42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Greenland, and in the fifteenth century Greenland is not mentioned. 

 In this manner Old Greenland passed from sight, and it was not until 

 the seventeenth century that the country was reoccupied by Euro- 

 peans. Some have supposed that the ancient colony was cut off by 

 the plague, but the little remnant may have been exterminated by the* 

 Skra^lings, as the modern natives averred. 



The foregoing brief statement of historical facts puts the modern 

 Esquimaux, or Innuit, in connection with a ^^eople who dwelt along the 

 temperate regions of the Atlantic coast in the eleventh century. It 

 also indicates that these rude people were driven by a superior race 

 into the far north, where they succeeded the Europeans. These peo- 

 ple were also of very great antiquity. What, then, was their origin ? 

 Who else could they have been than the descendants of a glacial man ? 



It is true that none of the bones exhumed on the Atlantic coast 

 have been identified as those of the Esquimaux, though if they existed as 

 late as the eleventh century such remains should be found. Hitherto, 

 however, they have not been looked for, nearly everything exhumed 

 being attributed to the red-man as a matter of course. Nevertheless, 

 there have been those who have not felt satisfied with such a disjiosi- 

 tion of the whole subject. In many localities of Maine, for instance, 

 the opinion has prevailed of late that many of the shell-heaps were not 

 of Indian origin, and that they should be referred to a more ancient 

 people. Certain indications attracted the attention of the writer long 

 before any glacial man was spoken of. On this point Dr. Abbott 

 makes a suggestion, and argues that the stone implements found indi- 

 cate two races, one much more advanced than the other. He writes : 

 "W^hen we come to examine a full series of ordinary surface-found 

 arrow-points, as we gather them by the score from our fields, and oc- 

 casionally find associated with them a rude implement of the type 

 of those found in the gravel-beds, we are naturally led to draw some 

 comparisons between the two widely different forms. The arrow- 

 heads and others, which from their size may be considered as spear- or 

 lance-heads, are of two quite different types, being those made of jas- 

 per, chert, quartz, and rarely of argillite, of a dozen different patterns, 

 and those of argillite of a nearly uniform pattern, and of larger sizes 

 as a rule ; all greatly weather-worn, and varying notably from the 

 arrow-points of other minerals in being of much coarser workman- 

 ship, and in this respect seeming to be a natural outgrowth of the skill 

 once exercised only in producing the primitive forms of the glacial 

 drift." 



But what have the modern Greenlanders to say respecting their 

 origin ? They told Crantz that all the people of the earth originated 

 from one man, who came from the earth, his wife springing from his 

 thumb. This may be their version of what their ancestors learned 

 from the Icelandic colonists who were Christians. Such stories throw 

 no light ujDon their history, though the Esquimaux gave their family 



