Ethnographic Description of the Esliimo Settlements 



193 



The quite small stones used in some of the tent-rings examined 

 by me puzzled me somewhat; they might have been able to keep 

 down a European canvas tent with bottom to it, but hardly so far as I 

 could see an Eskimo skin tent. Nevertheless they were Eskimo tent- 

 rings, and I imagine therefore, that they were put up in the spring- 

 time when it was not yet possible to break larger stones loose from 

 the frozen ground. Possibly, then, blocks of snow, sledges etc. formed 

 the rest of the weight. The tents used here however have not 

 been very high. 



Further, it may be said, that the stones round the margin were 

 in general so regularly placed, that we may conclude that these now 



Fig. 2. Tent-ring ЗГ).3 witli compnct stone-work. East shore of Stormhugt. 



(Photo, by Л. LlXDAGF.R). 



bound an area which is not appreciably larger than the ground-area 

 of the lent, for which it had formerly been used. If the stones, 

 namely, had been removed by force from the tent covering, they 

 would not have been found now in such a regular and neat position 

 as is the case. That it was the women, who at that time removed 

 the tent stones and packed the tent, is a fact we must be thankful 

 for, as we are thus enabled at this day to form a picture of the ex- 

 tent of the ground taken up by the tents used by the Eskimos. 



Generally there is some distance between the single stones in a 

 tent-ring, but we also find rings in which the stones have obviously 

 been placed with care quite close together (fig. 2). These closely 



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