1 70 POLAR PROBLEMS 



named, seems to have lain around Hudson Strait, perhaps in the Lab- 

 rador Peninsula; but it had offshoots in the north end of Baffin Island, 

 possibly even on King William Island near the magnetic pole. Un- 

 like the Thule, however, it never made its home in Alaska or influenced 

 to any extent the Eskimos of the western Arctic. Was it then earlier, 

 contemporary, or later than the Thule? The writer, studying speci- 

 mens gathered by others, thought that at Cape Dorset it was the 

 earlier; but Mathiassen, who himself excavated some of its remains 

 on Southampton Island, concluded that in that place at least it was 

 later. Possibly the two were contemporary, since doubtless they 

 both lasted many centuries; and one might therefore be earlier in 

 one 'district, the other in another. This question, and the mutual 

 influence of the two cultures, can only be settled by further excava- 

 tions, for which the most promising regions seem to be the south coast 

 of Baflin Island and the north and west shores of the Labrador Penin- 

 sula. One interesting side issue enters here. Dr. Birket-Smith, the 

 Danish ethnologist, has suggested that the Eskimos who left the 

 Thule remains in Hudson Bay should be identified with the Tunnit, 

 a half-mythical people celebrated in -Eskimo legend from Coronation 

 Gulf to Greenland and down to southern Labrador; but a hasty 

 scanning of these legends leaves it open to doubt whether they were 

 not rather the people with the Cape Dorset culture, who have like- 

 wise scattered their remains around Hudson Bay. 



The Bering Sea Culture 



The evidence for the third ancient culture, that in Bering Sea, 

 rests on a mere handful of specimens collected by the writer in the 

 summer of 1926. They came from Little Diomede Island, but several 

 of similar type were obtained by Dr. Hrdlicka, of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, from St. Lawrence Island to the south, and many more, 

 according to the Eskimos, have been found in other places around 

 Bering Sea. They differ from the usual- Eskimo specimens in the 

 wealth and style of their ornamentation, which consists entirely of 

 scrolls, circles, and wavy lines, skillfully etched on hard ivory. Some 

 of the designs recall the wood carving of the Pacific Coast tribes 

 of Canada and southwest Alaska, others the well-known scrollwork 

 of Melanesia. With the latter, at least, they surely have no connec- 

 tion; the true source of the art lies more probably in northeastern 

 Asia. However this may be, the border of Bering Sea, more perhaps 

 than any other region in the Arctic, calls for archeological work to 

 untangle its early history. The writer may hazard an opinion, based, 

 it is true, on evidence not altogether sufficient, that there were Es- 

 kimos living south of Bering Strait before the Thule culture estab- 

 lished itself in Arctic Alaska whose culture attained a level as high 



