362 



James Anderson's observations made on his journey in 1855^ 

 He also found that the kayaks were covered by deerskin, and 

 the Eskimos he met with were clothed partly in deerskin and 

 partly in musk-ox skin. 



Partly from these and partly from other reports^ it appears 

 with certainty, however, that there really still lives a tribe of 

 inland Eskimos on the Barren Grounds, which carries on the 

 hunting of the reindeer and musk-ox. The question is thus 

 only, whether these inland Eskimos have once dwelt by the 

 coast and have migrated from the coast into the interior, or 

 whether they have never been in closer touch with the sea, 

 but have always lived in the interior, in the latter case, they 

 are then to be regarded simply as the remains of the original 

 Eskimos before these changed over to the life on the sea coast. 

 Or more correctly, they are in such a case an intermediate 

 stage between the supposed, oldest stage, when they lived as 

 hunters in the birch and pine woods, and the present mode 

 of life on the sea-coasts of the Arctic. They have taken the 

 step from the woods out on to the tree-less tundras and have 

 thus, among other adaptations, been obliged to replace the 

 birch-bark covering of the boat with deerskin. 



I shall not enter further into these interesting, but still 

 somewhat uncertain problems regarding the early history of 

 the Eskimo culture. I have already dealt with this question in 

 a work^, in which I have come to the result, that the Eskimo 

 culture must have developed on a sea-coast of the Arctic, and 

 I have shown, that the point of origin must probably be sought 

 for on the stretch between Hudson Bay and Coronation Golf. 



1 Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. Vols. 26 and 27. London 1856—57. 



- cf. H. P. Steensby, Om Eskimokulturens Oprindelse. København 1905, 



pp. 87—88. 

 3 1. с. 



