418 Thomas Thomsen. 



would they build, and the newer would the resulting house appear, 

 while on the other hand, the shorter their journey, the earlier — and 

 older — their house. 



I find some , difficulty also, in accepting, as does Mr. Thalbitzer, 

 the resemblance between the harpoon heads of 1882 and those of 1884 

 as proof that the types "had been fixed and predominant in this region 

 probably for many generations". 



In the foregoing, I have sought to point out instances of the various 

 difficulties which the scientific enquirer is liable to encounter, and to 

 emphasise the need of caution in the face of errors and inaccuracies 

 which might otherwise prove misleading. To go through the whole of 

 the work would demand a disproportionate amount of space. For further 

 convenience, a list of some two hundred and fifty corrections, em- 

 bracing 385 pages of the book (pp. 369 — 753) is given in the following, 

 arranged in order of page numbers, with references to the foregoing in 

 such cases as have been dealt with already. Even this list, however, 

 can make no claim to completeness. 



Yet with this we might well conclude, had it not been for the 

 fact that Mr. Thalbitzer has endeavoured to make the National Mu- 

 seum responsible for the quality of his work. An accusation of so 

 serious a nature cannot be allowed to pass unrefuted. It has been 

 pointed out in the foregoing, and - — albeit the fact would seem obvious 

 enough in itself — may here be repeated, that Mr. Thalbitzer had every 

 opportunity of studying the entire contents of the Museum as closely 

 and as frequently as he might wish, and that he would, on application, 

 have been furnished with every information obtainable from the records 

 of the Museum. He has also formerly availed himself of these oppor- 

 tunities, as may be seen from p. 658 of his work. It has also been shown 

 (pp. 385 — -93) that Mr. Thalbitzer's method of work when dealing 

 with written or printed sources of information entirely resembles his 

 treatment of museum material. Further proof will be afforded by a 

 glance at the manner in which he handles such material when un- 

 disturbed by such hindrances as he claims to have met with in the 

 Museum, and at the results which he attains by such study. 



We may take, for instance, a couple of examples from his work 

 on the first part of the Amdrup collection 1 . Mr. Thalbitzer had here, 

 as he himself tells us, the objects in question laid out before him all 

 the time on a table in one of the rooms of the Kgl. Danske Videnska- 

 bernes Selskab. And as another point in his favour, we may choose 

 out examples from the first chapters of the book, comprising 1) har- 

 poon heads, 2) other weapon heads made of bone and 3) stone imple- 

 ments. At the conclusion of these sections, the Editor himself informs 



1 Medd. om Grøn!., vol. 28, p. 329 ff. (i. e. Thalb. I) 



