The Angmagsalik Eskimo. 417 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



We have in the foregoing considered various typical instances of 

 Mr. Thalbitzer's peculiar methods of dealing with museum material 

 and with such sources of information as are afforded by previously 

 published works. We have seen that he is not always thoroughly familiar 

 with the subjects of which he treats, and that his lack of proper quali- 

 fication in this respect also makes itself apparent in his new edition of 

 Holm's work, included in the same volume ; that he is apt to be remarkably 

 inaccurate in quoting his authorities, and inclined now and then to 

 formulate far-fetched conclusions on the basis of inadequate observation. 



All questions such as might form the subject of scientific discussion 

 have been purposely omitted here, only indisputable errors being dealt 

 with. Mere inaccuracies of the mental process and of exposition have 

 also been passed over. By way of illustration, and to save the reader, 

 if possible, from overmuch pondering upon obscure passages, a single 

 instance of the Author's style may here be given. 



With regard to Capt. Amdrup's find of the so-called 'dead house" 

 at Nualuk, we read, on p. 323; "The objects found were first brought 

 by boat down to Ammassalik, where several of them were recognised 

 as belonging to a man, who with some other families had journeyed 

 northwards two years previous to Holm's arrival, without any- 

 thing being heard of the whole party later. The circumstances atten- 

 ding the discovery indicated, that the natives (over 30) had been over- 

 come by a catastrophe, hunger or more probably poisoning from rotten 

 meat". 



And immediately after: "They had not gone much more than 80 

 miles from their tribal relatives, which agrees with the fact, that 

 the ruin found was of recent date in its appearance. Although 

 the collection found in the ruin originated from the time before the 

 arrival of Europeans, the contents showed distinct signs of an indirect 

 connection with European culture". (Here follow some examples). "In 

 other respects, it confirms in every way the typological characteristics 

 of the Ammassalik culture, which we knew from the Holm collection. 

 For example, there is a precise agreement between the forms of the 

 harpoon heads in the two collections, so that we become convinced, 

 that the types of harpoons, contained in the Holm collec- 

 tion, had been fixed and predominant in this region pro- 

 bably for many generations". 



It is not easy to see why the harpoon heads carried by a man setting 

 out from Angmagsalik in 1882 should be expected to differ in any es- 

 sential degree from those obtained by Holm at the same place in 1884. 



The sentence: "They had not gone much more than 80 miles from 



their tribal relatives, which agrees with the fact, that the ruin found 



was of recent date in its appearance" likewise furnishes food for thought. 



It would surely seem obvious, that the farther the party went, the later 



Lin. 27 



