]gß Chr. Bendix Thostrup 



just the geographical observations made (kiring the excursion. This 

 is the reason, I consider, why our Expedition found no signs of the 

 presence of Eskimos on this coast either, and I think it probable 

 that such will be found here at some future time, since they have 

 been discovered on the south side of Independence Sound at Кар 

 Peter Henrik. 



On the Greenland continent itself the conditions with regard 

 to earlier occupation in the region investigated by us are quite 

 the same as in other parts of Greenland investigated by other 

 expeditions.^ 



Wherever the conditions have made it possible for 

 human beings to live, remains are found from a time 

 when the Eskimos occupied the land. 



Occupation depended necessarily on the character of the land ; 

 it occurred at the places where the form of the land made possible 

 the formation of the even winter-ice, so necessary for the existence 

 of the North-East Greenland Eskimos.^ Extensive inlets and fjord 

 ramifications," as also coastal stretches and islets lying in the shelter 

 (i. e. to the south and west) of large promontories of the land, so 

 that they might remain comparatively undisturbed by the current 

 and pack-ice driving towards the south, are the places the Eskimos 

 would mainly choose for occupation. At such places the fjord-ice 

 or the even winter-ice remains unbroken for three parts of the year, 

 and it was this condition which enabled the Eskimos to control 

 wide areas by means of their dog-sledges. 



The winter-ice forms about the 1st of October and from that 

 time bears well to about the middle of June, but with good dogs 

 — in cases of necessity — it is passable so late as early in July. 

 The final breaking up takes place late in July or early in August. 



During the summer the Eskimos have most probably sailed on 

 the open water in their kayaks and women's boats, but the extent 

 of the sea voyages were necessarily much more restricted than the 

 sledge journeys. As one of the more important reasons for this I 

 may point out that, for example, though a sledge journey along a 

 coast is quite possible in a fog, a similar attempt with a kayak or 



1 Cf. ScoRESBYl: pp. 333, 33G; Scoresby2: pp. 201, 340; Pansch; p. 53; Peterm. 

 MiTTH. 1870: p. 418; Ryder: pp. 51, 283 and Amdrup 2: p. 289. 



- Mylius-Erichsen writes: "The Eskimos keep to tiie margin of the coast 



It is only where the fjords are frozen over in winter, that the Eskimos keep 

 in the fjords. Otherwise the}^ live only on the outer margin of the coast, its 

 islands and rocks. Compare for example the contrast between the South Green- 

 landers and the North Greenlanders. The district round Egedesminde forms 

 here the transition between the two". 



.» Cf. Lyon : p. 72. 



