HE ESKIMO RACE AND LANGUAGE. 273 



Greenland dialect, and perhaps other words as well. So that where- 

 ever Markland was the Norse discoverers found Eskimo tliere on 

 their arrival. Eafn has also pointed out another Eskimo word 

 brought home by the discoverers of America. In the descriptions 

 of Greenland in the old MSS. occurs the word Itibiliksfirth, as 

 the name of a bay or fjord. Now Rafu says that Itibilik is still 

 the Eskimo name for an isthmus, Itihihks^vth, being therefore, the 

 fjord of the isthmus. 



Dr. Rink, the advocate of the American origin of the Eskimo, 

 from a study of their myths and legends,^ comes to the con- 

 clusion that the interior of Alaska was the cradle of the race ; a 

 further study of Eskimo dialects'- has strengthened h m in this view, 

 and lately he has given additional arguments from an examination 

 into the development of the kayak and the implements and appliances 

 belonging thereto^. The course of Eskimo migration was in the opinion 

 of Dr. Rink* much as follows : Their original home was in North-west 

 Alaska, and they px-obably acquired some knowledge of fishing and 

 hunting from the neighbouring Athabascan tribes, their route thence 

 was across the Alaska Peninsula to the Copper River, where it is to be 

 supposed they met with resistance from the Thliukit and Athabascan. 

 But their chief line of migration was to the North and East along the 

 unoccupied sea-coast to Baffin's Bay. From this point a new dispersion 

 seems to have taken place, southward to Labrador, and eastward and 

 northward to Greenland, Dr. Rink is inclined to agi-ee with Captain 

 Holmes, the Danish explorer, that the East Greenlanders (or Angmags- 

 aliks), found their way to their present abode by travelling along the 

 unknown north coast. He also thinks that the West Greenlanders 

 passed from Baffin's Bay directly southwards, while at the extreme 

 southern portion of tlie Peninsula there was developed a mixed race 

 probably containing Norse elements. Di-. Rink further thinks that 

 the " Aleutians,^ had already separated from the main stock, before the 

 latter arrived at the coast," and that perhaps the original Aleutians 

 had visited and reconnoitred the island annually from the American 



1. Tales and Trad., p. 11 ; Danish Gd. p. 405. 



2. Eskimo Dialects, etc. Journ. Anthr. Inst. XV. p. 239-45. 



3. Mig-r. of Esk. as shown \>y Develop, of Kayak Impl., Journ. Anth. Inst., 1887, p. 



4. Deutsche geogr. Blatter, Jan. 1887. See also Nature, Jan. 27, 1887. 



5. Eskimo Dialects and Tribes, Journ. Anthrop. Inst, xv., p. 241. See Peschel Races of Man, 

 p. 397. 



