206 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



since some blondish hair was also curly and associated with eyes of a 

 bluish cast, we have at least three characters pecuHar in association to 

 European peoples. That the presence of all in association among a group 

 of Eskimo could be attributed to accidental variation is almost inconceiv- 

 able. Consequently Mr. Stefansson has brought forward as the most 

 reasonable explanation, the theory that the observed admixture is the 

 result of intermarriage with the early Scandinavian colonists in Greenland. 

 No more definite conclusion can now be formed. While most of the mixed 

 groups had never been visited, explorers had from time to time heard native 

 accounts of them, and as Mr. Stefansson says, on Franklin's expedition, one 

 lone Eskimo was encountered in the same locality, an old man with 

 European features and an exceptionally long white beard. If the char- 

 acters are due to mixture, the infusion must have occurred several hundred 

 years ago and although we may never know precisely how the foreign blood 

 was introduced, a complete record of facts will nevertheless be of interest. 

 We hope that Mr. Stefansson may continue his investigation to determine the 

 relative distribution of European characters among these Eskimo groups. 



Copyright, 1912, by V. Stefansson 

 Summer hunting lodge of spruce boughs, Horton River, about ten miles from the Arctic 

 coast, September, 1911 



