Implements and Artefacts of the North-east Greenlanders. 423 



Type II, with regularly curved back, is far less frequently re- 

 presented, in the present collection by three specimens only: 



L. 3099. Eskimonæsset (PI. X, 1). A very large and strong specimen; 

 length 409 cm., extreme breadth 73 cm. 



L. 3116. Thomas Thomsens Næs (PI. XX, 1); length 334 ст., extreme 

 breadth 61 cm. The tip is broken and the specimen is altogether somewhat 

 weathered. At the knob of the handle there is a hole for suspension. 



L. 3592. Renskæret, house 135 (PI. XIX, 6) ; length 322 cm., extreme breadth 

 5'4 cm. The edge is almost straight, the back, which is somewhat damaged, 

 was slightlj' curved. 



Of this type only one is known to me besides the three spec- 

 imens mentioned ; it was brought home by the Nathorst Expedition 

 and has been figured by Stolpe in the place cited in footnote 5 on p. 422. 



For the sake of completeness I must here mention the two frag- 

 ments in the collection, viz.: 



L. 3556. Renskæret, house 134. A handle, made of antler. Its present 

 leugth is 125 cm.; at the butt end it has the usual unilateral knob. 



L. 3100. Eskimonæsset (PI. X, 2). A broken blade. Present length 29-5 cm., 

 extreme breadth 48 cm. 



The type, which occurs more rarely in North-east Greenland 

 (Type II) with the unilateral expansion of the blade and the regularly 

 curved back, is also found among the Polar Greenlanders. ^ More- 

 over, the blade of the West Greenland snow knife has a similar 

 unilateral shoulder, but it differs from the knife of North-east 

 Greenland in the fact that the back is usually bent abruptly at an 

 obtuse angle with the handle^. In the National Museum in Copen- 

 hagen this type is represented by 15 specimens, none of them 

 known to have been found south of Jakobshavn (69°13'). ^ Conse- 

 quently, as was to be expected, the snow knife belongs to the Arctic 

 regions. The ivory knife which occurs also more to the south on 

 both coasts of Greenland, and is used for scraping ice from the kayak, 

 was doubtlesss originally allied to the snow knife, but it has, both 

 in Greenland and in several other places, developed into a special 

 implement of a peculiar shape, having a narrow blade which usu- 

 ally shows no marked differentiation from the handle portion. 



Type I, with blade expanding abruptly on both sides, has not, 

 so far as I know, been recorded with certainty from other places in 

 Greenland than on the north-east coast. One specimen, which in 

 Japetus Steenstrup's collection is grouped with objects from West 



1 Bessels, p. 356; Kroeber, p. 271, Fig. 2. 



^ In a few cases, however, the back is regularly curved or even straight. 



^ Eight specimens in the late Professor Japetus Steenstrup's collection, now in 

 the possession of Professor Johannes Steenstrup, show the same local peculia- 

 rities, one of them is of whalebone. 



30* 



