The Angmagsalik Eskimo. 419 



us that he has "treated of three kinds of Eskimo implements which have 

 hitherto been the object of particular attention on the part of ethnogra- 

 phers" 1 ; he has thus had the work of other writers as a guide if needful. 

 As regards the remainder, he has not had the advantage of such aids, 

 and restricts himself also to a merely geographical arrangement of the 

 materia]. 



It is only fair to remark that these chapters are at least richly illu- 

 strated; 6 out of the 9 harpoon heads shown are shown three or four 

 times each. This does not mean that they are presented from as many 

 different points of view; the difference is in several instances restricted 

 to the background, which is in one case wdiite, in another black; the 

 white makes the better picture. In Fig. 14, p. 381, we have a flake 

 of stone, seen from two sides, concerning which the Editor observes in 

 the text: "The specimen shows no trace of polishing or finishing so that 

 it is uncertain whether it is an artefact at all, and whether it has ever 

 been in use". 



These sections are further marked by a strictly systematical order, 

 almost too strict, perhaps, at times, as when we find, in Fig. 13 p. 381, 

 under "Stone implements" the blade of a woman's knife, the remaining 

 portion of which is given in Fig. 21 p. 403, in the geographically arranged 

 part of the book. 



On p. 347 we are told, with regard to one of the harpoon heads 

 from North-East Greenland, that it "resembles very much a West 

 Greenland type of harpoon head" in proof of which the Editor 

 quotes Svenander 2 40, Fig. 4. The resemblance to the illustration in 

 question is certainly striking; Svenander tells us, however, expressly, 

 on the opposite page (p. 41), that Fig. 4 represents one of the objects 

 collected by Dr. Hammar in North-East Greenland. The resemblance 

 is thus rendered less remarkable, and the connection with West Green- 

 land disappears. With regard to this same harpoon head, we are further 

 informed that the blade "as is "(sic) "seems, was also wedged into the 

 slit with small pieces of iron". 



Here again, I am unable to concur in Mr. Thalbitzer's opinion ; 

 the present appearance of the object is due to splitting of the metal 

 through the action of rust, a phenomenon very generally known. 



The fragments from a tow-line, presented in illustration as points 

 of Ituartit harpoons, have been dealt with in the foregoing: it only 

 remains to add that the Editor might have avoided this, as well as other 

 errors, if he had been content to keep to the matter in hand, instead 

 of dragging in extraneous museum objects. And if Mr. Thalbitzer had 

 omitted the passage on p. 448 to the effect that the Norwegian ethno- 



1 Thalb. I, p. 386. 



2 Gustaf Svenander: Harpun-, Kastpil- och Lansspetsar från Väst-Grönland. 

 Uppsala och Stockholm 1906 (Kungl. Vetenskapsakademiens handlinger 

 Band 40, No. 3). 



27* 



