38 



the Egedes about the expeditions of the Greenlanders give us 

 that impression, and it is confirmed by information in later 

 works about those Eskimo who have not yet been hemmed in 

 by Christian civilization, but who have kept intact the free 

 habits of their ancestors. Both Bessels and Peary relate that 

 on the Greenland side of Smith Sound, they found families 

 who had come there from Ellesmere Land from the west; 

 thus came 1 to kirs suk (i. е. iwtoqerssoq ^ he who stammers 

 in speaking) in 1868 together with several others from Baffin 

 Land. Peary mentions that twice within the memory of living 

 men has there been immigration from western tribes*). Since 

 neither Inglefield (1852) nor Sverdrup (1899 — 1902) came across 

 any Eskimo on the coasts of Ellesmere Land or in Jones 

 Sound, the immigrating families must have come from some 

 place still farther away (Baffins Land?). "The Smith Sound 

 Eskimo", writes Kroeber, "call these western people Adlet"; 

 then , having mentioned a number of differences between 

 the two tribes, he continues: "in the language, too, the 

 Adlet are said to differ from the Smith Sound tribe. When 

 Qumunapik first arrived at Smith Sound, he needed signs 

 to make himself understood. Instead of "naga" he said 

 "haika" or "hä qa" for "no" (Baffin Land "aqai")." — Fr. Boas, 

 the distinguished investigator of the Eskimo in Baffins Land, 

 relates**) that the southernmost inhabitants of this island cross 

 Lancaster Sound at the approach of winter, and pass the winter 

 on the east side of North Devon. "While here, they keep up 

 some intercourse with the inhabitants of Umingman Nuna 

 (Ellesmere Land). — It is said that they reach the northern shore, 

 whence a long, narrow peninsula, Nedlung, stretches toward 

 Ellesmere Land. Through the narrow passage which separates 



Peary: Northward over the Great Ice 1898. — A. L. Kroeber: The Eskimo 

 of Smith Sound, in Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. Vol. ХП, 1899, p. 267. 

 Fr. Boas: The Central Eskimo (Sixth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. Smlthson. 

 Inst. Washington 1888) p. 443. 



