446 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1950 



Eskimos of northwest Greenland the descendants of an immigrant 

 Canadian grouj) from Pond's Inlet differed from the other Polar 

 Eskimos in having distinctly Indian features. In 1948 the present 

 writer had an opportunity to take measurements and observations on 

 80 adult Nugumiut Eskimas at Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island. Two 

 basic, contrasting types were discernible among these Eskimos, even 

 though a number of the individuals were blends between the two and 

 others exhibited white mixture. The majority type exhibited the 

 somewhat bland "Oriental" features usually associated with Eskimo — 

 light skin color, very broad, round to squarish face, high cheek bones, 

 small flat nose, low, narrow forehead, slightly oblique eyes and epican- 

 thic fold. In the minority, or "Indian" type, the head is slightly 

 longer, the face is more bony and rugged and somewhat longer and 

 narrower, with the cheekbones standing out prominently because of 

 relative lack of fat in the cheeks ; the eyes are horizontal and usually 

 lack the epicanthic fold; skin color is darker, the nose longer and 

 more convex, and the mouth larger. 



It is tempting to speculate on the possibility that these two physical 

 types may be representative of the two prehistoric Eskimo groups of 

 southern Baffin Island — the Dorset and Thule. As no skeletal remains 

 have been found at Dorset sites the physical type associated with this 

 early culture of the eastern Arctic is unknown. In the absence of 

 direct evidence, it is possible that Dorset art might throw some light 

 on the problem. In their bone carvings the Dorset artists portrayed 

 two distinctly different types of human faces, placed side by side on 

 the same piece of bone or antler (see Rowley, 19-10, fig. 1, a; another 

 carving much like this from Boothia Peninsula collected by Lear- 

 mouth, now in the Eoyal Ontario Museum, and two somewhat similar 

 specimens, also possibly Dorset, from the Egedesminde and Ammas- 

 salik districts in Greenland). The first type of face is broad and 

 round in shape with oblique eyes and short, wide nose — what might 

 be described as a caricature of the typical "Eskimo" face. The other 

 type shows a long, narrow face with long nose. It is less stereotyped 

 in appearance and might conceivably represent either Indian or 

 European (Norse ? ) . Assuming them to represent two distinct aborig- 

 inal types, one would guess that the first would be Thule and the 

 second Dorset. It would be better, however, to defer speculation on 

 such questions and await more definite evidence. It will be sufficient 

 for our present purpose to confirm the existence of these two physical 

 types, the Indian like and the Eskimo, among the central Eskimo 

 population. 



With regard to Seltzer's theory of the Indian (Cree) origin of the 

 Caribou, Labrador, and Ammassalik Eskimos, we may pose two 

 questions : Are these three Eskimo groups so similar in physical type 



