Implements and Artefacts of the North-east Greenlanders. 485 



found a lodging north of Nordre Aputitek in a house there belong- 

 ing to Eskimos from the North. 



Whatever degree of importance be attached to the construction 

 of the houses, it is at any rate certain that the Angmagsalik Eskimo 

 in the country round Kangerdlugsuak were aware of the existence 

 of some people unknown to them, and that the North-east Green- 

 land types of implements in the region of Scoresby Sound exhibit 

 features hardly to be otherwise explained than as due to southern 

 influence, the point of contact being probably near the glacier of 

 Kangerdlugsuak, and the communication taking place between certain 

 adventurous spirits on either side, whose wanderings led them beyond 

 the natural territorial limits of their tribe. 



Thostrup, in his description of the settlements found by the 

 Danmark Expedition/ takes the state of preservation of the houses 

 as the basis for an hypothesis according to which the immigration 

 into North-east Greenland should have taken place in three sections, 

 with a considerable interval of time between the two first. All can 

 be traced in the Cape Bismarck district; outside this, however, the 

 oldest ruins are only found in the north, and the two younger only 

 in the south. 



The state of preservation alone seems to me a somewhat slight 

 foundation on which to base conclusions; the construction observable 

 in the ruins does not show the ditTerence between the three groups, 

 and I have therefore, in the course of the work, endeavoured to 

 find some such features as might serve to support the theory. That 

 I have not succeeded in doing so does not disproл'e it, for as a matter 

 of fact, none of the oldest ruins in the Cape Bismarck district have 

 been subjected to detailed investigation; the find from Eskimonæsset 

 is the only one giving a fuller representation of the earliest group. 

 As regards the two later ones, which lie nearer to each other in 

 point of time, it is hardly to be expected that any difference should 

 be discernible in the workmanship, when both were due to the 

 same tribe. 



In answer to my doubts upon this point, expressed by word of 

 mouth, Hr. Thostrup firmly maintained his view. That there should 

 be a difference of date between the northern and the southern ruins 

 is in itself natural enough, if the migrations from the north took 

 place without any break of great duration until we reach Germania 

 Land, where the settlements are numerous along the sea coast and 

 in Dove Bay. It is but natural that the Eskimo should have remained 

 here for a time, before going farther southwards. 



^ Thostrup. p. 335 et seqq. 



XLIV. 34 



