98 H. P. SteensBy. 
evident from the whales’ bones nes and bal baleen found by the Danmark ‘Expedition, 
and from the use the , Eskimo had made of these arcticles “There also 
appears to be be evidence of the Eski Eskimo in n these ‘regions having use¢ ‘used the the 
umiak *, 
_ The second point of special interest for us is the capture of seals with 
nets. As regards the employment of this method in Greenland I wrote in 1905 
as follows: “In 1857 Rinx® as a matter of course took it for granted 
that net-catching had been introduced into Greenland by Europeans, but 
afterwards he arrived at another opinion, which he communicated to JoHn 
Murpocs* in a letter. In this he writes: “Small ice nets are extensively 
used in North Greenland, and, what is strange, they are set exactly in the 
same manner as at Point Barrow”. Rix mentions, further, that nets are 
mentioned in tales, and that in the Ethnographic Museum in Copenhagen 
there is an “‘ice-net” of whalebone which “according to report is said to 
be one of those which in olden days were used by the Greenlanders”. This 
net was, however, delivered to the museum as late as in 1843, and came from 
Julianehaab, consequently from a locality where neither whale hunting nor 
seal hunting on ice was carried on, but where at the present time net- 
catching is carried on with Danish nets. Consequently, there is some 
probability of its being an “ice net”, as RiK® calls it. Perhaps it has been 
used to catch seals in fjords. A remark made by Lars Datager in 1752 
may be indicative of this: “Southwards in the country the Greenlanders 
use the majority of the whalebone, of which however they have not one 
among them, but must fetch them from Disco Bay.’ Another probability 
is, however, that the net of whalebone strings from Julianehaab has its 
origin in quite another place. In a report from 1856 Hoot states that 
about 20 years ago a net of whalebone is said to have been found hanging 
on an iceberg near Julianehaab which “indicates that there are Greenlanders 
still living who have no knowledge of hemp yarn, and to whom, in conse- 
quence, Europeans, probably, are also quite unknown.” In the same place 
Hoxseit records, that Greenlanders have tales of whalebone nets having 
been used before the arrival of the Europeans. I think it can be stated 
with fairly great certainty that in 1843 whalebone nets were not made 
and used near Julianehaab; but in this case it bécomes somewhat probable 
that the net preserved in the museum and the one HoLBoLt mentions are 
identical, and if this is the case, the net presents the further interest that ~ 
it must originally have come from East Greenland where, according to 
Horm", whalebone nets were formerly used, and from there it must have 
and Danmarks fjord, whence the Eskimo have now disappeared, This is 
' Tuostrup, p. 336. : 
* THostrup, p. 239. 
* Rink, I, Vol. 3, p. 200. 
* Murpoca, IV, p. 333. 
® Rink, XIII, p. 212. 
° M. 0, G., Vol. 39, pp. 51 sqq. Cf. THauprtzer, p. 402. 
