OS TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Sometimes even there is some left in summer. In spring they 

 go bear luinting. The skins of these animals are exchanged for 

 guns and ammunition, when the whalers visit the coast returning 

 from their hunting grounds off Lancaster Sound. 



The Tudnunirmiut hunt the white whale and the narwhal whose 

 ivory is highly valued. 



Though the Eskimos shift their habitations according to the sea- 

 sons from one place to another we must not consider them a people 

 without stationary abodes, for at certain seasons they are always 

 found at the same places. 



There are some doubts about the origin of the old stone founda- 

 tions met with in every part of Arctic America, ev^en in countries 

 not any longer inhabited by Eskimos, as the Parry Archipelago and 

 the northern part of East Greenland. It was believed that the cen- 

 tral Eskimos forgot the art of building stone houses and only lived 

 in snow huts. 



In Baffin Land I found a great number of stone, turf, and sod 

 foundations, apparently of very ancient origin. If the Eskimos come 

 to a place where they know that stone houses exist they build these 

 up into a comfortable home, covering the old walls with a double 

 seal-skin roof and heather. In the settlement Anarnitung, near 

 the head of Cumberland Sound, and at Okkiadliving, on Davis 

 Strait, they frequently live in these houses which they call Kag- 

 mong. 



I found two different styles of construction, one with a very large 

 floor and a remarkably short bed-place ; the other with both parts of 

 about the same size. The former the Eskimos ascribe to the Tunnit, 

 or as they are often called, Tudnikjuak, a people playing a great 

 part in their tales and traditions. The latter are ascribed to their 

 own ancestors, the ancient Eskimos. 



Indeed they do not build any stone houses now, as they always 

 find in the places of their winter settlements the old structures wdiich 

 are fully sufficient for the number of men inhabiting the country now, 

 which is very small as compared with that of former times. From 

 different reports I conclude that Cumberland Sound about fifty years 

 ago was inhabited by 2,500 Eskimos who are now reduced to about 

 300 souls. 



In winter time they mostly build snow houses consisting of a high 

 dome with a few smaller vaults attached, used as entrances which 

 keep the cold air out of the main room. The Okomiut and Akud- 



