Implements and Artefacts of the North-east Greenlanders. 479 



bability approaching certainty, that the coast north of 65° must have 

 been inhabited prior to 1725. 



In seeking to draw conclusions from the foregoing detailed in- 

 vestigations, as to the culture of North-east Greenland in its relation 

 to that of Greenland generally, we are hampered in the first place, 

 by the slight degree of variability in Eskimo implements with place 

 and time. Then again, the culture of West Greenland cannot be 

 taken as a unit in itself, but should rather be considered — quite 

 apart from European influence — as a mixture of elements from 

 various tribes, which have immigrated in course of time to the 

 country, and have been forced by existing natural conditions, the 

 close proximity of the inland ice to the coast, to follow the same 

 route. 



The quantity of material procured from North-east Greenland is 

 now, however, so large that we can no longer put aside the question 

 as to the relation, in point of culture, of these tribes to their neigh- 

 bours in the west and south. 



The Danmark Expedition was able to follow the traces of Eskimo 

 occupation northward as far as about 82° N. Lat., where Independence 

 Fjord runs in south of Peary Land, and some way up this fjord as 

 far as Cape Peter Henrik at the mouth of Hagens Fjord. Later on, 

 the first Thule Expedition encountered, in 1912, Eskimo tent rings 

 still farther up, at Jørgen Brønlunds Fjord,^ which lies about mid- 

 way between the West Coast (Nares Land) and the East Coast (Nord- 

 ostrundingen). The tent rings were situated on the south coast of 

 Peary Land, but on the seaward coast of this peninsula, neither Peary 

 nor the Danmark expedition found any trace of Eskimo occupation. 

 On the West Coast also, the trail is lost at about 82°. ^ From what 

 we now know, there seems little reason to doubt that the route of 

 the Eskimos migrating from one coast to the other passed south of 

 Peary Land. 



To the northward, the nearest neighbours of the North-east 

 Greenland Eskimos are to be found at Smith Sound on the West 

 Coast. Here, however, we meet a marked instance of the very fea- 

 ture before mentioned: new forms of culture superimposing them- 

 selves upon the older. As referred to in the foregoing, an immi- 

 gration took place here in the 60's of the past century, which car- 

 ried with it the introduction or alteration of characteristic implements ; 

 the kayak and its appurtenances, the salmon spear, the bow and 

 arrow as they were found there until superseded by firearms, were 



1 Knud Rasmussen II p. 317 et seqq., cf. PI. XI. 



2 Nares, Vol. II, p. 190 (Feilden). 



