GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



which the Eskimo differentiates between the flesh of land animals and the 

 flesh of seal or whale. The flesh of musk-ox and reindeer is considered not 

 durable, especially when it must be shared with the dogs. Further, as the 

 only article of food it is not always sufficiently rich in fat for this cold climate, 

 where the consumption of much fat means bodily heat. For this reason it has 

 always been looked upon as a supplementary food, which should preferably be 

 eaten together with stronger and fatter meats. 



The second factor in Eskimo life, and one which is no less important, is the 

 artificial heat required in order that one may live and thrive ; for it must 

 not be forgotten that the Eskimos spend half their life indoors with everything 

 indispensable collected round the train-oil lamp. This lamp is the sun of the 

 family, and the only light during the period of Polar darkness. With its 

 mild warmth it makes even the smallest hut cosy, and over its flickering flame 

 are cooked all the meals, round which the Eskimos gather as for a feast. 

 Clothes and kamiks, which protect them against the cold, are dried by it, 

 and on the whole it makes it definitely possible for women and children to 

 hibernate comfortably through the harshest part of winter. 



It is, of course, possible to obtain fat from reindeer and musk-ox both for 

 light and warmth in a hut. But it is far from being the same heat, and it 

 also causes much more trouble. In addition to this, the lamps of a house 

 demand such a large supply of fat, as they, according to custom, must burn 

 both night and day, that an extremely great number of animals would have 

 to be killed before one would be in a position to meet the winter calmly.. And 

 it is only during the autumn and the early part of winter that the animals are 

 fat. Even after the most fortunate hunting excursions it is difficult to obtain 

 sufficient fat to supply both men and lamps. 



All these purely practical view-points, which play such an important part 

 in their daily life, have been given to me by old Eskimos who have themselves 

 taken part in folk wanderings, and they seem to demonstrate that an Eskimo, 

 when once he is used to the flesh of aquatic animals and blubber, reluctantly 

 substitutes anything else for it. This alone satiates his appetite and enables 

 him to convert a stone hut into a patch of summer amidst the Polar frost. 

 And one must remember that the Eskimos are people who appreciate a good 

 time, and that the cause of their journeys is chiefly a desire to come to a place 

 where conditions are better than those which they enjoy at the moment. 



When we assume the correctness of Professor Steensby's theory, that the 

 Eskimo culture as we know it has arisen round Coronation Bay, we can follow 

 a line of wandering towards the east which runs southward from Baffin Land, 

 and then via Labrador's coast goes almost right down to Newfoundland. 

 Everywhere on these stretches the catch of marine animals has been decisive 

 for all travelling dispositions. Another direction of migration goes north to 

 Lancaster Sound and North Devon, where, by Jones Sound, it divides into 

 two routes, some of the Eskimos going eastward and some of them westward 

 round Ellesmere Land. By constant and successful hunting of seal and bear, 

 the former have comparatively quickly reached Pirn Island, and the subsequent 

 crossing to Greenland is obvious — for to the north lie trackless districts with 

 pressure-ice, whilst at this point, where Smith's Sound is at its narrowest, one 

 may cross on easy ice to a large and promising land. 



This route was used by Baffinlanders who immigrated into Etah in 1862 

 under the great Qidtlaq. The same route southward was taken when the 



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