273 



arctic Eskimo tribes on the coast of the American continent, 

 e. g. the NetchiUick Eskimos on the Boothia Isthmus, the 

 Ugjulik Eskimos on King Williams Land and the tribes on 

 Coronation Gulf. 



All hunting on the ice requires however an even surface 

 of ice, so that dog-sledges can be used. Irregular pack-ice 

 frozen in summer, such as is met with along the Ellesmere 

 coast and up through the narrow waters north of Smith Sound, 

 is a hindrance to hunting and sledging, and prevents any per- 

 manent settlement of the Eskimos. 



The first to point out the vital importance of the winter 

 ice, formed in the course of the winter, for the Eskimo culture 

 was the celebrated American ethnographer Franz Boas of New 

 York4 He demonstrated, that it is the nature of the ice 

 which determines the distribution of the Eskimos throughout 

 the greater part of the year, and he showed how the extension 

 of the winter ice depends chiefly on the configuration of the 

 coast, as also on the currents and tides, since a strong cur- 

 rent can prevent the formation of fixed ice. This is the case 

 foi' example, as already mentioned, in the middle of the North 

 Water, where the current flows out and in through Smith 

 Sound. 



It is only inside the islands lying in Ihe mouths of the 

 two large indentations that an even winter ice is formed, which 

 has the chance to lie unbroken throughout the greater part of 

 the year. As a rule this is formed in October and lies to the 

 beginning of July, in other words ca. 9 months in the year. 

 In 1903 Knud Rasmussen journeyed with dog-sledges from the 

 east side of Saunders Island to the mainland even so late as 

 July 17t''. 



If it should happen any autumn that the seas is unusu- 

 ally late in becoming frozen over, the hunting suffers, and 



Franz Boas: The Central Eskimo, ütli Annual Keport оГ the Bureau of 

 Ethnology. Washington 1S8S, p. 417. 



