344 W. Thalbitzer 



In 1884 — 85 G. Holm endeavoured to obtain information regard- 

 ing the coast to the north of AmmassaHk (see pp. 109 — 112). On the 

 basis of the carved wooden charts the natives brought him in this 

 connection^) and some Eskimo sketches of the northern continuation 

 of the coast ^), he drew a plan of the coast line northwards. When 

 Amdrup undertook his boat journeys in 1899 — 1900 along this coast, 

 this plan was useful to him and he was able to state later, that it 

 agreed astonishingly well with the reality. The Eskimo place names 

 noted on the first charts were identified^). They reached up to a 

 little beyond 68° N. lat.^). The East Greenlander's knowledge of their 

 country northwards thus extends so far and no further. 



Along this stretch Amdrup found many evidences of the earlier 

 occupation of the Eskimo. Close to the north of Ammassalik he 

 investigated the fjord Kangerdlugsuatsiaq '(at 66" 20' N. lat.), which 

 to judge from the ruins seemed to have been just as densely popu- 

 lated as the Ammassalik Fjord °). Journeying 90 miles northwards, 

 we come to a second district, frequently visited from Ammassalik, 

 Kialineq, likewise with deep fjords and islands lying off it*^). About 

 50 miles north-east lies Nualik, "the island with the naze" (at 67° 

 15' N. lat.)^). On his boat expedition from the south in 1899 Amdrup 

 landed here and found the "dead house" ^). At the sight of the 

 many skeletons and many w^ell-preserved utensils and weapons in 

 and outside the house he was at once reminded of G. Holm's report, 

 that in 1882 two umiaks had journeyed northwards from Ammas- 

 salik and nothing had been heard of them later (see p. 26) ^). On 

 the expedition of the following year he again came to this spot, 

 this time from the north, and again examined the house. At Am- 

 massalik it was stated by old people, to whom he showed some of 

 the weapons found, that the occupants of the "dead house" came 

 from their district and were the same as had journeyed north in 

 1882^*^). They have probably perished by poisoning from eating 



^) Holm in this volume p. 107. 



2) Holm (1889) pp. 219-221 and PI. XV. 



3) Amdrup (1902) p. 264. Holm in this volume pp. 111—112. 



*) See Amdrup's Chart in Meddel, om Grønland XXVII, Plates IV and VI. 



5) Amdrup (1902) pp. 77—78. 



") Holm in this volume p. 109. Amdrup (1902) pp. 86—88. 



■') Amdrup (1902) pp. 91-96. 



") Similar dead houses (but more ruinous and with no ethnographic objects 

 found) are known from the Ammasalik Fjord at Nunakitit (Holm 1889, p. 97), 

 at Umeeivik (see Hanserak's Diary 1884, p. 49), in Kingak Fjord (Amdrup, 1902, 

 p. 2U) and at Cape Tobin (Amdrup, 1909, p. 320). 



0) Holm (1888) p. 56. Amdrup (1902) pp. 93-94. 



'") Amdrup (1902j p. 105 and (1909) p. 310. By a printer's error the same house 

 has been noted as "very ancient" instead of "not very ancient"' in тл' 'Descrip- 

 tion of tlie Amdrup Collection " p. 342 (Meddelelser om Grønland XXVIII, 1909). 



