23 G THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDJT[ON. 



Brattelid, was called Erik Fjord. What degree of value 

 this statement deserves, Archaeologists must determine. 

 Norse ruins exist, and to a rather large extent. Next 

 appears a large room, forming a square on one side 

 enclosed by a re-enteriug angle, with huge stones. The 

 blocks lie close together and are not joined with mortar. 

 In former times, doubtless, there were more rows lying 

 one on the other ; now there is but one ; though the 

 stones lying around may have fallen down. In the re- 

 entering angle of this court lie the ruins of a house, 

 which, if a dwelling-house, indicates but small dimensions. 

 I will here give a hasty sketch. The extent of space 

 enclosed by walls was from about twenty-six to thirty 

 feet long, and ten paces broad. Here, too, the walls 

 were made of low blocks of stone, and, exactly like the 

 Cyclopean walls of the south of Europe, not set in mortar. 

 None of the blocks were hewn ; the hewn portion of the 

 stone formed the smooth side. The holes were filled up 

 with small stones. In that part of the building facing 

 the south were two entrances. This, too, reminded one 

 of those ancient buildings; for the sides of the door, 

 built of stones, inclined inwards towards the top, and 

 were closed by giant stone-slabs laid over them, and 

 therefore exactly resembled the entrances in the Cyclo- 

 pean walls of Greece. Both doors were in full preserva- 

 tion. One room was transformed by the Egedes into a 

 store-house, the door of the other was open. They were 

 at the utmost six feet high; a big man, so it seemed, 

 could not have gone through the doorway upright. On the 

 stone slab which covered the door lay some earth ; grass 

 grew upon it, and as this layer of earth was pretty thick, 

 and as, according to all circumstances in Greenland, this 



