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Greenland

Greenland is the largest island in the world. Most of it lies north of the Arctic Circle and is largely covered by ice and snow. The only 'Green' land is a narrow strip around the coast. Most of the settlements lie on the narrow western coastal strip. Thule, a town in the north-west, houses a United States anti-missile defense base, completed in the early 1960's. Greenland belongs to Denmark, and since 1953 it has been a Danish county.

The island's coastline has many inlets called fjords. Northern Greenland has no sunshine during the cold winter. But during the cool summer, the sun never sets and it is never really dark. In summer, mosses and flowers grow near the coast. Reindeer roam over the hills eating the moss. Polar bears fish in the ice-covered lakes. The sea near Greenland teems with shoals of cod. Minerals found in Greenland include uranium and zinc and an aluminum-containing mineral called cryolite. But the snow, ice and frozen ground prevent mining in most parts of the island.

Most Greenlanders are descended from Eskimos. Most of them are fishermen and fish is their main food. The rest of the people are Europeans, mainly Danes, who work in government and commerce. Apart from mining and fishing, the chief industries are fish-canning and fish-freezing. Vikings reached Greenland in the 800's. The Danes began to colonize Greenland in the early 1700's. They held it against Norwegian claims in the 1930's. In January 1968, an American aircraft carrying hydrogen bombs crashed near Thule. The bombs did not explode and all the parts of the bombs were recovered.