NO.    I  ARCHEOLOGY    OF    ST.    LAWRENCE    ISLAND — COLLINS  5 
inhibiting  geographical  conditions;  (2)  these  sub-Arctic  forms  could 
easily  be  explained  as  either  having  been  borrowed  from  outside 
sources  or  as  special  adaptations  to  sub- Arctic  conditions;  (3)  the 
last  or  central  group  included  the  most  primitive  forms  of  those  meth- 
ods and  elements  which  were  peculiar  to  Eskimo  culture;  and  (4) 
since  a  transition  from  an  Arctic  to  a  sub-Arctic  form  of  culture  had 
actually  occurred  in  Greenland  (from  the  Arctic  archipelago  and 
North  Greenland  to  sub-Arctic  South  Greenland),  a  similar  transition 
might  be  assumed  to  have  taken  place  also  from  the  central  archipelago 
westward  to  Alaska. 
We  have  arrived  at  the  result  that  the  Eskimo  culture  is  oldest  in  its  Arctic 
form,  and  that  it  has  arisen  in  the  Arctic  Archipelago  as  a  product  of  adaptation. 
From  the  Archipelago  the  Arctic  Eskimo  culture  spread  east  and  west  as 
far  as  the  ice-conditions  allowed.  Towards  the  west  it  reached  the  districts  at 
Bering  Strait,  where  it  came  under  foreign  influence,  especially  under  the  so- 
called   Pacific-Asiatic  influence 
It  so  happened  that  the  foreign  influence  was  not  so  much  a  refashioning  of 
the  Eskimo  culture  which  was  created  in  the  Archipelago  as  a  contribution 
towards  a  further  development  in  established  directions.  Some  new  implements 
were,  of  course,  adopted,  but  that  contact  with  a  higher  and  richer  technique 
has  no  doubt  brought  about  improvements  of  existing  forms  is  of  just  as  much 
significance.  Thus  not  only  was  the  Arctic  form  of  the  Eskimo  culture 
improved,  but  simultaneously  the  Eskimo  culture  expanded  and  advanced  further 
in  a  southern  direction,  whereby  the  Subarctic  form  was  first  fashioned  and 
developed.    [Steensby,  1916,  p.  170.] 
The  "  pre-Eskimo  mother  culture  from  which  the  oldest  Arctic 
Eskimo  culture  has  issued  "  is  called  by  Steensby  the  '''  Palaecskimo  " 
culture;  the  later  phase  which  arose  through  acculturation  at  Bering 
Strait  is  called  the  "  Neoeskimo  "  culture. 
The  Palaeeskimo  culture  was  an  original  North  Indian  form  of  culture,  the 
winter  side  of  which  had  become  specially  and  strongly  developed  by  adaptation 
to  the  winter  ice  of  the  Arctic  Ocean.    [Steensby,  1916,  p.  186.] 
....  one  must  presume  that  this,  the  rise  of  the  Palaeeskimo  culture  through 
geographical  new  adaptation,  took  place  in  the  Arctic  Archipelago  or,  more 
correctly,  at  the  coasts  and  indentations  between  the  continent  and  the  islands, 
which  means,  firstly,  along  the  district  from  Coronation  Gulf  to  the  Melville 
Peninsula.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  again,  among  these  areas,  on  account 
of  its  position,  it  was  Coronation  Gulf,  or  rather  the  regions  between  the 
continent  and  Victoria  Land  which  were  first  reached  by  the  Eskimo  and  which 
played  a  principal  role  in  the  new  adaptation.    [Steensby,  1916,  p.  206.] 
....  the  so-called  Neoeskimo  culture  and  population  originated  around  Bering 
Strait  through  the  influence  of  various  neighbouring  peoples,  especially  of  the 
so-called   Pacific  Asiatics,   and  ....  amongst   these   latter   it   is   the   Japanese 
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