ethnographical collections from East Greenland. (593 



Upsi in 1121, others in 1285, 1289 and last time in 1347), but also from the gen- 

 eral knowledge in those times about the Skrælings in those regions^) and from 

 the skins brought to Bergen by ships that came from Greenland; these were 

 skins of animals not found in Greenland but which have been indigenous in the 

 regions of the Skræhngs in America and must have been brought away from 

 there by trading vessels'-). Since the Icelanders on the American side had early 

 learnt to look upon the Skrælings as a people with whom they could trade, it 

 is only natural that they have approached them for the same purpose in Green- 

 land when they met them there. But over there we can hardly talk of commer- 

 cial intercourse of old date, for this would undoubtedly have been more promi- 

 nent in the Eskimo culture than has been the case as far as we can see. Hitherto 

 there has been found practically no object of true Eskimo origin in the ruins 

 of the Icelandic farms in South Greenland, or the reverse, namely Icelandic 

 objects in the Eskimo ruins. A comprehensive archæological investigation of 

 these things has not been made as yet, but would possibly give us quite a dif- 

 ferent impression'^). From the Eskimo's own traditions we hear that before 



^) As an example I may recall the old manuscript Gripla speaking of Helluland 

 (Labrador) as ^'Skrœlingjaland", the land of the Skrælings and of the following, 

 later description of the geographj' of this country, mentioned in connection 

 therewith. "West of the large sea off Spain which separates the lands, by some 

 people called Ginnùngagap [the Atlantic] we have in the direction from south 

 to north : first Vinland the good, then Markland, and further north desolate 

 regions only inhabited by Skrælings [Eskimo in Helluland], then come other 

 uninhabited regions reaching as far as Greenland [coasts of Baffin's Bay] but in 

 Greenland there are two settlements Vestrbygb and Austrbygtl, then come gulfs, 

 glaciers and uninhabited regions extending so far towards the east that they 

 almost lie right opposite Helgeland [in Norway]." Grønl. histor. Mindesmærker III, 

 pp. 222—227 (cf. also p. 461, end of footnote). Antiquitates Americanæ pp. 295—296. 



2) From Bishop Erik Walkendorff's writings, collected in Throndhjem about the 

 year 1516, луе get the following information. "In Greenland they deal in the 

 following wares : sable, ermine, white falcons, seal and whale blubber, walrus- 

 teeth . . . ., fish and salmon, elk-skin and all sorts of skins of lynx, fox, wolf 

 and glutton". In copies of this list are also given: "beaver, seal-skin, walrus- 

 skin, unicorn-horn (i. e. narwhal) reindeer-skin, white and black bears, otters". 

 (Grønl. histor. M. Ill, pp. 492 — 493). According to H. Winge, several of these 

 animals did not occur in Greenland (sable, elk, lynx, glutton, beaver, black beai-, 

 otter, ermine (?), wolf(?)), but the skins may have come from America by way 

 of Greenland and in this connection he recalls the saga about Thorfinn Karlsefni's 

 voyage from Greenland to Markland and Vinland (1007 to 1011) in which it is 

 written that the Skrælings over there sold "gray fur, sable and all kinds of 

 skin-wares" to the Icelanders, who later on (in 1013) took them to Norway 

 together with other American products. Winge (1902) pp. 322—323. — I may 

 mention, that Hans Egede already expressed his astonishment at the old reports 

 about these kinds of "Greenland" skins Avhich he knew were not found in 

 Greenland. (H. Egede, 1741, p. 34). 



2) A number of Icelandic antiquities from Greenland have been brought home by 

 G. Holm, D. Bruun and previous collectors and are kept in the Danish National 

 Museum (2nd Department). Illustrations and descriptions thereof are found in 

 Grønl. histor. Mindesmærker (Worsaae). pp. 835—844, PI. I, IX, X; Meddelelser 

 om Grønland vol. VI (1894) pp. 57-146 (especially 138—143) and vol. XVI (1896) 

 pp. 171—461; Annaler for nord. Oldkyndighed (1838—39). A polished wedge or 

 celt of red jasper found near Kagsiarsuk in Igalikofjord, Medd. om Grønl. VI, p. 141 

 is supposed to be of Eskimo origin. The great number of spindle whoi'ls naturally 

 indicates, that the Norsemen in Greenland have wrought their wool themselves. 



