476 THOMAS THOMSEN 



whose attention had been directed by scientists to the value of the 

 small and apparently worthless objects concerned. 



All this, however, gives us but a hint in the direction indicated; 

 the actual finds as hitherto made do not yet warrant our asserting 

 the existence of an earlier period, and the bulk of the items are 

 distinctly suggestive of the later stone age. To this category should 

 be reckoned harpoon heads with attached points of slate or bone ; 

 the employment of this latter material especially, for the cutting edge 

 of a bone head, where it serves no useful purpose, is most eloquent 

 in itself. Even clearer testimony to the earlier knowledge of iron is 

 afforded by the slate knife fashioned to the model of an European 

 table knife (p. 433). The other form of knife, again, with a groove 

 for the insertion of a cutting edge, does not point very far back. 

 As I have endeavoured to show in the foregoing (p. 43132) this 

 type has, in my opinion, superseded in West Greenland the shark's 

 tooth knife, which was still in use about the middle of the 17th cen- 

 tury, but seems to have dropped out at its close. Thus the finds 

 hitherto made are not in themselves opposed to SOLBERG'S theory, 

 according to which the human occupation of North-east Greenland 

 should not be dated from earlier than about the 16th or the first 

 half of the 17th century. 1 And the finds are, of course, the only 

 facts we have to go upon in assigning a date; the history of North- 

 east Greenland in relation to the Europeans begins and ends with 

 the year 1823. 



As regards the neighbouring people to the south, the Eskimos 

 of Angmagsalik, the historical data are more plentiful, albeit even 

 here scanty enough. The name itself, Angmagsalik, is first met with 

 in 1849 ; 3 we have, however, two accounts from the middle of the 

 18lh century which seem to indicate that the region was then in- 

 habited. 3 With such a paucity of material, every link which can 

 be added is of value, and it appears to me therefore worth while to 

 cite the following note, as suggesting the occupation by Eskimos of 

 the East Coast north of 65 in the first quarter of the 18th century. 



In the annual list of acquisitions for 1726 to the Royal Museum 

 ,,Det kongelige Kunstkammer" 4 we find, under Greenland, mention 

 of the following:' 



,,Eine Grunlandische Ruder-Rieme, womit man auff beyden Seiten 

 Rudeln kann. 



Eine Lantze oder Wurf-Spiess, wo ran der in der mitte, nach 

 Grunlandischen Gebrauch sitzende Hakens oder Angels verloren. 



1 SOLBERG, p. (>-2. * Here spelt Angmarselik, cf. Mcdd. om Granl. Vol. LIII, p. 393 

 ct seq. 3 Cf. THALBITZER II, p. 334 et seq. 4 In the State Archives (Rigs- 

 iirkiveti. The original spelling of the MS is here retained. 



