No. I. ETHNOLOGY. 191 



known that formerly considerable numbers of Eskimo were 

 living to the eastward of Cape Farewell, but year by year 

 stragglers and small parties from these outside savages have 

 re-entered the Danish colonies to the westward of the 

 Cape, and have become absorbed amongst the civilised 

 Greenlanders. This slow but steady return to the southward 

 may account for the German Polar Expedition of 186970 

 not meeting with the Eskimo tribe seen by Sabine on the 

 east coast. The result of our observations amounts to this, 

 that along the shores of Smith Sound, Kennedy Channel, 

 Hall Basin, and Kobeson Channel, to a point three degrees 

 north of the present extreme range of the Etah Eskimo, there 

 are to be found not only traces of wanderings, but many 

 proofs of former permanent habitation in places where, under 

 present climatic conditions, it would be impossible for Eskimo 

 to exist. 



The abandonment by the Eskimo of these settlements in 

 Grinnell Land and Greenland, as well as in the Parry Islands, 

 is a subject of considerable interest. It points to a change in 

 the physical conditions of an extensive area lying within the 

 Arctic zone. 



