The Ammassalik Eskimo. 457 
18th century, by Р.С. WALLØE and D. CRANZ?, and, as far as I am aware, 
the next time about 1830 by J. С. Morcu, an official in the Juliane- 
haab district. This last-named writer relates (in “Borgervennen’’, for 
1831, pp. 34—35) that he had himself encountered people from the 
East Coast (66° N. lat.), but he does not mention the name of their 
native place. “These people, who had formerly been reckoned as can- 
nibals, were the gentlest creatures [de frommeste Mennesker] one could 
imagine”. We have doubtless here to deal with visitors from the dis- 
trict of Ammassalik. The writer mentions, at the same time, that the 
East Coast is inhabited as far up as 69° N. lat. (Kialinek), his informa- 
tion thus differing from that received by GRAAH during his voyage along 
the East Coast in 1830”, 
We have here another confirmation from the earlier literature of 
the view given by later reports, to the effect that the East Greenlan- 
ders, also in some cases the natives of Ammassalik, made journeys to 
the West Coast several years prior to 1850, 
A Wooden Bottle from East Greenland. 
р. 994—95. — Owing to the scanty space of time, which — loth 
as I was to enter the Department at all — I found myself able to devote 
to study there, I was not in a position thoroughly to examine each sepa- 
rate item or to revise my impression of the Museum collections while 
compiling my book®, and it is possible that I may have overlooked one 
of the three holes in the wooden bottle (only one is seen in my photo). 
Now, in 1916, the world at large is finally made acquainted with the 
true state of the case, thanks to the sensational statement of this Mus- 
eum official. 
It should be noted, by the way, that Hr. Tuomsen’s explana- 
tion as to there having originally been a handle with sucking tube passed 
through the two lateral holes, is drawn from a note (unknown to me) 
in the Museum inventory, where the native tradition in this case is 
preserved, but is not to be arrived at from the appearance of the object 
in question, where the handle is lacking. “Mikeeki’s waterscoop” No. 213 
in the Petersen collection, which Hr. THOMSEN declares to be of the 
same type, had — if I remember rightly — but one lateral hole, through 
which was passed a handle with sucking tube. — It was not, moreover, 
as he asserts (р. 395,,) “made to order especially for his [PETERSEN’s] 
collection, on the model of a type then obsolete”, for Hr. PETERSEN 
1 See my book (1914) pp. 339—340, cf. 335—336. 
2 GRAAH (1832) p. 140 cf my book (1914) p. 339. 
3 Rink, Grønland vol. II (1857) p. 359. 
4 The same applies to the Johan Petersen collection which at the end of 
1910 came into the possession of our Ethnographical Department — ,,and 
since then I have not had the opportunity of seeing it” (My book, 1914, 
p. 325). 
