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aepeiident than Indian tribes on stone, bone, antler, and ivory, which 
the permanently frozen soil has maintained in perfect preservation. 
Moreover, there was a period in Eskimo history when from Coronatioji 
fjiulf to Labrador many of the natives dwelt in houses built of stones 
anfl l)ones (*f whales roofed over with turf, and the ruins of these 
(iwellinj2;s still stand out prominently in the barren landscape. The 
arclux'ologist faces special problems in the shortness of the summer 
season and the difficulty of transi>orting his supplies. He has trouble 
in excavating-, too. because even in midsummer tiie tiiround is invari- 
ably frozen below the first few incites. On the other hand, he has the 
immense advantage of finding on every side innumerable old village- 
sites that will undoubtedly rei)ay investigation. 
Wdthout entering into minute details, then, we may summarize 
briefly the earlier history of our Oanadian Eskimo so far as we have 
deciphered it from their remains.^ They seem to have been divided 
many centuries ago into two, possibly three, distinct grou])S, all closely 
alike in some ways, in others very difi'erent. The interior region that 
stretches between Hudson bay and those two vast expanses of water, 
Great Bear and Great Slavx' lakes, harl:)oured a number of tribes that 
.seldom or never visited the sea, but subsisted entirely on fish and 
laml animals, principally the caribou and the musk-oxen. Depend- 
ence on migratory animals caused ceaseless movements within a fixed 
radius, so that these Eskimo possessed no permanent habitations, but 
built temporary huts of snow during the winter montlis and moved 
into tents of skin at the aiipi'oach of sirring. Tlieir primitive culture 
—for they were the most primitive of all Eskimo tribes — and their 
migratory life without fixed liabitatioiis dirl not permit the accumu- 
lation of any definite I'emains. We know of the existence of the group 
by inference only, from the handful of its descendants still occu])ying 
this region and from the tri!)es that, breaking away in ju’ehistoric 
times, moved out to the Arctic coast and the shores of Hudson bay. 
The second group of Eskimo occupied the littoral from the delta 
of the Mackenzie to Hudson strait and probably Laltrador; offshoots 
even spread over the now uninhabited islands of the Arctic archi- 
pelago and entered Greeidand. During the winter months they dwelt 
in permanent houses built of stones and turf; and like their kindred 
1 The rliief aulliority is ^Matliia.ssen, T. : “ .Xrcliaxilug.v of tlie Ceiitnil Eskiiiio.s” ; Report of tlie 
Fiftli Thule e.\pe<lilion, 1921-24. \dl. Lv (OiiteiiliaKeii, 1927), Cf. altio Jeimes.s, U, ; “ Origin of the 
C>>pper E.skinioii and Their Clipper Culture”; Ceng. Rev,, vol. xiii, pp. 540-55 {Xcw York, 1923); and 
“ New Eskiijio Culture from Hudson Rav''; Id., vol. xv, pj). 428-437 (New York, 1925). 
