480 Thomas Thomsen 



all introduced from the American side about that time. If the quest- 

 ion as to whether the Eskimo of North-east Greenland had immigrated 

 by way of Smith Sound were to be decided from the forms of im- 

 plements which now characterise the culture of the latter region, then 

 the answer would have to be negative. From the tribe's first encounter 

 with Europeans in 1818 to the immigration mentioned, the implements 

 in use were but the rudest necessaries; grave finds, however, indi- 

 cate that this had not always been the case. Both harpoon heads 

 and arrowheads have been found in older forms, closely related to 

 those of the West Coast generally,^ and it may be expected that 

 material preserved in various collections, but of which no description 

 has yet been published, will confirm this. 



The effacement of the earlier culture in this region is the more 

 regrettable, since Smith Sound and the Kennedy and Robeson Channel 

 farther to the north are the only natural immigration routes for the 

 various tribes, and form the crucial point in the question as to the 

 course of Eskimo migrations in Greenland; the Polar Eskimos 

 are the only ones now living at the gate, so to speak, of Green- 

 land itself. 



Turning to the southern neighbours of the North-east Green- 

 landers, the people of Angmagsalik, we do not here encounter the 

 markedly heterogeneous mixture of implement tj'pes noted in West 

 Greenland, but a far greater uniformity is on the contrary apparent. 

 A number of implements must be taken as peculiar to this tribe, 

 and a particular style of art has developed, indicating that the in- 

 habitants of this region have been left to themselves, and not con- 

 tinually subjected to the influence of fresh immigrations into the 

 district. 



This is, however, not to be understood as meaning that the 

 tribe in question has lived in a state of total isolation. It must be 

 borne in mind that the fact of their now having no neighbours nearer 

 than the southern point of the land is a state of affairs which has 

 developed in the course of the past hundred years, due to the con- 

 tinual movement of the southern East Greenlanders over to the attrac- 

 tion of the Danish trading settlements. Graah, on his voyage up in 

 1829, estimated the population on the East Coast as far as Umivik 

 (64" 18' 50") at close on 600, of which half were living south of 63V2°.2 

 Even before his return, however, 120 had left, and some 80 others 

 were preparing to follow their example in the following year.^ The 

 last East Greenlanders south of the Angmagsalik territory, 38 in 



^ cf. Kane, Vol. I, p. 52 and the present work p. 405. 

 2 Graah I, p. 118, II, p. 115. 

 » Graah I, p. 149, II, p. 144. 



