An Anthropogeographical Study of the Origin of the Eskimo Culture. 51 
cropped up at a very early date. Even Davis! touches on it, and 
today it finds advocates. The fundamental reason for this is, besides 
general impression, partly an ingrained mistrust in America being a 
domain productive of culture, and partly the conceptions of the 
independence of the. Eskimo and their culture as opposed to the 
other North Americans. Added to this is, that so long as the enigma 
oi the descent of the Eskimo stood side by side with numerous other 
Arctic mysteries, undreamed of possibilities of a suitable route of 
immigration could be hoped for. So long as the theory of an open 
sea round the Pole, or the presence of Polinians, had a warm advo- 
cate in such an authority as PETERMANN, it is not strange that no © 
one dared deny the possibility of some day coming across groups 
of Eskimo, or new travelling tracks, in the polar regions not yet 
explored. (C. R. Marknam?, in a lecture delivered in the Royal 
Geographical ‘Society in London 1865, encouraged Polar expeditions 
on the strength of there being a possibility at every Polinia of 
meeting human beings who live on seal and walrus-hunting. As 
regards the possibility of the existence of Polinians, he referred to 
PETERMANN. 
In the meantime knowledge about the Arctic lands increased, 
and since Frirnior NANsEN, with ingenious eye and energy, has set 
foot upon the two most obscure regions, the Arctic Ocean and the 
inland ice of Greenland, and thrown conclusive light on both, the 
‘mysticism which was associated with the Arctic anthropogeography 
has vanished, and calm investigation can prevail. 
The first to form a complete theory on the emigration of the 
Eskimo from Asia was Cranz*, who, taking it for granted that not 
until the 14th Century did the Eskimo immigrate to Greenland, from 
this draws the conclusion that their arrival in the Arctic region is, 
on the whole, of very late date. As, next, he thinks to have found 
_ physical and linguistic relationship with the Kalmucs in Asia, he 
assumes the Eskimo to be a branch of this tribe, which, during 
political disturbances in Tartary before the birth of Christ, has 
separated and wandered North-east across Bering Strait to America. 
A hundred years later this theory gained renewed honour and — 
dignity through Markuam’s adoption and fashioning of it. As men- 
tioned above, he shared PreTreRMANN’Ss belief in the ‘‘Polinians,” and 
the discovery of the Smith Sound Eskimo seemed to him to promise 
the possibility of new discoveries of unknown tribes. Then came the 
discovery by the English North-west Expedition of numerous, but 
certainly deserted, settlements on the southern coasts of the Parry 
Islands, and here it was striking that none was found on the opposite 
1 Davis, p. 18. 
* Marxuam, I, pp. 87—99. 
® CRANZ, pp. 333 sqq. 
4* 
