260 



Inglefield's discoveries were continued by the American 

 Expedition under E. K. Kane. From the autumn of 1853 to 

 late in May 3 855, when the members of the expedition left 

 their ship to try and reach Uperniviii by boat, they had their 

 fixed quarters in Rensselaer Harbour (78°37' N. L., 71° W. L.), 

 and as time went on came into close touch with the Polar 

 Eskimos. A part of the expedition, including Carl Petersen and 

 I. I. Hayes, which had made a futile attempt to reach L'pernivik 

 by boat in August 1854 and had been obliged to live for some 

 time in a stone-hut on the coast between Booth Sound and 

 Granville Bay, would certainly have perished from hunger, if 

 the Polar Eskimos had not come to their assistance, and thus 

 enabled them to get back to their ship in December'. 



Kane^' was the flrst to give a detailed account of tlie 

 Polar Eskimos. From his description we obtain a vivid picture 

 of their poverty in wood and iron. The shafts of the har- 

 poons were composed of several pieces of wood bound together. 

 The sledge-runners were made of pieces of bone fitted and 

 bound together. Pieces of barrel- hoops were used for knives. 

 It appeared further, that the Polar Eskimos did not at that 

 time hunt the herds of reindeer, which collected round about 

 on the coastal hills, nor did they know anything of the bow 

 and arrow\ The salmon in the lakes and rivers were not 

 fished and they were unacquainted with the usual Eskimo me- 

 thods of fishing, with a three-pronged fork. Further, they did 

 not use the kayak, concerning which Kane says, that it "exists 

 among them only as a legendary word"^. 



Kanes interpreter, the Danish West Greenlander, Hans 

 Hendrik*, left the expedition during the return voyage and 



1 Isaac I. Hayes: An Arctic Bdut Journey. Boston 1860, p. 139 et seq. 

 - E. К. Kane: Arctic Explorations in the years 1853, 54, 55. Philadeiptiia 



1856. Vols. I— II. Carl Petersen, I.e. 

 3 1. с Vol. II, pp. 208—210. 

 * Memoirs of Hans Hendrik, the arctic traveller, serving under Kane. Hayes, 



Hall and Nares, 185o— 1876. Edited by George Stephens. London 1878. 



