The Ammassalik Eskimo. 469 
of Greenland; these are, on closer examination, found to answer to Ma- 
son’s description}. 
It is a satisfaction to me to note, that my having touched upon 
this detail in the structure of the harpoon has already induced three 
ethnographers to take up the matter for discussion. One of them has 
already criticised another on the same point? and assisted him to a 
correction. As it is, I admit, that Mason’s error has proved to apply 
only to the harpoons of the East Coast, not for those of the West Coast, 
his description of these latter being correct. To make quite sure, I satis- 
fied myself on the point by personal observation when travelling on the 
southern part of the West Coast in the summer of 1914. 
As regards the harpoons of the East Coast, my description is correct. 
p. 409—410. — My Museum critic is a past master in the art of 
employing quotations dissociated from their proper context. His paper 
contains many instances of this. In the natural light m which they ap- 
pear in my book, these passages are free from the false reflections, and 
the criticism does not hit the mark. 
Contents Lists of the Collections. 
p. 410—416. — The pedantic acerbity of the Museum official rises 
in the following pages to an astonishing degree. 
“The reader will naturally expect” etc. (p. 419). I can only repeat 
‚ what I have already stated on р. 448 (with note) and р. 456: that I 
never intended my work to give either more or less than it contains. 
With regard to the genesis of my book, the reader may refer to the preface 
(in 1914) and to pp. 442—46 of the present paper. From this, as from the 
work as a whole, it will be seen that I am not a representative of any 
museum, least of all our own National Museum, and it would thus be 
altogether outside my province to publish the lists of the Museum col- 
lections in my book, or subject myself to the principles of that institu- 
tion. Hr. THOMSEN’s objections to my arrangement of these matters 
appear to me as extraordinary as they are improper. 
It is obviously the duty of the Museum, and no business of mine, 
to publish inventories of the collections in its care. The Museum has 
1 In taking up this matter for the first time, I kept in the main to my 
experience in East Greenland. During my previous stay in West Green- 
land, I had not devoted any attention to this slight detail. Nor had I 
in the museums examined the harpoon shafts especially as to this detail, 
which is hidden between the two parts of the shaft, as it is my habit to 
observe great care in the handling of museum exhibits. The highly dried 
specimens, both thongs and other parts, near the junction of the shaft are 
generally brittle, and if I had attempted to bend the loose shaft over for 
examination, I should have risked a break at the joint. A Museum 
official, on the other hand, can take greater liberties with his material. 
2? See THOMSEN, р. 409 note 1. 
