utensils. Gosling, on the other hand, in his able and exhaustive 

 history of Labrador, contends that the Labrador Eskimo had 

 no knowledge of catching salmon by means of nets, and had 

 to be instructed in the art by the Moravian missionaries in 1772.^ 

 It is possible that in this case the usually careful author confuses 

 civilized with native implements. He is certainly mistaken 

 when he goes on to say that "among the implements of the 

 Eskimo, which have been many times carefully described, 

 snares and nets are not mentioned."^ The use of nets for seal 

 and salmon and of snares for birds is common in Alaska,^ but 

 rare among the eastern Eskimo. Still, John Davis mentions 

 the use of nets in Greenland in 1586,^ and Thalbitzer in his recent 

 publication on the East Greenland Eskimo^ is of the opinion 

 that nets were used in Greenland in early days. Ancient 

 implements for making nets have been found there according 

 to Glahn and Fabricius. Thalbitzer® thinks there is a close 

 relation between the Labrador Eskimo and the tribes of south 

 and central Greenland, due to former contact, which shows in 

 phonetic similarities. If this is true, there may have been a 

 cultural borrowing, particularly of so useful an instrument as 

 the net. Boas^ mentions the use of the net by the Labrador 

 Eskimo, which the Baffin-islanders, who belong culturally 

 with the north Greenland group, do not employ. Turner 

 ascribes the use of the net in Ungava to European influence.^ 

 It seems probable, then, that the Labrador Eskimo may have 

 made nets in older times, but given up their manufacture when 

 they could procure the civilized article so much more easily 

 in their summer raids to the south. The Moravians mention 

 that when they went among them, they found the Labrador 

 Eskimo well supplied with fishing gear and nets, the results 

 of their plundering trips to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 



It is generally conceded by historical students that, even 

 if Cabot landed first in Newfoundland, he continued up the 



' Gosling, Labrador, its discovery, exploration and d velopment, p. 29. 



- Ibid. p. 30. 



' Nelson, The Eskimo about Bering strait, 18th Annual Report B.A.E., pp. 185 sqq. 



* "They make nets to take their fish of the finne of the whale." Hakluyt's Voyages, p. 782. 



' Thalbitzer, The Ammassalik Eskimo, Copenhagen, 1914, p. 402. 



« Thalbitzer, ibid., p. 685. 



' Boas, The Central Eskimo, 6th Annual Report B.A.E., p. 516. 



' Murdoch, quoting Turner, p. 252. 



