Appendix 



to 



The Angmagsalik Eskimo 



by 

 Thomas Thomsen. 



Hr. Thalbitzer's reply to my criticism, previously announced as 

 forthcoming, has now been published in Meddelelser om Grønland. 

 Save for a certain lack of restraint in tone — a further development 

 of our author's polemical zeal ■ — ■ the paper in question merely confirms 

 what I had previously maintained as to the peculiarity of his methods. 

 And as the reply did not appear until more than a year had elapsed 

 since my work was ready for his perusal, it may be regarded as the 

 full and well-premeditated sum of what the author can find to say in 

 his defence. 



With regard to his relations with the National Museum, the 

 author is disinclined to admit my competency in the matter. I will 

 therefore merely repeat the concluding words of my paper, as putting 

 the case from an outsider's point of view: "Had he, as he gives his 

 readers to understand, encountered opposition on the part of the Mu- 

 seum in the prosecution of his studies, two courses would have lain 

 open to him : either to request the Committee which had entrusted 

 him with the work to intervene, or to declare that he could not, under 

 the circumstances, undertake to complete the task. The course which 

 he has adopted : of publishing his work on the basis of highly inade- 

 quate study of his subject, and afterwards seeking to lay the blame 

 on the Museum, carries its own condemnation". 



In face of the repeated assertions as to his having been "unable 

 to procure" this or that item of information, I must emphatically 

 point out that he has neglected to avail himself of the means of access 

 afforded by the established arrangement of the Museum, to wit, by 

 applying for an extract from the records. That he should have been 

 unacquainted with this method of procedure is out of the question, 

 since he has previously had recourse to the same, and in relinquishing 

 it subsequently, he certainly seems to exhibit a lack of conscientiousness 

 in dealing with the task entrusted to him. 



The results of this neglect are somewhat euphemistically acknow- 

 ledged by the author on p. 446. We read : "My note: "Holm coll." 



