56 H. P. STEENSBY. 
study of the Eskimo culture and its origin, and by his own theory 
as to the origin, which was supported by multifarious arguments, he 
dragged the question down to earth, and established America as being 
its home, and pointed out the way which further investigations must 
follow. Since the publication of his important work ‘Eskimo Tribes,” 
his theory has held a strong position in the scientific world, in spite 
of the criticism which has been directed against it, especially by 
Murvocsn. Meanwhile it is not difficult to substantiate that Rinx’s 
line of argument is wrong, and Murpocs! showed, also, how Rink 
was mistaken in pointing to a succession of developments from Yukon 
to Greenland. Neither with respect to the structure and use of the 
kayak, the distribution of the paddle and bladder-dart, nor the 
gradual alteration in the form of the houses did Rryx’s assertions 
accord with reality. The use of lip ornaments had not been discarded 
northwards on account of the frost, as they have been found right 
up to Cape Bathurst, where the use of them stopped, owing, in 
Murpocn’s opinion, to lack of connection with the East Eskimo. 
Rik has quite overlooked the fact that immediately south and north 
of the Yukon Delta are found kayaks which are just as well built as 
amongst the South Greenlanders, and are rowed with a double-bladed 
paddle with just as great dexterity. That there is no regular 
succession in house-building I have elsewhere had opportunity to 
point out?. 
In spite of these various errors, there are some who think that 
Rink may, nevertheless, be right in the main, and that Alaska is, all 
the same, the home of the Eskimo culture. The rest of the Eskimo 
inhabited coasts, on account of the poverty-stricken Arctic nature 
are of so barren a character that many people involuntarily think 
that Alaska with its somewhat richer resources and its more varied 
population, where it is easy to think of shiftings taking place, must 
be the natural source of origin. And that, since the original source 
of the culture is laid there, it may finally be assumed (as BAnnson® 
assumes) that the main tribe of the Eskimo has gone along the coast 
of the mainland, while a branch has spread itself over the Aleutian 
Islands. Linguistically, the Aleuts are, if any thing, co-ordinate with 
the Eskimo, and their Eskimo culture is, as I shall try to prove - 
further on, only a loan from their neighbours. 
Of the arguments advanced by Rink in favour of his theory, 
there yet remains to be mentioned that by which he sought to support 
it along the paths of folk-lore, taking it for granted that the Greea- 
land legends containing historic matter had not arisen in the course 
of time, but at a definite period, which must, as nearly as possible, 
Murpoes, II. 
Eskimokulturen, 1905 and M. o. G., Vol. 34. 
1 
* Baunson, Vol. I, p. 228. 
