CHAPTER X 

 ESKIMO AND SKR^LING 



OF all the races of the earth, that of the Eskimo is the one 

 that has established itself farthest north. His world 

 is that of sea-ice and cold, for which nature had not intended 

 human beings. In his slow, stubborn fight against the 

 powers of winter he has learnt better than any other how to 

 turn these to account, and in these regions, along the ice- 

 bound shores, he developed his peculiar culture, with its 

 ingenious appliances, long before the beginning of history. 

 As men of the white race pushed northward to the " highest 

 latitudes" they found traces of this remarkable people, who 

 had already been there in times long past; and it is only 

 in the last few decades that any one has succeeded in 

 penetrating farther north than the Eskimo, partly by learning 

 from him or enlisting his help. In these regions, which are 

 his own, his culture was superior to that of the white race, 

 and from no other people has the arctic navigator learnt so 

 much. 



The north coast of America and the islands to the north 

 of it, from Bering Strait to the east coast of Greenland, is 

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