536 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 772 



erly regions must have followed the shores of 

 Ellesmere Land, the northern coast of Green- 

 land, and then southward along the east 

 coast. One of most suggestive types found in 

 Dr. Thalbitzer's publication is the needle- 

 case figured on page 421. I have called atten- 

 tion to the distribution of this type of needle- 

 case in my paper on the " Eskimo of Baffin 

 Land and Hudson Bay,'" and in a discussion 

 of the decorative designs of Alaskan needle- 

 cases.' The specimens described in these two 

 publications are from Frozen Strait in Hud- 

 son Bay, Ponds Bay and Smith Sound. Later 

 on I published another needle-case of the same 

 type from Kawlings Bay in Ellesmere Land. 

 Among these specimens only those from 

 Ponds Bay and Smith Sound are found in 

 actual use, while the others were collected 

 from ancient house-sites. Two similar speci- 

 mens are figured by Dr. Thalbitzer (p. 527). 

 These were found in the region of northwest- 

 ern Greenland, that is, near the island of 

 Disco. It is important to note that the orna- 

 mentation on the large specimen here figured 

 is identical with the alternating spur decora- 

 tion which was discussed by Stolpe in his 

 studies of American ornament, and by myself 

 in the discussion of Alaskan needle-cases be- 

 fore referred to. The same ornament occurs 

 in the ornamentation of a comb shown on 

 page 472 of Dr. Thalbitzer's publication. 



Among the other specimens, sealing-stools 

 (pp. 430, 431) seem to be particularly impor- 

 tant. They are very similar in form to a 

 specimen found by Peary in Grinnell Land.' 

 The ice-scraper of bone figured on page 438 

 must be compared with the set of implements 

 shown on page 409, " Eskimo of Baffin Land 

 and Hudson Bay." Even the perforation for 

 suspending the scraper agrees with those of 

 specimens from Southampton Island. There 

 seems to me little doubt that the hammer-like 

 implement illustrated on page 442 of Dr. 

 Thalbitzer's publication is a blubber-pounder 



' Bulletin American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, Vol. XV., part 2, p. 433. 



' Proceedings of the U. 8. National Museum, 

 Vol. XXXIV., p. 326. 



' " Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay," 

 p. 463. 



similar to those made of musk-ox horn illus- 

 trated on page 402 of my paper on the " Es- 

 kimo of Baffin Land." The bone heads of 

 adzes' agree fairly well with those shown on 

 page 381.° The decoration on the handles of 

 the bodkins" may perhaps be compared to the 

 handles of the wick-trimmers from Melville 

 Peninsula.' 



All these types which show close correspond- 

 ence in form are so much specialized that 

 they must be considered as evidence of old 

 contact or of sameness of origin. So far as I 

 am aware, none of these types have been found 

 in the region between Disco and Cape Fare- 

 well, nor do they occur in Angmagsalik. If 

 this is true, the conclusion seems unavoidable 

 that the Eskimos reached the northeast coast 

 of Greenland by way of the north coast. 



0. Ryder has called attention to the similar- 

 ity of some of the east Greenland types to 

 those from Alaska, and Thalbitzer again calls 

 attention to the similarity of the harpoon- 

 shafts to those of Point Barrow (p. 444). I 

 have called attention to several other similari- 

 ties of this kind, particularly the alternating 

 spur decoration, to which Thalbitzer also re- 

 fers (p. 472), and the forms of several speci- 

 mens.' Similarities between the Ponds Bay 

 region and the western regions have also 

 been pointed out by Dr. Wissler in his de- 

 scription of a collection made by Capt. 

 Mutch at my instance in that region." The 

 distribution of types suggests very strongly 

 that a line of migration or of cultural 

 contact may have extended from the Mac- 

 kenzie region northeastward over the Arctic 

 Archipelago to north Greenland, passing 

 over the most northerly part of Baffin 

 Land, and that the culture of southwestern 

 Greenland, and that of southeastern Baffitti 

 Land and of Labrador, must be considered as 

 specialized types. Franz Boas 



* Thalbitzer, p. 449. 



"Boas; compare also iMd., p. 416. 



"Thalbitzer, p. 399. 



'Boas, p. 403. 



" Boas, pp. 461-464. 



'Anthropological Papers of the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History, Vol. II., Part III., pp. 

 316-318. 



