510 TnH GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



At tlic end of the hut facing tlio sea (south) was 

 a square opemng in the floor, surrounded with stones 

 about a foot and a half in length and breadth, and from 

 half a yard to three-quarters deep ; this was the beginning 

 of a passage running horizontally nearly parallel with 

 the front wall of the hut. This passage was therefore 

 below the level of the floor, and was from three to three 

 yards and a half in length, opening on to the sloping 

 shore. The walls were built of suitably sized stones, also 

 the ceiling, in which for better support long bones and 

 bits of drift-wood were found. The whole of this, too, 

 was covered with earth and sward. Of a closing door 

 nothing was seen, and of a roof there was now no trace. 

 Far and near around the huts, without any particular 

 regularity, were a number of small holes or cavities, of 

 from a half to a yard in diameter, and not much deeper. 

 They may have been used for keeping bacon, meat, and 

 so on, for in some were bones of different animals, and 

 others were covered with heavy stones. In a wide circle 

 on the green grass lay bleached bones, the remains of 

 their meals, mostly belonging to seals and walruses, as 

 well as bear, reindeer, hare, and narwhal. 



After securing some relics of this " village " and its 

 huts, we decided upon digging in the huts themselves. 

 With much trouble we succeeded in raising the partly 

 frozen layer of earth, and laid bare the real flooring. 

 This was composed partly of the stony earth and partly 

 of artistically laid flat stones. A layer of these were 

 found in the back corners of about half a yard broad, 

 and ere long the conjecture that this had been their 

 fire-hearth, was confirmed by our finding in one of 

 the huts a firm mass of carbonized wood, moss, and 



