IN NORTHERN MISTS 



One might get the impression from the map, which shows 

 where older traces of the Eskimo have been found, that they 

 were more numerous and more widely distributed in former 

 times. This is probably a mistake. They are hunters and 

 fishermen who are entirely dependent on the supply of game, 

 and who therefore frequently become nomadic and search 

 for fishing-grounds where they think the prospects are good. 

 Sometimes they settle in a good district for a considerable 

 time, and then they may move again; but sometimes, if 



Kayak-fishers and a women's boat ("umiak"). Woodcut from 

 Greenland, drawn and engraved by a native 



exceptionally severe winters chance to come, they may 

 succumb to famine and scurvy. But everywhere they leave 

 behind them their peculiar sites of houses and tents and other 

 traces, and thus these must always be found over larger 

 areas than are actually inhabited by the Eskimo them- 

 selves. It might be objected that on the American arctic 

 islands they no longer live so far north as older traces 

 of them are found; thus Sverdrup found many relics of 



from that set forth here. While Rink thought the Eskimo came from Alaska 

 and first developed their sea fishing on the rivers of Alaska, Boas thinks they 

 come from the west coast of Hudson Bay, and Steensby that they developed 

 on the central north coasts of Canada. Since the above was written W. Thal- 

 bitzer has also dealt with the question (1908-1910). 

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