Relationships of Permafrost to Sanitation— Alter 247 



indicated that in North Greenland the most common refuse in 

 the communities is the significant amount of dog feces (5). The 

 disposition of even a corpse presents a problem where the 

 ground is permanently frozen. In 1898, Call (8) reported, "The 

 most interesting graveyard in Alaska is at Point Hope. It is 

 situated about a mile from the village, on slightly elevated 

 ridges. . . . Most of the bodies are raised four to six feet from 

 the ground and supported with structures made preferably of 

 the jaws and ribs of the whale, while others are constructed of 

 driftwood. Should a death occur in winter, when the snow 

 lies on the ground hard and deep, the bodies are laid out on 

 the surface until summer, when the snow disappears and en- 

 ables the relatives to find material to build one of the scaffolds, 

 on which the body is then placed. The most reasonable ex- 

 planation for this method of disposing of the dead and that of 

 leaving them on the surface is that the ground is always frozen 

 hard even in summer and the thaw never extends deeper than 

 12 to 18 inches. These elevated graves are in all stages of ruin 

 and decay, and scattered about beneath them, almost entirely 

 hidden by the beautiful forget-me-nots, are the bones and 

 skulls of the dead of many past generations." It is also interest- 

 ing to note from the data given in Figure 1 that by placing a 

 body in the air, it was placed at about the warmest possible 

 point during the summer. 



Permafrost is a significant consideration in development and 

 operation of garbage and refuse disposal systems. 



Housing (16, 19, 20, 25) 



Low temperatures and permafrost have probably been instru- 

 mental in causing early Eskimo people to build their homes half 

 underground and half above ground. Frozen ground makes 

 burrowing difficult and the cold Arctic winds in the tundra 

 regions make it difficult to keep even a well built house warm 

 above ground. Local materials suitable for constructing warm 

 houses above ground are not readily available in the treeless 

 Arctic. Stone is available in some regions and is used. Recent 

 housing has been of frame construction with use of specially 



