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trom North East Greenland which lay on two tables in the 

 building of "Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab", arranged 

 and docketed by Amdrup according to the localities where they 

 were found, they presented to me a familiar appearance. The 

 lifeless objects seemed to me in their dumb language to call 

 upon me to furnish a solution to the following problem : — In 

 what relation do these objects, which testify to a primitive cul- 

 ture of seemingly great antiquity in the arctic regions of East 

 Greenland, stand to the present Eskimo culture which you know 

 from the southern part of the same coast? Is there in the 

 peculiar forms of implements and the peculiar designations of 

 the Ammassalimmiut any reminiscence of a culture which can 

 be interpreted only in the light of this northern culture? 



The Amdrup collection was particularly well adapted for a 

 study conducted with the solution of this problem in view, as it 

 comprises characteristic samples of both cultures, the northern 

 and the southern. The task undeniably appeared easier then 

 than it eventually proved to be^ after I had begun to get into 

 the subject and make comparisons in details and in essentials 

 with the implements of the Western Eskimo and the neigh- 

 bouring tribes. The task grew in magnitude in proportion as 

 I succeeded in extending my knowledge in theory of the 

 ethnology of the Eskimo and Indians, especially by visits to 

 the ethnographical museums at Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Chri- 

 stiania and Copenhagen. In all these museums there are con- 

 siderable collections from Greenland, the largest being in Co- 

 penhagen and Stockholm. I have studied the following collec- 

 tions from North East Greenland: that of the ^'■Second German 

 Sorth Pole Expedition' (Germania, commanded by Koldewey) 

 in the .Museum fur Völkerkunde in Berlin; that of the Swedish 

 Expedition (under Nathorst) collected by Dr. Hammar, in the 

 Stockholm Riksmuseum : the objects collected by Norwegian 

 Whalers in the Ethnographical Museum at Christiania; and C. 

 Ryder's collection from Scoresby Sund in the National iMuseum 



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