714 W. Thalbitzer 



habitants of the west coast (up to the Humbold Glacier at 79° N. lat.) 

 and those who migrated north round Greenland. 



The immigration to the two opposite coasts of Greenland has 

 probably taken place over two different points in the north-west corner 

 of the island, hardly at the same period or at one time along these 

 two routes. From the land on the opposite side of this corner one 

 route has gone north of the Humbold Glacier (over Robeson Channel 

 to Hall Land), one south of this over Smith Sound to Ita (Etah) and 

 along this latter route the west coast has become inhabited. Even 

 if the starting point has been one and the same, a division of the 

 groups must therefore have occurred before Greenland was reached 

 and in this factor lies naturally the first step towards the differentia- 

 tion and specialisation within the two cultures on the east and west 

 coast of Greenland. As to the presumable motives for the immigra- 

 tion I shall not express an opinion. The two routes can be traced 

 from a consideration of the discovered winter-houses (ruins) and 

 tent-rings both furthest north on the Greenland coast and over on 

 the other side^). The ruins are grouped especially round the west 

 coast and north-west corner of North Devon, from there up along 

 Eureka Sound on the ^\^est side of* Ellesmere Land and Grinnell 

 Land. The line of immigration to the south lies here right across 

 Ellesmere Land to Ita, from there southwards along Melville Bay; 

 that to the north right over Grinnell Land along Lake Hazen to 

 Hall Land and from there north round the land to East Greenland. 



The finds of Amdrup and Ryder at the abandoned settlements 

 of the Eskimo north of Ammassalik have shown clearly, that the 

 East Greenland Eskimo from an ethnographic standpoint can be 

 divided into two groups, namely, the Ammassalikers and the other 

 Eskimo of earlier times further north. The difference between the 

 implements of the two groups is however not greater than that they 

 might well be explained as due to a partial, further development 

 during a slow migration from north to south, in agreement with the 

 fact, that there was found to be a partial continuity between the 

 culture of the Ammassalikers and that further north on the same 

 coast (cf. p. 323). It can perhaps be maintained, that the implements 

 found on the Skærgaards Peninsula in the Kangerdlugsuaq Fjord (the 

 "world's end" to the north of the Ammassalikers) stand in a transi- 

 tional stage between the two culture periods. The impression of 

 this difference would undoubtedly have left more distinct traces 

 in the archæological finds, if the immigrants to Ammassalik from 



1) G. Isachsen (1903) p. 150; Thalbitzer (1904) pp. 39—40 and appended map of 

 the territories occupied by tlie Eskimo; id. (1900) p. 110; Simmons (1905) 

 pp. 180 188. 



