ESKIMO AND SKR^LING 



and on the ice in winter; altogether rarely favorable conditions 

 for their accustomed life, and it is therefore natural that they 

 settled here in large numbers.^ Some went farther south along 

 the coast; but they no longer found there the same con- 

 ditions of life as before, the ice was for the most part 

 absent, the walrus became rare, seal hunting became more 

 difficult in the open sea, and winter fishing from the kayak 

 w^as not very safe. Southern Greenland, therefore, had no 

 great attraction, so long as there was room enough far- 

 ther north. When they came round Cape Farewell to the 

 east coast they found the conditions more what they were used 

 to, although the sealing and whaling were not so good as on 

 the northern west coast. 



It has been assumed by several inquirers that the Eskimo immigrated to 

 Greenland by two routes. One branch is supposed to have come southward 

 along the west coast from Smith Sound, as suggested above, while the other 

 branch went northward from Smith Sound and Kane Basin along the coast, 

 where relics of Eskimo are found as far north as 82° N. lat. They thus gradu- 

 ally worked their way round the north of Greenland and turned southward 

 again along the east coast. The Eskimo who formerly lived on the northern 

 east coast, and whom Clavering found there in 1823, are supposed to have come 

 by that route and possibly also the tribe that still lives at Angmagsalik. But 

 in the opinion of some they may have traveled farther south, right round Cape 

 Farewell, and have populated the south-west coast as far north as Ny-Herrn- 

 hut by Godthaab. The Dane Schultz-Lorentzen [1904, p. 289] 2 thinks that 

 support may be found for this theory of the southern immigration from the 

 east coast in the sharp line of demarcation that exists between the dialect 

 spoken by the Eskimo in Godthaab and northward along the whole west coast, 

 and that spoken to the south and on the east coast; furthermore, there are other 

 points of difference: in the build and fitting-together of the kayaks, in the use 

 of partitions between the family compartments on the couches in houses and 

 tents, etc. Although in an earlier work [1891, pp. 8 f.; Engl, ed., pp. 12 f.] I 

 put forward reasons that are opposed to such an immigration round the north 

 of Greenland, I must admit that there is much in favor of the Eskimo who 

 formerly lived on the northern east coast having come that way; on the other 

 hand, it does not appear to me very likely that this should have been the case 

 with the Eskimo of the southern east coast and of the west coast. The differ- 



1 As will be seen (cf. p. 72), this agrees surprisingly well with the conclu- 

 sions which Dr. Solberg has reached in another way in the work already 

 mentioned [1907], which was published since the above was written, 



2 Cf. also William Thalbitzer's valuable work on the Eskimo language [1904]. 



73 



