310 



winter of 1881 — 82 and again in 1882 — 83 famine prevailed at 

 the various places along the East coast of Greenland^). 



Another far more interesting question is: Where does this 

 colony come from? Could they possibly be descendants of the 

 Eskimo from the north who had met their death on their 

 southward journey? In that case the discoveries would be of 

 great interest. But the very appearance and arrangement of the 

 house militated against this supposition. Moreover, all the utensils 

 and implements that were found were exactly like those used 

 in the Angmagsalik District. Far more probably they 

 were the sad remains of the little group of about thirty souls, 

 mentioned by G. Holm, who in 1882 had travelled north 

 from Angmagsalik and had not been heard of since ^). This 

 supposition received confirmation when we returned to Ang- 

 magsalik after completing our boat-trip. For here there were 

 still many surviving who had known the Eskimo who had set 

 forth in 1882. We showed the ethnographic collection with 

 which we had returned to four of them, and they each re- 

 cognized several of the objects. There was particularly a 

 blood-stopper, with a neatly cut man's head, which they all 

 assigned to a particular person whom they all called by the 

 same name. And yet I had given none of them a chance of 

 conferring together before I cross-examined them. 



Although [ am thus quite convinced that the extinct 

 colony was identical with the little band of Eskimos that 

 started out from the Angmagsalik District in 1882, 1 

 nevertheless consider it right that scientists who are interested 

 in the question shall have a fair chance of judging themselves 

 as to the ethnographic materials brought back from Nualik. 

 The greater part of this collection will therefore be reproduced 

 in illustrations in connection with the general description of 



1) Meddelelser om Grønland. VolX. P. 162— 164. 



2) do. do. Vol.X. P. 56. 



