
of which one hundred pounds yielded twenty-six ounces of silver. (Here
again I cannot forbear questioning, whether this silver ore has been found
on the Greenland shore, or rather over against it on the American coast.)
These two ships also brought four savages home with them to Copenhagen.
The second expedition was made by order of the same King in the year
1606, with five ships under the conduct of the before-mentioned Admiral
Lindenow; bringing along with them three of the savages (one of them
dying in the voyage) which they had carried off the year before from
Greenland. But this time he directed his course to the Westward of Cape
Farewell, standing for the Straits of Davis; where he, coasting along, took
the survey of several places, and then returned home again.
The third and last expedition of this glorious King was only of two ships,
commanded by Captain Carsten Richards, a Holstenian by birth; he spied
the land and its high and craggy rocks afar off, but could not come near it
on account of the ice; and so, after he had lost his labour he returned home.
The fourth expedition of King Christian the Fourth, under the conduct of
Captain Jens Munck, in the year 1616, was not made for the discovering of
Greenland but to find out a passage between Greenland and America to
China; the misfortunes of which expedition are related by the said
commander.
There was, besides these four expeditions at the King’s cost, a fifth
undertaken, in the same King’s reign, by a company settled in Copenhagen
in the year 1636, of which company the president was the lord high
chancellor, Christian Friis, as Lyscander informs us. Two ships fitted out by
this company, directing their course to the Westward of Greenland, fell in
with the Straits of Davis, where they traded for a while with the savages;
but this was not the main concern of the commander, who was acquainted
with a coast, whose sand had the colour and weight of gold, which he
accordingly did not miss, and filled both their ships with the same. After
their return to Copenhagen, the goldsmiths were ordered to make a trial,
whether this sand would yield any gold or not; who, not being skilful
enough to make such a trial, condemned it to be all thrown overboard,
which was done by order of the high chancellor, president of the company.
Some part of the said sand was yet kept out of curiosity, out of which an
artificer, who afterwards came to Copenhagen, did extract a good deal of
pure gold. The honest and well-meaning commander, who went upon this
adventure, was turned out of favour, and died of grief soon after; whereby,
not only the treasure they had brought home, but also the knowledge of the
place where it was to be found, was entirely lost, as he kept this a secret to
himself.
In the year 1654, during the reign of King Frederick the Third, a noble
and wealthy adventurer, by name Henry Muller, fitted out a ship for
Greenland, under the command of David de Nelles, who arrived safe in
Greenland, and brought from thence three women, whose names were
Kunelik, Kabelau, and Sigokou; who, according to the opinion of Bishop
Torlais, who had perused the said captain’s journal, were taken in the
neighbourhood of Herjolsness, on the Eastern shore, as Thormoder Torfæus
pretends; but which I cannot be made to believe. My opinion is, they were
brought from the Western shore, near Baal’s River, as some of the
inhabitants, who are still living, had in fresh remembrance, telling me their
names, as they are laid down in the fore-mentioned Journal.
The last adventurer, that was sent upon the discovery of Greenland,
according to Torfæus in his History of Greenland, was Captain Otto
Axelson, in the year 1670, in the reign of Christian V of glorious memory.
But what success this adventurer met with he leaves us to guess.
Nevertheless we find, in a manuscript description of Greenland, written by
Arngrim Vidalin, Part iii, chap. 1, that his said majesty did invite, and with
great privileges encourage Mr. George Tormúhlen, counsellor of commerce
at Bergen, to fit out ships for the said discovery; whereupon the said
counsellor not only got ready shipping well stored for such an expedition,
but also got together a number of passengers, who resolved to go and settle
in those parts, whom he provided with all things necessary for that purpose;
both provision and ammunition, as well as houses made of timber, ready to
be erected in that country. But this great design miscarried, the ship being
taken by the French and brought into Dunkirk.
Thus, for a long while, it seemed, that all thought of Greenland was laid
aside until the year 1721; when after many well-meant invitations, and
projects proposed by me to the Greenland company at Bergen in Norway,
approved and authorised by his late majesty Frederick IV of glorious
memory, the company thereupon resolved not only to send ships, but also to
settle a colony in Greenland in 64°; when I went over with my whole family
and remained there fifteen years. During my stay I endeavoured to get all
the intelligence that could be procured both by sea and land of the present
state of the country, and did not lose my labour; for I found some places
that formerly were inhabited by the old Norwegians, on the Western shore.
Which expedition I have lately treated of in another treatise, and set out in
all its circumstances, and with all the difficulties it has laboured under;
wherefore I think it need not be here repeated.
But whereas my main drift and endeavour has been all along chiefly to
discover the Eastern district of Greenland, which always was reckoned the
best of our ancient colonies, accordingly I received from the above
mentioned Greenland company at Bergen a letter, in the year 1723, in
which I was told, that it was his majesty’s pleasure, that the East district
might likewise be visited and discovered. Which the better to effectuate, I
took the resolution to make this voyage in person; and accordingly I coasted
it Southwards, as far as to the States Promontory, looking out for the Strait
of Frobisher, which would have been my shortest way, according to those
charts, which lay the said strait down in this place; but such a strait I could
not find. Now as it grew too late in the year for me to proceed farther, the
month of September being nearly at an end, when the winter season begins
in those parts, accompanied by dreadful storms, I was obliged to return.
In the year 1724 the directors of the said Bergen company, according to
his majesty’s good will and pleasure, fitted out a ship to attempt a landing
on the Eastern shore, as had been formerly practised on that coast which
lies opposite to Iceland. But the surprising quantity of ice, which
barricadoed the coast, made that enterprise prove abortive and quite
miscarry, as many others had done. As there was no appearance for ships to
approach this shore, the same king, in the year 1728, resolved, besides other
very considerable expenses, to have horses transported to this colony, in
hopes, that with their help they might travel by land to this Eastern district:
but nothing was more impossible than this, project, on account of the
impracticable, high, and craggy mountains perpetually covered with ice and
snow, which never thaws. Another new attempt by sea was by order of the
said king made in the year 1729, by Lieutenant Richard; who with his ship
passed the winter near the new Danish colony, in Greenland, and in his
voyage back to Denmark made all the endeavours he could to come at the
aforesaid shore, opposite to Iceland; but all to no purpose, being herein
disappointed, like the rest before him.
All these difficulties and continual disappointments have made most
people lose all hopes of succeeding in this attempt: nevertheless, I flatter
myself to have hit luckily on an expedient, which to me seems not
impracticable though hitherto not tried, or at least but lightly executed; viz.
to endeavour to coast the land from the States Promontory, or (as we call it)
Cape Prince Christian, Northwards. The information I have had of some
Greenlanders, who in their boats have coasted a great part of the East side,
confirms me in my opinion; for although an incredible quantity of driven
ice yearly comes from Spitzbergen or New Greenland along this coast, and
passes by the States Promontory, which hinders the approaching of ships as
far as the ice stretches, whereabout the best part of the Norwegian colonies
were settled; yet there have been found breaks and open sea near the shore,
through which boats and smaller vessels may pass; and according to the
relation of the Greenlanders, as well as agreeably to my own experience,
the current, that comes out of the bays and inlets, always running along the
shore South Westwards, hinders the ice from adhering to the land, and
keeps it at a distance from the shore; by which means the Greenlanders at
certain times, without any hindrance, have passed and repassed part of this
coast in their kone boats (so they call their large boats); though they have
not been so far as where the old Norway colonies had their settlement; of
which no doubt there are still some ruins to be seen on this Eastern shore.
Furthermore I have been credibly informed by Dutch seamen that frequent
these seas, that several of their ships have at times found the East side of
Greenland cleared of the ice as far as 62°; and they had tarried some time
among the out rocks on that coast, where they carried on a profitable trade
with the savages. And I myself, in my return from Greenland homewards in
the year 1736, found it to be so when we passed the States Promontory and
Cape Farewell, and stood in near the shore, where at that time there was no
ice to be seen, which otherwise is very uncommon. But as this happens so
seldom, it is very uncertain and unsafe for any ship to venture so far up
under the Eastern shore. But, as I observed a little before, it is more safe
and practicable to coast it from the Promontory along the shore in small
vessels; especially if there be a lodge erected in the latitude of between 60°
and 61°: and it would be still more convenient, if there could be a way and
means found likewise to place a lodge on the Eastern shore in the same
latitude. For according to the account the ancients have left us of
Greenland, the distance of ground that lies uncultivated between the West
and East side is but twelve Norway miles by water. See Ivarus Beri’s
relation; or, according to a later computation, it is a journey of six days in a
boat. And as the ruins of old habitations, which I have discovered between
60° and 61°, are without doubt in the most Southerly part of the West side,
it of necessity follows, that the distance cannot be very great from thence to
the most Southern Parts of the Eastern side. Now, if it should be found
practicable, at certain times, to pass along the shore with boats or small
ships to the East side, to the latitude of 63° and 64°, little lodges might be
settled here and there with colonies; by which means a constant
correspondence might be kept, and mutual assistance given to one another,
though larger ships could not yearly visit every one of them, but only touch
at the most Southerly ones. I am also persuaded, that the thing is feasible,
and if it should please God in his mercy to forward this affair, colonies
might be established here, which, without great trouble, might be supplied
yearly with all necessaries.
CHAP III.
 Treats of the Nature of the Soil, Plants, and Minerals of Greenland.

AS to the nature of the soil, we are informed by ancient histories, that the
Greenland colonies bred a number of cattle, which afforded them milk,
butter, and cheese in such abundance, that a great quantity thereof was
brought over to Norway, and for its prime and particular goodness was set
apart for the King’s kitchen, which was practised until the reign of Queen
Margaret. We also read in these histories, that some parts of the country
yielded the choicest wheat corn, and in the dales or valleys the oak trees
brought forth acorns of the bigness of an apple, very good to eat[24]. The
woods afforded plenty of game of rein deer, hares, &c. for the sport of
huntsmen. The rivers, bays, and the seas furnished an infinite number of
fishes, seals, morses, and whales; of which all the inhabitants make a
considerable trade and commerce. And though the country at present cannot
boast of the same plenty and richness, as it lies destitute of colonies, cattle,
and uncultivated; yet I do not doubt, but the old dwelling places, formerly
inhabited and manured by the ancient Norway colonies, might recover their
former fertility, if they were again peopled with men and cattle; inasmuch
as about those places there grows fine grass, especially from 60° to 65°. In
the great Bay, which in the sea charts goes under the name of Baal’s River,
and at present is called the Bay of Good Hope (from the Danish colony
settled near the entrance of this inlet), there are on both sides of the colony
many good pieces of meadow ground, for the grazing and pasturing
numbers of cattle, besides plenty of provision, which the sea as well as the
land yields. Trees or woods of any consideration are rarely met with; yet I
have found in most of the bays underwoods and shrubs in great quantity,
especially of birch, elm, and willows, which afford sufficient fuel for the
use of the inhabitants, The largest wood I have seen is in the latitude of 60°
and 61°, where I found birch trees two or three fathom high, somewhat
thicker than a man’s leg or arm: small juniper trees grow also here in
abundance, the berries of which are of the bigness of grey peas. The herb
called quaun, which is our angelica, is very obvious and common, as well
as wild rosemary, which has the taste and smell of turpentine; of which, by
distillation, is extracted a fine oil and spirit, of great use in medicine. That
precious herb, scurvy grass, the most excellent remedy for the cure of the
distemper which gives its name, grows everywhere on the sea side, and has
not so bitter a taste as that of softer climates; I have seen wonderful effects
of its cure. The country also produces a grass with yellow flowers, whose
root smells in the spring like roses: the inhabitants feed thereupon, and find
benefit by it. In the bays and inlets you have wild thyme at the side of the
mountains, which after sunset yields a fragrant smell. Here also you meet
with the herb tormentil, or setfoil, and a great many other herbs, plants, and
vegetables, which I cannot call to mind, and whose names indeed are
altogether unknown to me. Their most common berries are those called
blew-berries, tittle-berries, and bramble-berries. Multe-berries, which are
common in Norway, do not arrive here to any perfection, on account of the
thick fogs that hang upon the islands, when these plants bud. This country
affords the most pleasant prospect about the latitude of 60° to 64°, and
seems fit to be manured for the produce of all sorts of grain; and there are to
this day marks of acres and arable land to be observed. I myself once made
a trial of sowing barley in the bay joining to our new colony, which sprung
up so fast, that it stood in its full ears towards the latter end of July; but did
not come to ripeness, on account of the night frost which nipped it and
hindered its growth. But as this grain was brought over from Bergen in
Norway, no doubt it wanted a longer summer and more heat to ripen. But I
am of opinion, that corn which grows in the more Northern parts of Norway
would thrive better in Greenland, inasmuch as those climates agree better
together. Turnips and cole are very good here, and of a sweet taste,
especially the turnips, which are pretty large.
I must observe to you, that all that has been said of the fruitfulness of the
Greenland soil is to be understood of the latitude of 60° to 65°, and differs
according to the different degrees of latitude. For in the most Northern parts
you find neither herbs nor plants; so that the inhabitants cannot gather grass
enough to put in their shoes to keep their feet warm, but are obliged to buy
it from the Southern parts.
Of Greenland metals or minerals I have little or nothing to say. It is true,
that about two Norway miles to the South of the colony of Good Hope, on a
promontory, there are here and there green spots to be seen, like verdigris,
which shows there must be some copper ore. And a certain Greenlander
once brought me some pieces not unlike lead ore. There is likewise a sort of
calamine, which has the colour of yellow brass. In my expedition upon
discoveries, I found, on a little island where we touched, some yellow sand,
mixed with sinople red, or vermillion strokes, of which I sent a quantity
over to the directors of the Greenland company at Bergen, to make a trial of
it; upon which they wrote me an answer, that I should endeavour to get as
much as I could of the same sand; but to theirs as well as my own
disappointment, I never was able to find the said island again, where I had
got this sand, as it was but a very small and insignificant one, situate among
a great many others; and the mark I had taken care to put up was by the
wind blown down. Nevertheless there has been enough of the same stuff
found up and down in the country, which, when it is burnt, changes its
former colour for a reddish hue, which it likewise does if you keep it awhile
shut up close.
Whether or no this be the same sort of sand as that of which Sir Martin
Frobisher is said to have brought some hundred tons to England, and was
pretended to contain a great deal of gold; and again (as we have above
taken notice of) of which some of the Danish Greenland Company’s ships
returned freighted to Copenhagen in the year 1636, is a question which I
have no mind to decide. However, thus much I can say, that by the small
experience I have acquired in the art of chemistry, I have tried both by
extraction and precipitation if it would yield any thing, but always lost my
labour. After all I declare, I never could find any other sort of sand that
contained either gold or silver. But as for rock crystal, both red and white,
you find it here: the red contains some particular solis, which can only be
produced by the spagyric art.
Stone flax, or what they call asbestos, is so common here, that you may
see whole mountains of it: it has the appearance of a common stone, but can
be split or cloven like a piece of wood. It contains long filaments, which,
when beaten and separated from the dross, you may twist and spin into a
thread. As long as it has its oily moisture it will burn without being
consumed to ashes.
Round about our colony of Good Hope there is a sort of coarse bastard
marble of different colours, blue, green, red, and some quite white, and
again some white with black spots, which the natives form into all sorts of
vessels and utensils, as lamps, pots to boil in, and even crucibles to melt
metals in, this marble standing proof against the fire[25]. Of this marble
there was brought a quantity over to Drontheim in Norway, which they
made use of in the adorning of the cathedral of that city, as we have it from
Peter Claudius Undalin[26].
Amongst the produce of the sea, besides different shells, muscles, and
periwinkles, there are also coral trees, of which I have seen one of a fine
form and size.
 C H A P. I V
Of the Nature of the Climate, and the Temperament of the Air.

THE natives of Greenland have no reason to complain of rains and stormy

weather, which seldom trouble them; especially in the Bay of Disco, in the
68th degree of Latitude, where they commonly have clear and settled
weather during the whole summer season: but again, when foul and stormy
weather falls in, it rages with an incredible fierceness and violence, chiefly
when the wind comes about Southerly, or South West; and the storm is laid
and succeeded by fair weather as soon as the wind shifts about to the West
and North.
The country would be exceeding pleasant and healthful in summer time,
if it was not for the heavy fogs that annoy it, especially near the sea coast;
for it is as warm here as anywhere, when the air is serene and clear, which
happens when the wind blows Easterly; and sometimes it is so hot, that the
sea water, which after the ebbing of the sea has remained in the hollow
places of the rocks, has often, before night, by the heat of the sun, been
found coagulated into a fine white salt. I can remember, that once, for three
months together, we had as fair settled weather and warm sunshine days as
one could wish, without any rain.
The length of the summer is from the latter end of May to the midst of
September; all the remaining part of the year is winter, which is tolerable in
the latitude of 64°, but to the Northward, in 68° and above, the cold is so
excessive, that even the most spirituous liquors, as French brandy, will
freeze near the fire side. At the end of August the sea is all covered with ice,
which does not thaw before April or May, and sometimes not till the latter
end of June.
It is remarkable, that on the Western coasts of different countries, lying
in one and the same latitude, it is much colder than on the Eastern, as some
parts of Greenland and Norway. And though Greenland is much colder than
Norway, yet the snow never lies so high, especially in the bays and inlets,
where it is seldom above half a yard higher than the ground; whereas the
inland parts and the mountains are perpetually covered with ice and snow,
which never melts; and not a spot of the ground is bare, but near the shore
and in the bays; where in the summer you are delighted with a charming
verdure, caused by the heat of the sun, reverberated from side to side, and
concentred in these lower parts of the valleys, surrounded by high rocks and
mountains, for many hours together without intermission; but as soon as the
sun is set, the air is changed at once, and the cold ice mountains make you
soon feel the nearness of their neighbourhood, and oblige you to put on
your furs. Besides the frightful ice that covers the whole face of the land,
the sea is almost choaked with it, some flat and large fields of ice, or bay
ice, as they call it, and some huge and prodigious mountains, of an
astonishing bigness, lying as deep under water as they soar high in the air.
These are pieces of the ice mountains of the land, which lie near the sea,
and bursting, tumble down into the sea, and are carried off. They represent
to the beholders, afar off, many odd and strange figures; some of churches,
castles with spires and turrets others you would take to be ships under sail;
and many have been deluded by them, thinking they were real ships, and
going to board them. Nor does their figure and shape alone surprise, but
also their diversity of colours pleases the sight; for some are like white
crystal, others blue as sapphires; and others again green as emeralds. One
would attribute the cause of these colours to metals or minerals of the
places where this ice was formed; or of waters of which it was coagulated:
but experience teaches me, that the blue ice is the concretion of fresh water,
which at first is white, and at length hardens and turns blue; but the greenish
colour comes from salt water. It is observed, that if you put the blue ice near
the fire and let it melt, and afterwards remove it to a colder place, to freeze
again, it does not recover its former blue, but becomes white. From whence
I infer, that the volatile sulphur, which the ice had attracted from the air, by
its resolution into water, exhales and vanishes.
Though the summer season is very hot in Greenland, it seldom causes
any thunder and lightning; the reason of which I take to be the coolness of
the night, which allays the heat of the day, and causes the sulphureous
exhalations to fall again with the heavy dew to the ground.
As for the ordinary meteors, commonly seen in other countries, they are
visible in Greenland; as the rainbow, flying or shooting stars, and the like.
But what is more peculiar to the climate, is the Northern Light, or Aurora
Borealis, which in the spring of the year, about the new moon, darts streams
of light all over the sky, as quick as lightning, especially if it be a clear
night, with such a brightness, that you may read by it as by daylight.
At the summer solstice there is no night, and you have the pleasure to
see the sun turn round about the horizon all the twenty-four hours; and in
the depth of winter they have but little comfort in that planet, and the nights
are proportionally long; yet it never is so dark, but you can see to travel up
and down the country, though sometimes it be neither moonshine nor
starlight: but the snow and ice, with which both land and sea is covered,
enlightens the air; or the reason may be fetched from the nearness of the
horizon to the equator.
The temperament of the air is not unhealthful; for, if you except the
scurvy and distempers of the breast, they know nothing here of the many
other diseases with which other countries are plagued; and these pectoral
infirmities are not so much the effects of the excessive cold, as of that nasty
foggish weather which this country is very much subject to; which I impute
to the vast quantity of ice that covers the land and drives in the sea. From
the beginning of April to the end of July is the foggish season, and from that
time the fog daily decreases. But as in the summer time they are troubled
with the fog, so in the winter season they are likewise plagued with the
vapour called frost smoke, which, when the cold is excessive, rises out of
the sea as the smoke out of a chimney, and is as thick as the thickest mist,
especially in the bays, where there is any opening in the ice. It is very
remarkable, that this frost, damp, or smoke, if you come near it, will singe
the very skin of your face and hands; but when you are in it, you find no
such piercing or stinging sharpness, but warm and soft; only it leaves a
white frost upon your hair and clothes.
I must not forget here to mention the wonderful harmony and
correspondence which is observed in Greenland between fountains and the
main sea, viz. that at spring tides, in new and full moon, when the strongest
ebbing is at sea, the hidden fountains or springs of fresh water break out on
shore, and discover themselves, often in places where you never would
expect to meet with any such; especially in winter, when the ground is
covered with ice and snow; yet at other times there are no water springs in
those places. The cause of this wonderful harmony I leave to the learned
inquiry of natural philosophers; how springs and fountains follow the
motion of the main sea, as the sea does that of the moon. Yet this I must
observe to you, that some great men have been greatly mistaken, in that
they have taken for granted and asserted, that in Norway and Greenland the
tide was hardly remarkable. (See Mr. Wollf’s Reasonable Thoughts on the
Effects of Nature, p. 541.) Whereas nowhere greater tide is observed; the
sea, at new and full moon, especially in the spring and fall, rises and falls
about three fathoms.
 C H A P. V.

Of the Land Animals, and Land Fowls or Birds of Greenland; and how they
hunt and hill them.
THERE are no venomous serpents or insects, no ravenous wild beasts to be
seen in Greenland, if you except the bear, which some will have to be an
amphibious animal, as he lives chiefly upon the ice in the most Northern
parts, and feeds upon seals and fish. He very seldom appears near the
colony, in which I had taken up my quarters. He is of a very large size, and
of a hideous and frightful aspect, with white long hairs: he is greedy of
human blood[27]. The natives tell us moreover of another kind of ravenous
beasts, which they call Amarok, which eagerly pursue other beasts, as well
as men; yet none of them could say, they ever had seen them, but only had
it from others by hearsay; and whereas none of our own people, who have
travelled up and down the country, ever met with any such beast, therefore I
take it to be a mere fable.
Rein deer are in some places in so great numbers that you will see whole
herds of them[28]; and when they go and feed in herds they are dangerous to
come at. The natives spend the whole summer season in hunting of rein
deer, going up to the innermost parts of the bays, and carrying, for the most
part, their wives and children along with them, where they remain till the
harvest season comes on. In the mean while they with so much eagerness
hunt, pursue, and destroy these poor deer, that they have no place of safety,
but what the Greenlanders know; and where they are in any number, there
they chase them by clap-hunting, setting upon them on all sides, and
surrounding them with all their women and children, to force them into
defiles and narrow passages, where the men armed lay in wait for them and
kill them: and when they have not people enough to surround them, then
they put up white poles (to make up the number that is wanted) with pieces
of turf to head them, which frightens the deer, and hinders it from escaping.
There are also vast numbers of hares, which are white summer and
winter, very fat and of a good taste. There are foxes of different colours,
white, grey, and blueish; they are of a lesser size than those of Denmark and
Norway, and not so hairy, but more like martens. The natives commonly
catch them alive in traps, built of stones like little huts. The other four-
footed animals, which ancient historians tell us are found in Greenland, are
sables, martens, wolves, losses, ermins, and several others; I have met with
none of them on the Western side.—See Arngrim Jonas’s History of
Greenland; as also Ivarus Beni’s Relation, mentioned by Undalinus.
Tame or domestic animals there are none, but dogs in great numbers, and
of a large size, with white hairs, or white and black, and standing ears. They
are in their kind as timorous and stupid as their masters, for they never bay
or bark, but howl only. In the Northern parts they use them instead of
horses, to drag their sledges, tying four or six, and sometimes eight or ten to
a sledge, laden with five or six of the largest seals, with the master sitting
up himself, who drives as fast with them as we can do with good horses, for
they often make fifteen German miles with them in a winter day, upon the
ice: and though the poor dogs are of so great service to them, yet they do
not use them well, for they are left to provide for and subsist themselves as
wild beasts, feeding upon muscles thrown up on the sea side, or upon
berries in the summer season; and when there has been a great capture of
seals they give them their blood boiled and their entrails.
As for land fowls or birds, Greenland knows of none but rypper, which
is a sort of large partridges, white in winter, and grey in summer time, and
these they have in great numbers. Ravens seem to be domestic birds with
them, for they are always seen about their huts, hovering about the carcases
of seals, that lie upon the ground. There are likewise very large eagles, their
wings spread out being a fathom wide, but they are seldom seen in the
Northern parts of the country. You find here falcons or hawks, some grey,
some of a whitish plumage, and some speckled; as also great speckled owls.
There are different sorts of little sparrows, snow birds, and ice birds, and a
little bird not unlike a linnet, which has a very melodious tune.
Amongst the insects of Greenland, the midge or gnats are the most
troublesome, whose sting leaves a swelling and burning pain behind it; and
this trouble they are most exposed to in the hot season, against which there
is no shelter to be found. There are also spiders, flies, humble bees, and
wasps. They know nothing of any venomous animals, as serpents and the
like; nor have they any snakes, toads, frogs, beetles, ants, or bees; neither
are they plagued with rats, mice, or any such vermin.
 C H A P. V I .

Of the Greenland Sea Animals, and Sea Fowls and Fishes.

THE Greenland Sea abounds in different sorts of animals, fowls, and fishes,
of which the whale bears the sway, and is of divers kinds, shapes, and sizes.
Some are called the finned whales, from the fins they have upon their back
near the tail; but these are not much valued, yielding but little fat or blubber,
and that of the meaner sort; they consist of nothing but lean flesh, sinews,
and bones. They are of a long, round, and slender shape, very dangerous to
meddle with, for they rage and lay about them most furiously with their tail,
so that nobody cares to come at them, or catch them. The Greenlanders
make much of them, on account of their flesh, which, with them, passes for
dainty cheer. The other sort of whales are reckoned the best for their fat, and
fins or whalebones. These differ from the first sort, in that they have no fin
on the back towards the tail, but two lesser ones near the eyes, and are
covered with a thick black skin, marbled with white strokes. With these side
fins they swim with an incredible swiftness. The tail is commonly three or
four fathoms broad. The head makes up one-third of the whole fish. The
jaws are covered, both above and beneath, with a kind of short hair. At the
bottom of the jaws are placed the so called barders, or whalebones, which
serve him instead of teeth, of which he has none. They are of different
colours, some brown, some black, and others yellow with white streaks.
Within the mouth, the barders or whalebones are covered with hair like
horse-hair, chiefly those that inclose the tongue. Some of them are bent like
a scymitar, or sabre. The smallest are ranged the foremost in the mouth, and
the hindermost near the throat; the broadest and largest are in the middle,
some of them two fathoms long, by which we may judge of the vast bigness
of this animal. On each side there are commonly two hundred and fifty, in
all five hundred pieces. They are set in a broad row, as in a sheaf, one close
to the other, bent like a crescent or half-moon, broadest at the root, which is
of a tough and grisly matter, of a whitish colour, fastened to the upper part
of the jaws near the throat, and they grow smaller towards the end, which is
pointed; they are also covered with hair, that they may not hurt the tongue.
The undermost jaw is commonly white, to which the tongue is fastened,
inclosed in the barders, or long whale bones; it is very large, sometimes
about eighteen feet, and sometimes more, of a white colour, with black
spots, of a soft, fat, and spungy matter. The whale has a bunch on the top of
his head, in which are two spouts or pipes, parallel one to the other, and
somewhat bent, like the holes upon a fiddle. Through these he receives the
air, and spouts out the water, which he takes in at his mouth, and is forced
upwards through these holes in very large quantities, and with such violence
and noise, that it is heard at a great distance, by which, in hazy weather, he
is known to be near, especially when he finds himself wounded, for then he
rages most furiously, and the noise of his spouting is so loud, that some
have resembled it to the roaring of the sea in a storm, or the firing of great
guns, His eyes are placed between the bunch and the side fins; they are not
larger than those of an ox, and are armed with eyebrows.
The penis of a whale is a strong sinew, seven or eight, and sometimes
fourteen feet long, in proportion to his bulk: it is covered with a sheath, in
which it lies hidden, so that you see but little of it: the nature of the female
is like that of the four-footed animals: she has two breasts with teats like a
cow; some white, others stained with black or blue spots. In their spawning
time their breasts are larger than usual; and when they couple together, they
reach their head above water, to fetch breath, and to cool the heat contracted
by that action. It is said, that they never bring forth more than two young
ones at a spawning, which they suck with their teats. The spawn of the
whale, while it is fresh, is clammy and gluish, so that it may be drawn out in
threads like wax or pitch; it has no relation to that which we call spermaceti,
for it is soon corrupted and by no art can be preserved.
 These sea animals, or rather monsters, are of different sizes and bulks;
some yield one hundred, and some two or three hundred tuns of fat or
blubber. The fat lies between the skin and the flesh, six or eight inches
thick, especially upon the back and under the belly. The thickest and
strongest sinews are in the tail, which serves him for a rudder, as his fins do
for oars, wherewith he swims with an astonishing swiftness, proportioned to
his bulk, leaving a track in the sea, like a great ship; and this is called his
wake, by which he is often followed.
These sea monsters are as shy and timorous as they are huge and bulky,
for as soon as they hear a boat rowing, and perceive any body’s approach,
they immediately shoot under water and plunge into the deep; but when
they find themselves in danger, then they shew their great and surprising
strength; for then they break to pieces whatever comes in their way, and if
they should hit a boat, they would beat it in a thousand pieces. According to
the relation of the whale-catchers, the whale, being struck, will run away
with the line some hundreds of fathoms long, faster than a ship under full
sail. Now one would think, that such a vast body should need many smaller
fishes and sea animals to feed upon; but on the contrary, his food is nothing
but a sort of blubber, called pulmo marinus, or whale food, which is of a
dark brown colour, with two brims or flaps, with which it moves in the
water, with such slowness that one may easily lay hold of it, and get it out
of the water. It is like a jelly, soft and slippery, so that if you crush it
between your fingers you find it fat and greasy like train oil. The Greenland
seas abound in it, which allures and draws this kind of whales thither in
search of it; for as their swallow or throat is very narrow (being but four
inches in diameter), and the smaller whalebones reaching down his throat,
they cannot swallow any hard or large piece of other food, having no teeth
to chew it with, so that this sort of nourishment suits them best, their mouth
being large and wide to receive a great quantity, by opening it and shutting
it again, that nature has provided them with the barders or whalebones,
which by their closeness only give passage to the water, like a sieve,
keeping back the aliment. Here we ought to praise the wise and kind
providence of an Almighty Creator, who has made such mean things suffice
for the maintenance of so vast an animal.
Next to this there is another sort of whales, called the North Capers,
from the place of their abode, which is about the North cape of Norway,
though they also frequent the coasts of Iceland, Greenland, and sundry other
seas, going in search of their prey, which is herring and other small fish,
that resort in abundance to those coasts. It has been observed, that some of
these North Cape whales have had more than a tun of herrings in their belly.
This kind of whales has this common with the former called fin-whale, in
that it is very swift and quick in its motion, and keeps off from the shore in
the main sea, as fearing to become a prey to its enemies, if it should venture
too near the shore. His fat is tougher and harder than that of the great bay
whale; neither are his barders or bones so long and valuable, for which
reason he is neglected.
The fourth sort is the sword-fish, so called from a long and broad bone,
which grows out of the end of his snout on both sides, indented like a saw.
He has got two fins upon his back, and four under the belly, on each side
two: those on the back are the largest; those under the belly are placed just
under the first of the back: his tail broad and flat underneath, and above
pointed, but not split or cloved. From the hindermost fin of the back he
grows smaller: his nostrils are of an oblong shape: the eyes are placed on
the top of his head, just above his mouth. There are different sizes of sword-
fish, some of twenty feet, some more, some less. This is the greatest enemy
the true whale has to deal with, who gives him fierce battles; and, having
vanquished and killed him, he contents himself with eating the tongue of
the whale, leaving the rest of the huge carcase for the prey and spoils of the
morses and sea birds.
The cachelot or pot-fish is a fifth species of whales, whose shape is
somewhat different from that of other whales, in that the upper part of his
head or skull is much bigger and stronger built; his spouts or pipes are
placed on the forehead, whereas other whales have them on the hinder part
of the head: his under jaw is armed with a row of teeth which are but short:
his tongue is thin and pointed, and of a yellowish colour: he has but one eye
on the side of the head, which makes him of easy access to the
Greenlanders, who attack him on his blind side. Of his skull that wrongly so
called spermaceti is prepared, one yielding twenty to twenty-four tuns
thereof. The rest of the body and the tail are like unto those of other whales.
He is of a brownish colour on the back, and white under the belly: he is of
different sizes, from fifty to seventy feet long.
Then comes the white fish, whose shape is not unlike that of the great
bay whale, having no fins upon the back, but underneath two large ones; the
tail like a whale; his spouts, through which he breathes and throws out the
water, are the same; he has likewise a bunch on the head: his colour is of a
fading yellow; he is commonly from twelve to sixteen feet in length, and is
exceeding fat. The train of his blubber is as clear as the clearest oil: his flesh
as well as the fat has no bad taste, and when it is marinated with vinegar
and salt, it is as well tasted as any pork whatsoever. The fins also and the
tail, pickled or sauced, are good eating. This fish is so far from being shy,
that whole droves are seen about the ships at sea: the Greenlanders catch
numbers of them, of which they make grand cheer.
There is yet another smaller sort of whales, called but-heads, from the
form of its head, which at the snout is flat, like a but’s end: he has a fin
upon his back towards the tail, and two side fins: his tail is like to that of a
whale. In the hinder part of the head he has a pipe to fetch air, and spout the
water through, which he does not spout out with that force the whale does:
his size is from fourteen to twenty feet: he follows ships under sail with a
fair wind, and seems to run for a wager with them; whereas, on the contrary,
other whales avoid and fly from them. Their jumping, as well as that of
fishes and sea animals, forebodes boisterous and stormy weather.
Among the different kinds of whales some reckon the unicorn, as they
commonly call him, from a long small horn that grows out of his snout; but
his right name is nar-whale. It is a pretty large fish, eighteen or twenty feet
long, and yields good fat: his skin is black and smooth without hair; he has
one fin on each side, at the beginning of his belly: his head is pointed, and
out of his snout on the left side proceeds the horn, which is round, turned,
with a sharp taper point; the greatest length of it is fourteen or fifteen feet,
and thick as your arm. The root of it goes very deep into the head, to
strengthen it for supporting so heavy a burthen. The horn is of a fine, white,
and compact matter, wherefore it weighs much: the third part of it,
beginning from the root, is commonly hollow; and there are some very solid
at the root, and above it grows more and more hollow. On the right side of
the head there lies another shorter horn hidden, which does not grow out of
the skin, and it cannot be conceived for what end the All-wise Creator has
ordained it: he has, like other whales, two pipes or spouts which terminate
in one, through which he breathes and fetches air, when he comes up out of
the sea with his head. Here I must observe to you, that when the whale
comes up to fetch air, it is not water he throws out at the spouts, as the
common notion runs; but his breath, which resembles water forced out of a
great spout. As for the rest of the unicorn or nar-whale’s body, it is perfectly
of the same shape as that of other whales.
Concerning this animal’s horn, which has given occasion to so many
disputes, whether it be a horn properly so called, or a tooth, my reader must
allow me a little digression, to make these gentlemen disputants aware of
their mistake, who pretend it to be a tooth and not a horn, being placed on
one side of the snout, and not on the top of the forehead, where other
animals wear their horns. (See Wormius’s Museum, l. iii. ch. 14.) But it
appears clearly to all beholders, that it neither has the shape of a tooth, such
as other sea animals are endowed with, nor has its root in the jaws, the
ordinary place of teeth, but grows out of the snout. And besides, the
absurdity is much greater to hold and maintain, that animals wear teeth on
the snout or head, like horns: or dare anybody deny, that the whale’s spouts
are his nostrils, through which he fetches breath, because they are on the top
of his head; or question, that the clap-mysses’ (a large kind of seal) eyes are
such, because they are placed in the hindermost part of the head? Ought we
not rather to think, that an All-wise Creator has placed this horn
horizontally, to the end that it may not be of any hinderance to the course
and swimming of this animal in the water, which would happen if it rose
vertically? Furthermore, this horn serves many other ends, as to stir up his
food from the bottom of the sea, as he is said to feed upon small sea-weeds,
and likewise therewith to bore holes in the ice, in order to fetch fresh air.
The inference these gentlemen are pleased to draw from the generality of
fishes and sea animals having no such paws or claws as land animals have,
is as lame, and of as little force. And it is much less absurd to hold, that sea
animals have something common with those of the land, as it is confessed,
that many of them have a great resemblance together in figure and shape,
viz. sea-calves, sea-dogs, sea-wolves, and sea-horses, together with mermen
and mermaids, as it is pretended. Who is ignorant of the winged or flying
fishes; and of others with long nebs or bills like birds; also of birds with
four feet like beasts, and why then may there not be sea-unicorns as well as
land unicorns; if any such there be in rerum natura? for it is a difficult
matter to determine what kind of animal the Scripture understands, when it
speaks of the unicorn, as in Psalm xxix. ver. 6, and in other places; whether
it be such a one as Plinius and other writers describe, giving him the body
of a horse, with a stag’s head, and a horn on his snout; or whether it ought
not with better reason be applied to a certain animal in Africa, called
rhinoceros, whose snout is horned in that fashion. If one had patience to
consider the vast disagreement that reigns between these writers, one would
conclude that this animal is peculiar to the climate where the fabulous bird
phœnix builds its nest; that is to say in Utopia, or nowhere. For some
describe this animal as an amphibious one, that lives by turns upon land and
in the water; some will have him to be in the likeness of an ore white
spotted, with horse feet; others make a three years’ colt of him, with a stag’s
head, and a horn in the front one ell long; and others again tell you it is like
a morse or sea-horse, with divided or cloven feet, and a horn in the front.
There are authors, who attribute to him a horn ten feet long, others six, and
others again but the length of three inches. (See Pliny, Munsterus, Marc.
Paulus, Philostratus, Heliodorus, and several others, whose relations are of
the same authority with mine, as that of the Greenlanders, concerning a
fierce, ravenous wild beast, which they call Amavok; which all pretend to
know, but no person ever yet was found, that could say he had seen it.)
Nises or porpoises, otherwise sea hogs, are also placed in the class of
whales, though of a much smaller size, and are met with in all seas. His
head resembles that of a butts-head-whale: his mouth is armed with sharp
teeth: he has spouts or pipes like a whale. He has a fin upon the middle of
his back, which towards the tail is bended like a half-moon. Under the belly
there are two side fins, overgrown with flesh and covered with a black skin.
His tail is broad like that of a whale. He has small round eyes; his skin is of
a shining black, and the belly white. His length is five to eight feet, at most.
His fat makes fine oil, and the flesh is by the Greenlander reckoned a great
dainty.
Of other Sea Animals.
The sea horse or morse has the shape of a seal, though much larger and
stronger. He has five claws on each of his feet, as the seal: his head rounder
and larger. His skin is an inch thick, especially about the neck, very rough,
rugged and wrinkled, covered with a short, brown, and sometimes reddish,
or mouse-coloured hair. Out of his upper jaw there grow two large teeth or
tusks, bended downwards over the under jaw, of the length of half a yard,
and sometimes of a whole yard and more. These tusks are esteemed as
much as elephants’ teeth; they are compact and solid, but hollow towards
the root. His mouth is not unlike that of a bull, covered above and beneath
with strong bristles as big as a straw: his nostrils are placed above his
mouth, as those of the seal: his eyes are fiery red, which he can turn on all
sides, not being able to turn his head, by reason of the shortness and
thickness of his neck. The tail resembles a seal’s tail, being thick and short:
his fat is like hog’s lard. He lies commonly upon the ice shoals, and can live
a good while on shore, till hunger drives him back into the seas; his
nourishment being both herbs and fishes: he snores very loud, when he
sleeps; and when he is provoked to anger, he roars like a mad bull. It is a
very bold and fierce creature, and they assist each other, when attacked, to
the last. He is continually at war with the white bear, to whom he often
proves too hard with his mighty tusks, and often kills him, or at least does
not give over till they both expire.
The seals are of different sorts and sizes, though in their shape they all
agree, excepting the clap-myss, so called from a sort of a cap he has on his
head, with which he covers it when he fears a stroke. The paws of a seal
have five claws, joined together with a thick skin, like that of a goose or a
water fowl: his head resembles a dog’s with cropped ears, from whence he
has got the name of sea dog: his snout is bearded like that of a cat: his eyes
are large and clear with hair about them: the skin is covered with a short
hair of divers colours, and spotted; some white and black, others yellowish,
others again reddish, and some of a mouse colour: his teeth are very sharp
and pointed. Although he seems lamish behind, yet he makes nothing of
getting up upon the ice hills, where he loves to sleep and to bask himself in
the sun. The largest seals are from five to eight feet in length; their fat
yields better train-oil than that of any other fish. This is the most common
of all the sea animals in Greenland; and contributes the most to the
subsisting and maintaining of the inhabitants, who feed upon the flesh of it,
and clothe themselves with the skin, which likewise serves them for the
covering of their boats and tents: the fat is their fuel, which they burn in
their lamps, and also boil their victuals with.
As for other sea monsters and wonderful animals, we find in Tormoder’s
History of Greenland, mention made of three sorts of monsters, where he
quotes a book, called “Speculum Regale Iclandicum;” or, the Royal Island
Looking-Glass, from whence he borrows what he relates[29]. But none of
them have been seen by us, or any of our time, that ever I could hear, save
that most dreadful monster, that showed itself upon the surface of the water
in the year 1734, off our new colony in 64°. This monster was of so huge a
size, that coming out of the water, its head reached as high as the mast-
head; its body was as bulky as the ship, and three or four times as long. It
had a long pointed snout, and spouted like a whale fish; great broad paws,
and the body seemed covered with shell work, its skin very rugged and
uneven. The under part of its body was shaped like an enormous huge
serpent, and when it dived again under water, it plunged backwards into the
sea, and so raised its tail aloft, which seemed a whole ship’s length distant
from the bulkiest part of the body.
Of other Fishes.
Of fishes properly so called, the Greenland sea has abundance and of
great diversity, of which the largest is called Hay, whose flesh is much like
that of the halibut, and is cured in the same manner; being cut into long
slices, and hung up to be dried in the sun and in the air, as they cure them in
the Northern parts of Norway; but the Greenlanders do not much care for it;
its flesh being of a much coarser grain than that of the halibut. This fish has
two fins on the back, and six under the belly; the two foremost are the
longest, and have the shape of a tongue: the other two middlemost are
somewhat broader than the rest, and the hindermost couple near the tail are
alike broad before and behind, but shorter than the middlemost: his tail
resembles that of the sword fish. There are no bones in him, but gristles
only. He has a long snout, under which the mouth is placed like that of the
sword fish: he has three rows of sharp pointed teeth; his skin is hard and
prickly, of a greyish hue; his length is two or three fathom; he has a great
liver, of which they make train oil, the biggest of which makes two or three
lasts. It is a fish of prey, bites large pieces out of the whale’s body, and is
very greedy after man’s flesh: he cannot be caught with lines made of
hemp, for with his sharp teeth he snaps it off; but with iron chains. And the
larger sort are taken with harpoons, as we do the whales. The rest of fishes
that haunt the Greenland seas are the halibut, torbut, codfish, haddock,
scate, small salmon, or sea-trout of different kinds and sizes (the large
salmon not being so frequent in Greenland); and these are very fat and
good; they are found in all inlets, and mouths of rivers. Cat-fish is the most
common food of Greenlanders, insomuch, that when all other things fail,
the cat-fish must hold out, of which there are abundance, both winter and
summer. In the spring, towards the month of April, they catch a sort of fish
called rogncals, or stone biter; and in May another fish, called lyds or stints:
both sorts are very savoury; they frequent the bays and inlets in great
shoals. There are also whitings in abundance; but herrings are not to be
seen. Moreover there is a kind of fish, which neither myself nor any of my
company had ever seen before: this fish is not unlike a bream, only it is
prickly with sharp points all over, with a small tail. There are different
sizes: the Greenlanders say they are well tasted.
Among the testaceous animals in Greenland the chief are the muscles, of
which there are great quantities; they are large and delicate. In some waters
I have found of those larger sorts, in which the Norwegians find pearls.
These have also pearls, but very small ones, not bigger than the head of a
pin. I shall say nothing of the other sea insects, as crabs, shrimps, &c.
though they be not rare here; yet lobsters, crawfish, and oysters, I never met
with. According to information had of Greenlanders, on the Southern coasts
they sometimes catch tortoises in their nets; for they tell you, that they are
covered with a thick shell, have claws and a short tail; and moreover that
they find eggs in them, like birds’ eggs.
Of Greenland Sea Birds.
Amongst the sea fowls the principal are those they call eider-fowl, and
ducks; of which there are such numbers, that sometimes sailing along, you
find the whole sea covered with them; and when they take their flight, you
would think there was no end of them, especially in winter time, when in
large flocks, to the number of many thousands, they hover about our colony,
morning and evening; in the evening standing in for the bay, and in the
morning turning out to sea again. They fly so near the shore, that you may
from thence shoot them at pleasure. In the spring they retire towards the
sea; for upon the island that lies adjacent to the coast they lay their eggs,
and hatch their young ones, which arrive in June and July.
The natives watch them in this season to rob them of their eggs and their
young ones. The fine down feathers, which is the best part of this bird, so
much valued by others, the natives make nothing of, leaving them in the
nests.
There are three sorts of ducks. The first have a broad bill, like our tame
duck, with a fine speckled plumage. These build their nests upon the islands
as the eider fowls do. The second sort is of a lesser size, their bills long and
pointed; they keep most in the bays and in fresh waters, where they nest
among the reeds. The third sort are called wood ducks, resembling very
much those of the first sort, though somewhat larger in size; the breast is
black, the rest of the body grey. These do not propagate in the common way
of generation by coupling like other birds, but (which is very surprising)
from a slimy matter in the sea, which adheres to old pieces of wood driving
in the sea, of which first is generated a kind of muscles, and again in these
is bred a little worm, which in length of time is formed into a bird, that
comes out of the muscle shell, as other birds come out of egg shells[30].
Besides these there is another sea bird, which the Norway men call alkes,
which in the winter season contribute much to the maintenance of the
Greenlanders. Sometimes there are such numbers of them, that they drive
them in large flocks to the shore, where they catch them with their hands.
They are not so large as a duck, nor is their flesh so well tasted, being more
trainy, or oily. The lesser sort of alkes, which also abound here, are more
eatable than the large ones. Besides this vast number of sea fowls, there is
yet one of a smaller size, by the natives called tungoviarseck, which, for the
sake of its beautiful feathers, ought not to be forgot: it has the size and
shape of a lark.
Wild geese or grey geese keep to the Northward of Greenland; they are
of shape like other geese, somewhat smaller, with grey feathers. They take
their flight from other Southern climates over to Greenland every spring, to
breed their young ones; which, when grown and able to fly, they carry along
with them and return to the more Southern and milder climates, where they
pass the winter season.
In short, I have myself found in Greenland all the several sorts of sea
fowls which we have in Norway; as all kinds of mews large and small,
which build their nests in the clifts of the highest rocks, beyond the reach of
any one; and some upon the little islands, as the bird called terne and the
like; whose eggs they gather in great abundance among the stones: the
lundes, or Greenland parrot, so called on account of its beautiful plumage
and broad speckled bill: the lumbs, the sea-emms, a fowl of a large size, and
very small wings, for which reason he cannot fly: besides snipes, and a
great number of others; some too common to be enumerated and described
here, and others, of which I know not the name.
 C H A P. V I I .

Treats of the ordinary Occupations, as Hunting and Fishing: of the Tools

and Instruments necessary for these Employments: of the House
Implements and Utensils, &c., of the Greenlanders.
AS every nation has its peculiar way of living and of getting their
livelihood, suiting their genius and temper to the nature and produce of the
country they inhabit; so the Greenlanders likewise have theirs, peculiar to
themselves and their country. And though their way and customs may seem
to others mean and silly, yet they are such as very well serve their turn, and
which we can find no fault with. Their ordinary employments are fishing
and hunting: on shore they hunt the rein deer, and at sea they pursue the
whales, morses, seals, and other sea animals, as also sea fowls and fishes.
The manner of hunting the rein deer has been treated of above in the fifth
chapter; but there we took no notice of their bows and arrows, which they
make use of in the killing those deer. Their bow is of an ordinary make,
commonly made of fir tree, which in Norway is called tenal, and on the
back strengthened with strings made of sinews of animals, twisted like
thread: the bow string is made of a good strong strap of seal skin, or of
several sinews twisted together; the bow is a good fathom long. The head of
the arrow is armed with iron, or a sharp pointed bone, with one or more
hooks, that it may keep hold, when shot into a deer’s body. The arrows they
shoot birds with are at the head covered with one or more pieces of bone
blunt at the end, that they may kill the fowl without tearing the flesh. The
sea fowls are not shot with arrows, but with darts, headed with bones or
iron, which they throw very dexterously, and with so steady a hand at a
great distance, that nobody can hit surer with a gun. They are more
frequently employed at sea than on shore; and I confess they surpass therein
most other nations; for their way of taking whales, seals, and other sea
animals is by far the most skilful and most easy and handy.
When they go whale catching, they put on their best gear or apparel, as if
they were going to a wedding feast, fancying that if they did not come
cleanly and neatly dressed, the whale, who cannot bear slovenly and dirty
habits, would shun them and fly from them. This is the manner of their
expedition: about fifty persons, men and women, set out together in one of
the large boats, called kone boat; the women carry along with them their
sewing tackles, consisting of needles and thread, to sew and mend their
husbands’ spring coats, or jackets, if they should be torn or pierced through,
as also to mend the boat, in case it should receive any damage; the men go
in search of the whale, and when they have found him they strike him with
their harpoons, to which are fastened lines or straps two or three fathoms
long, made of seal skin, at the end of which they tie a bag of a whole seal
skin, filled with air, like a bladder; to the end that the whale, when he finds
himself wounded, and runs away with the harpoon, may the sooner be tired,
the air bag hindering him from keeping long under water. When he grows
tired and loses strength, they attack him again with their spears and lances,
till he is killed, and then they put on their spring coats, made of dressed seal
skin, all of one piece, with boots, gloves, and caps, sewed and laced so tight
together that no water can penetrate them. In this garb they jump into the
sea, and begin to slice the fat of him all round the body, even under the
water; for in these coats they cannot sink, as they are always full of air; so
that they can, like the seal, stand upright in the sea: nay they are sometimes
so daring, that they will get upon the whale’s back while there is yet life in
him, to make an end of him and cut away his fat.
They go much the same way to work in killing of seals, except that the
harpoon is lesser, to which is fastened a line of seal skin six or seven
fathoms long, at the end of which is a bladder or bag made of a small seal
skin filled with air to keep the seal, when he is wounded, from diving under
the water, and being lost again. In the Northern parts, where the sea is all
frozen over in the winter, they use other means in catching of seals. They
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