Ethnological Sketch of the Angmagsalik Eskimo. Щ 



which is called Kernerarsuit or Nana isua 'the extreme point of the 

 land'. When it is calm , the land looks like a sea ruffled by the 

 wind, but when there is a mirage, the land can be seen quite dis- 

 tinctly. 



Out of the mass of detailed information I have received as to 

 this stretch of coast, I shall only mention the following: 



The Kangerdlugsuatsiak fjord, like Sermiligak, never freezes 

 over; for the current keeps large parts of it open, and in these the 

 seals have their haunts. Kiinak's father caught here an "isanikitek", 

 which he described as a very big bird with rather small wings, so 

 that it could not fly, but when it was pursued dived down into 

 the water, and it could keep below water as long as a Greenland 

 seal. 



The Nigertusok fjord has received its name from the circum- 

 stance that the north-easterly wind, called nigek or nerrajak, blows 

 very violently there. The violence of the wind may be so great 

 that stones a cubic foot in size can be blown along the ground. 

 The last people who lived there froze to death, because the whole 

 roof of their house w^as carried away by a north-easterly gale. 



The TiigtuUk fjord has its name from reindeer, which are said 

 to have been plentiful in those parts in former days. People indeed 

 can tell that fresh excrements of those animals have been seen 

 there. Within the fjord there is an inland lake in which there are 

 salmon of such a size that they have to be caught by means of 

 seal-hunting implements. It is told that they are just as large as 

 sharks, and that a dog can satisfy his hunger on the stomach of a 

 salmon. The narrator had, however, not seen them himself. It is 

 told that in this district there is a bear-trap which was constructed 

 by the legendary hero of the Angmagsaliks, Kagsagsik. 



In the district round about Kialinek there are said to be large 

 quantities of narwhals, so much so, that on one day three kaiaks 

 came home each with its narw^hal. The fjord is so long that the 

 narwhals that enter the fjord on one day do not emerge it before 

 the following day. The usual wintering-place in this district is the 

 above-mentioned peninsula Itivsalik. 



One day's journey north from Itivsalik we come to the Apiititek 

 fjord with the wintering-place called Nualik, a name which is also 

 sometimes given to the fjord itself. Outside of it lies the already 

 mentioned ice-covered island, southern Aputitek, which has been 

 the usual goal of the journeys of the Angmagsaliks. 



The inland ice goes northwards from this place right out to 

 sea, and is rarely broken by small bits of land. At about 67^/2° 

 latitude, the ice for a stretch of at least twenty miles goes every- 



