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of their usages and customs. In order to duly consider this 

 theory in comparison with the first named it will be necessary 

 for want of any real historical sources to examine the Eskimo 

 tribes with regard to every peculiarity of their present state of 

 culture which may throw light upon their obscure origin and 

 wanderings. 



Recent investigations have revealed differences between the 

 Eskimo tribes which indicate, that after having taken their first 

 step to being an exclusively maritime people they have still 

 during their migrations been subjected to further development 

 in the same direction, aiming at adapting them especially for 

 the Arctic coasts as their proper home. The farther we go 

 back towards their supposed original country, the more of what 

 may be considered their original habits we find still preserved. 

 In the general history of culture these variations must certainly 

 appear trifling, but still I believe that a closer examination of 

 them will throw light on the question, how the most desolate 

 and deterring regions of the globe could become peopled. The 

 solution of this problem is facilitated by the fact that the whole 

 Eskimo nation has been less exposed to that contact with other 

 peoples which elsewhere renders such investigations more 

 complicated. These variations are among the Eskimo more 

 exclusively due to natural influences, to which the wanderers 

 were exposed during their struggle for existence and which 

 partly gave rise to new invenlions, partly led only to the abolish- 

 ment of former habits. In some instances also these external 

 influences evidently occasioned decay where the severity of the 

 climate in connection with the isolation and the fewness of in- 

 habitants almost exceeded the bounds of human endurance. 



In the pages which follow I will try to show, how from 

 this point of view the peculiarities of the tribes in the different 

 domains of culture agree with the supposition that the original 

 Eskimo inhabited the Interior of Alaska, that apart from the 

 true Eskimo a sidebranch of them in the farthest remote period 



