348 



adapted themselves to the European methods to the same extent 

 as they have to the European apparatus. These have just been 

 taken over into the methods of the stone-age and naturally 

 have altered and modified this, but the underlying traditions 

 of the stone-age are constantly to be noticed. The transition 

 from the stone-age to the use of European iron apparatus had 

 already had a good preliminary before 1818 in the use of the 

 meteoric iron, and the transition proceeded slowly in the course 

 of a couple of generations, materials being introduced little by 

 little by intercourse with the whalers and expeditions as also 

 by wreckage and the forsaken ships of expeditions. 



When Peary began his expeditions in 1891, the true stone- 

 age was already past, and the era he introduced, by providing 

 the Polar Eskimos with the most modern guns and other 

 apparatus for hunting, is best described by saying, that he 

 brought in among the Eskimos the keen production of modern 

 European-American civilisation. In this way a danger has 

 arisen for them, as it is conceivable that they will now be able 

 to destroy or at any rate greatly decimate the stock of the bears 

 and foxes especially. And without the skins of these animals 

 for clothing, their cold land will become almost uninhabitable. 



It must not be believed, that any and every kind of Euro- 

 pean implement found a welcome in the eyes of the Polar 

 Eskimos. They have had a remarkably good understanding of 

 how to choose out the kinds and forms, which were best 

 suited for their requirements. The most useful European 

 instrument a Polar Eskimo can obtain is still a file. By means 

 of steel-files pieces of whalrus and narwhal teeth are worked 

 up into harpoon points, as foreshafts of the harpoons, as pro- 

 tectors under the sledge-runners and for several other purposes. 

 For sawing is used a ship's saw, quite 30 cm in length, of the 

 best American manufacture; the back-edge of the saw is ground 

 sharp and used for hewing and chopping. The steel-knife is 

 used for cutting up the animals taken in the hunt and plays the 



