393 



The Polar Eskimos are at the least just as different from 

 their nearest neighbours on the other side of Baffin Bay, the 

 Ponds Inlet Eskimos, and it is quite impossible to think, that 

 they could have been directly transplanted from North Baffin 

 Land to Smith Sound. In addition to differences in apparatus 

 and dress we have also the evidence that the Polar Eski- 

 mos were not reindeer hunters. In Baffin Land the reindeer 

 hunting is of very great importance, and the Ponds Inlet 

 Eskimos have also always been keen hunters of this animal. 

 When Mc Clintock met Kridlarssuark and his little band on 

 the east side of North Devon in 1858, the only thing they 

 had to complain about was that there was no reindeer in that 

 country. 



To this must be added , that the nearest route from the 

 Ponds Inlet district to Smith Sound, namely, along the east 

 coast of North Devon and Ellesmere Land, is not of such 

 a nature , that it specially tempts the Eskimos to migrate. 

 Kridlarssuark's migration is certainly a typical Eskimo migration 

 in regard to the mode of travelling and the period of time used, 

 but it is quite otherwise in regard to its motive. He and his 

 band did not journey because new hunting-places enticed them 

 further and further away, but — as is expressly stated — be- 

 cause they wished to seek the people the whalers had spoken 

 about as living further north along the coast, of whose existence 

 also they certainly had seen material signs, when the whalers 

 came to Ponds Inlet after visiting Cape York a short time be- 

 fore. The route followed, along the Ellesmere coast, is namely 

 not the least inviting to the Eskimos, as has already been 

 mentioned in this paper. The unfortunate fate of the returning 

 Ponds Inlet Eskimos in their attempt to get back the same 

 way, is indeed also witness that the country is not favour- 

 able to human life. Nor do there seem to be any ruins 

 of Eskimo houses on the east coast of Ellesmere Land, 

 from the mouth of Jones Sound towards Cape Isabella, except 



