22 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
walrus tusk were found 1 . Further north, life could not 
be supported, and the wanderers wended their way 
southward to Greenland. Perhaps a few followed the 
musk oxen and reached the east coast. 
Thus, we may safely believe, was Greenland first 
peopled. A further proof is that they have the word 
umingmak (a musk ox), which does not exist in Greenland, 
but was met with in the far northern wanderings and 
the tradition handed down. Very gradually the Eskimos 
worked their way south along the west coast of Greenland. 
But they were in the region between Disco Bay and 
Holsteinborg in a far-off prehistoric period. There have 
been rich finds of implements in North Greenland (68° 
to 71 °) in deep deposits of great age 2 . The Eskimo 
appeared much later in South Greenland. 
The Greenland Eskimo differed very little from his 
congener of the North American coast. He was doli- 
chocephalic, with a short broad face, small slanting eyes, 
cheeks broad, prominent, and round, hair straight and 
black, and about the same average height. In Greenland 
the Eskimos passed the winter in iglus or stone houses, 
the floors of which are sunk some feet below the surface 
of the ground. In summer they lived in skin tents, 
while their property was moved from one hunting 
encampment to another in their umiaks or women's boats, 
which are 30 feet long by 5 wide and z\ deep, flat- 
bottomed, and made of seal-skins stretched on a frame. 
The kayak or hunter's canoe is the triumph of Eskimo 
art. It also consists of seal-skin stretched on a frame, 
but the frame, flat-bottomed and sharp at both ends, is 
designed on the most perfect lines for speed and buoyancy. 
It is entirely covered except a hole for the hunter, who 
ties a waterproof, which is attached all round to the 
kayak, around his waist when seated. Then, with his 
double paddle, he faces the wildest seas with dauntless 
courage, and with his harpoon secures his prey with 
unerring aim. The Greenland kayak is the most perfect 
application of art and ingenuity to the pursuit of 
necessaries of life to be found within the Arctic Circle. 
The use of the kayak among the Eskimo of Hudson's 
1 By Colonel Feilden in 1877. 
4 Found by Dr O. Stolberg. Nansen, u, 72. 
