ESKIMO WANDERINGS INTO GREENLAND 



tribe, after six years' sojourn in Greenland, attempted to return. Somewhat 

 later, the Polar Eskimos undertook a wandering along this route, and wintered 

 for a couple of years on Coburg Island by the mouth of Jones Sound. 



The first immigrants to Greenland reached the land by Cape Inglefield, and 

 thence they spread out both north and south. The parties which chose the 

 routes to the south soon found excellent hunting-ground in Melville Bay, and 

 further ahead in other parts of Greenland ; whilst those who went to the north 

 from Cape Inglefield gradually settled down in large colonies along Inglefield 

 Land and Peabody Bay. Excellent conditions were found everywhere here, 

 whilst the excursions which the hunters undertook to the north comparatively 

 soon proved that there was no possibility of expansion northward through the 

 narrow channels, where the ice was a chaos of pressure-ridges, and where 

 the seals consequently were found only in small numbers. The land itself was 

 covered by glaciers and had no ground for game, and at the same time the 

 geological formations, limestone and sandstone, provided uncommonly poor 

 material for the building of houses. 



Thus for many generations the Eskimos presumably flocked together in 

 this neighbourhood, comparatively small, but fit for habitation, and this 

 explains why we found such an unusually large number of winter-houses on 

 the stretch between Cape Inglefield to Humboldt's Glacier. As gradually 

 the.v began to suffer from the consequences of over-population, they decided 

 to follow those which constantly passed southward towards the much more 

 promising coasts where seals and whales abounded. 



The Polar Eskimos have a distant recollection of a time when all countries 

 were inhabited. People increased until they did not appreciate each other and 

 found that neighbours were a nuisance. Although one must be very careful in 

 making history from the old myths, it is nevertheless probable that the account 

 of the great blood bath round Marshall Bay alludes to a period when the district 

 here was subjected to a blood-letting which overtook the people because they 

 were too numerous. 



We now return to the tribes which went along the west coast of Ellesmere 

 Land, and which are of especial interest to us when we discuss a route of 

 migration north of Greenland. For a while they must have felt comfortable 

 in the peculiar and ice-free tracts in Ellesmere Land, Grinnell Land, Grant 

 Land, and Heiberg Land, where existed and still exists great profusion of 

 game. But the sealing possible in the narrow sounds, where the ice often 

 did not break at all, was far from satisfactory, and the longing for the sea 

 therefore led to a speedy departure. Some of the Eskimos went into the land 

 through Bay Fjord, and found a convenient crossing over Ellesmere Land down 

 to Flagler Fjord, from which the passage to Greenland takes merely a couple 

 of days. Others penetrated to Lake Hazen through Greely Fjord, and the 

 abundance of salmon in the lake and the large flocks of musk-ox and hares 

 have for a while made them give up the thought of pushing further ahead. 

 At that time not a few winter-houses were built ; these were found in this 

 neighbourhood by Greely's Expedition. The way from Lake Hazen down to 

 the sea by Lady Franklin Bay and Hall Basin is very easy to find, as great 

 cloughs and rivers run down from the lake. In bays and creeks in the near 

 vicinity of the coast there is rather good hunting of bearded seal, famous for 

 its thick layer of blubber and its strong skin. The Tiunters by Lake Hazen 

 have probably, as did the Eskimos who lived here during Peary's expeditions, 



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