330 W. Thalbitzer 



the North-East Greenlanders ^). My conclusions are based, so far as 

 Greenland is concerned, mainly on the old forms of implements, 

 which I had come to know from Amdrup's discoveries in East 

 Greenland and which were described in my first-mentioned report. 

 I shall not enter here into a discussion of the contents of the 

 collection, however, but may refer to the conclusion at the end of 

 this work. 



The ethnography of the West Greenlanders as a whole is not 

 yet written. The most exact contributions I know are, of ancient 

 date. Otto (or Отно) Fabricius' description of the hunting weapons 

 of the southern and central West Greenlanders (1810 and 1818), and 

 from recent years A. Kroeber's monograph on the northernmost 

 West Greenlanders, the Smith Sound Eskimo (1899). In addition to 

 these two very different, but excellent monographs we find valuable 

 contributions, likewise grounded on personal observation of the West 

 Greenland culture, in the works of John Davis, Egede, Cranz, Dal- 

 ager, Glahn, Giesecke from earlier times. Rink, Nansen, Schultz- 

 Lorentzen, Steensby of recent years. M. Porsild's contribution (1911) 

 is also perhaps worth mentioning. — Among the American works 

 on the Eskimo, who live along the coasts of Canada and Bering 

 Strait, I have made special use of the following: Franz Boas' various 

 works on the Central Eskimo on Baffins Land and in Hudson Bay; 

 Kroeber's papers on the Smith Sound Eskimo; Turner's on the 

 Eskimo on the east coast of Hudson Baj^; Murdoch's and Nelson's 

 works on the Alaskan Eskimo; O. Mason's comparative studies on 

 the Eskimo; W. Bogoras' work on the Chukchee and the Asiatic 

 Eskimo. Altogether, the works of these authors contain a fairlj' 

 satisfactory series of data relative to the principal varieties of the 

 Eskimo implements from district to district within the area of this 

 widespread race. 



In the following pages I give a description of the material culture 

 of the Ammassalik tribe, as representing the culture of central and 

 southern East Greenland. I hope that my description may con- 

 tribute, in part at least, to elucidate the position of the Greenland 

 types of implements in the Eskimo ethnology as a whole. 



Boas (1907) p. 568 and (1909) pp. 535-536. 



