Sharp County record., 1880-12-09

with Karlsefne and his men," The statement
at first appears curious and almost childish;
vet in SchOOlcraft's work on the Indians (yol.
!, D. S3) may be found a description OF a SINH
lar engine employed in the ancient times, when
the red-men used to sewupa round bOWlder in
the skin of an animal and hang it upon pole
borne by several warriors, which, being swung
against group of men did great execution;
The Slr2llings may, therefore, have acquired
the idea in their fights with the more shlltul
red-man then pushing his way into their terri
tory. Pursued by a superior force, we may
conclude that the Skralings retreated into the
north. DR.. Abbott himself is OF this opinion,
SAYING, "When, also, we consider that the
several conditions of glacial times were large
ly those Of Greenland and Arctic America
and that there is unbrOken land cOmmuuica-
tion between the desolate regions of the latter
and our own more favored land, and, more
important than all, that there now dweIS in
this ice-clad country race which, not only IN
the distant past. but until recently il they do
not now, used stone implements Of the rudeSt
pattern-it is natural to infer that the traces
of people found here, under circumstances
that demonstrate a like condition OF the coun-
try during their occupancy, are really traces
of the same people"
That the country as far south as New Jersey
was formerly adapted to boreal tribes is evil
Edent from the act that the walrus has been
found at Long Branch, while the great aux
formerly fourished around the borders of
Mount Desert in Maine Dr. Henry Rink who
for so many years superintended the Danish
interests in Greenland and who studied the
question without any reference to the glacial
man, reached the conclusion that the "Esqui-
mauX appear to have been the last wave OF an
aboriginal American race, which has spread
over the continent from more genial regions,
following principally the rivers and water
courses and continually yielding to the tribes
behind them, until they have at last peOpled
the seacoastn Originally their distribution
was very wide and their language prevails to-
day from Greenland to Labrador and the north
eastern corner Of Siberia. Professor Dawkins
holds that the palcolithic cave-dwellers OF
Europe were of the same race as the Esqul-
mauX or Innuit, though no such connection
can be shown between them as exists between
the Ancient Skrellings and the Esquimaux.
The Icelandic records prove that the con-
| ficts begun with the Skrallings in the eleventh
century in New England were renewed in the
| fourteenth in Greenland. Possiblyit is to the
| Skr9lings that the final extinction Of the Ice
| landic colony in Greenland may in part be at
| tributed. Nevertheless, from the year $50
down to the vicinity of 1885, the Skr@llings,
so far as the records go, do not appear to have
given any trouble. But about that period they
suddenly appeared in force. At that time the
western coast of Greenland was divided into
two districts, called the East and West Bygds,
there never having been any Europeans per-
manently inhabitng the eastern coast, though
| the Saga of Thorgill's Nurslingn shows that
family or two of Skr@llings may have dWelt
there.
That the Skr8llings appeared in considera-
| bile fOrceis indicated by the fact that an eXpe-
dtion was organized to meet them The
" Chroniclen Of Iyar Bardsen shows that Bard
sen himself was selected by the colonists as
| their commander. This " Chronicle was com
posed during the second half of the fourteenth
! century, but it is impossible to say in what
year. 1t is certain, however, that upon the
9th of August, 134O, Haquin, Bishop OF Ber-
gen, in Norway, commissioned Bardsen to act
! iu Greenland, as the latter was born in that
country, and was perfectly acquainted with
all its affairs. His commission is still pre-
served at Copenhagen and copy may be seen
in RAINS "Amerikas Arctiske landes gamie
Geographic" p. AZ. Whether the Greenland
colonists appointed him their leader before or
after 1910 it is impossible nowt say Crantz,
in his work on Greenland, intimates that the
killing of some eighteen persons by the SkI@l-
lings led to the appointment Of Bardsen. The
natives gave Crautz tradition respecting a
|
the colonists, whom they called Keblun@ts." J"
A quarrel sprang up about shooting arrows
and blood was shed, the natives declaring that
the Kablunats were eXterminated This may
possibly explain what became of the remnant
of Europeans left in Greenland in the fifteenth
century, but it can not refer to the fourteenth,
as the communication was kept up with Green
land during that period. 1t was in the year
! 1870 that the eighteen colOniSts were slain.
Il IL. Il 1,rD nnIpr
| that wear, that hostile SkT9lingS invaded
Greenland, killing eighteen men and carrying
away two boys captive. 1t is probable that
from this time the Skr@llings proved tormida-
| bic though, when Bardscn WentintO the west
ern district to meet them they were nowhere
to be found, having either hid themselves or
fed into the inaccessible fastnesS of the
north. He nevertheless secured some OF the
cattle belonging to the colonists and returned
southward to what was called the East Bygd
In Bardsen's time the West Bygl was evident
" abandoned owing to the weakness OF the
coonists; and he says, in his "Chronicle,"
that "now the Skr@lings inhabit all the west
land and Dorps.n 1t must have been from the
deserted West Bygd that they came to attack
the colouists in 1870. The lcelandic annals
of the fourteenth century mention no more
fighting in Greenland and in the fifteenth cen
turv Greenland is not mentioned. In this
manner Old Greenland passed from sight and
| it was not until the seventeenth century that
the country was reOcCupipd by Europeans
! Some have supposed that the ancient colony
was cut off by the plague, but the little rem
nant may have been cXterminated by the
| SkrGIlings, as the modern natives ayerred
The following brief statement of historical
facts puts the modern ESquimauX, or lnnuit
in connection with people who dwelt aonS
the temperate ercgions of the Atlantic coast in
the eleventh century. 1t also indicates that
these rude people were driven by superior
race into the far north, where they succeeded
the Europeans. These people were also OF
very great antiquity. What then, was their
originl Who else could they have been than
the descendants of glacial man:
1t is true that none of the bones eIhumed
on the Atlantic coast have been identified as
those of the Esquimaux, though if they ex-
isted as late as the eleventh century such re-
mains should be found Hitherto, however,
they have not been looked for, nearly every
thing exhumed being attributed to the red
man as matter of course. Nevertheless,
there have been those who have not felt salts
fed with such q disposition of the whole sub
icct. In many localities Of Maine, for instance,
! the opinion has prevailed of late that many of
/ the shcll-hcaps were not of Indian origin, and
that they should be referred to a more ancient
people. Certain indications attracted the at
| teuton of the writer long before any glacial
man was spoken of. On this pointD DR.. Abbott
makes a suggestion and argues that the stone
/ implements found indicate two races one much
more advanced than the other He writes:
When we come TO examine full series Of
ordinary surface-fOund arrOwpOints, as we
gather them by the score from our fields and