343 



blades of the weapon heads and knives indicates different stages 

 of development in their material culture. The numerousness 

 of the house ruins in Scoresby Sund, in Traill Island (72° lat. N.), 

 in Clavering Island (74° lat. N.) and still further to the north 

 render it probable that the history of this population must 

 have extended over many centuries. The old-fashioned types 

 of the harpoon-heads and several of the other implements 

 seem to tell us that this group must have belonged to the 

 oldest stock of the Greenland Eskimo M. They may have im- 

 migrated into Greenland anterior to, or simultaneously with, 

 the northernmost West Greenlanders. However, the sole his- 

 torical fact we possess as to these Greenlanders is, after all, 

 only Clavering's account of his meeting with 12 Eskimo on 

 the south-west side of Clavering island, as it would seem, the 

 last surviving Eskimo of North East Greenland. This was in 

 the year 1823. They were seen for three days, then they fled 

 away. No one understood them. No records were made of 

 Iheir language, legends or traditions. We know nothing about 

 them beyond what the traces they have left on the deserted 

 coasts can tell us. — 



These 'finds" have recently been added to. From more 

 northerly districts of East Greenland than ever before Mylius- 

 Erichsen and his companions on the Danmark Expedition 

 brought back a collection of antiquities. I have not yet had 

 an opportunity of seeing this collection, which immediately after 

 its arrival was lodged in the National Museum at Copenhagen. 

 It is to be hoped that it will not be long before we get a 

 description of it by a competent hand. 



As I have already mentioned, the following pages will deal 



M Ryder's view of the high antiquity of the ruins of North East Greenland 

 (Meddelelser om Grønland XVII, .'J4.3) has been opposed by 0. Solberg 

 'Beiträge zur Vorgeschichte der Osteskimo, pp. 18—19), but, in my 

 opinion, without convincing grounds. Cf. my review of Solberg's book 

 in Dansk Geografisk Tidslirift 1909 (XX, pp. 11 — 16). 



