TWO CARIBOU HUNTERS 



Coui'tcsy of iiai-per'b .Ma, 

 CORONATION GULF 



Caribou hunters armed with bows of spruce driftwood, reenforced with sinew backing, 

 and arrows tipped with native copper.. The hunters Avear goggles of wood. Isolated from 

 civilization, these people have been living in what is practically the Stone age. Stefansson 

 says that he "found them independent, self-respecting, and prosperous. They did not beg; 

 they did not pry into our affairs ; they were hospitable, courteous, and truthful. In Prince 

 Albert Sound I made a present of one needle each to the forty-three married women of the 

 tribe. Of course I kept no books, but I feel certain that every one of those women brought 

 me something with which to pay for the needle, most of them saying that they did not want 

 me to think that they were people who accepted gifts." 



The foregoing extracts show conclu- 

 sively the existence of hybrid individuals 

 among various Eskimo tribes, and of 

 their distribution in quite unbroken con- 

 tinuity along the entire northern coast 

 of North America in early days, prior to 

 the general corruption of the Eskimo by 

 contact with whites during the past cen- 

 tury. 



CONTACT OF ESKIMO AND NORSEMAN 



The suggestion that the natives of 

 Coronation Gulf have a strain of Scan- 

 dinavian blood makes of interest the pos- 

 sibility and the probable date of personal 

 contact between the two races. The re- 

 searches of Dr. Thalbitzer show that the 

 Eskimo formerly occupied the northerly 

 coasts and inlets of North America from 

 southern Labrador to the peninsula of 

 Alaska, as well as the outer coasts of all 

 Arctic islands, Greenland included. The 

 record of Norse explorations in the new 



world, extending from the loth to the 

 middle of the 15th century, covered the 

 Greenland coast south of the Arctic Cir- 

 cle, and the shores of the American con- 

 tinent probably from Baffin Land south 

 to Nova Scotia, but certainly to include 

 Labrador. 



The latest word on the subject appears 

 in two quarto volumes, "In Northern 

 Mists." by Dr. F. Nansen. While rec- 

 ognizing Helluland as Laborador and 

 Markland as Newfoundland, he con- 

 siders Wineland as purely mythical, and 

 rejects the views put forward by Ameri- 

 can scholars as to a Norse settlement in 

 Nova Scotia, viewed by some as the most 

 southerly colony. In this advocacy a 

 distinguished American botanist. Dr. M. 

 L. Fernald, brings botanical evidence to 

 prove that the three plants most de- 

 pended on to locate Wineland — the vin- 

 her, hveiti, and mositrr — are. respect- 

 ively, the mountain cranberry (or a wild 



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