Ethnographic Description of tlie Eskimo Settlements 



223 



to the west of the cliff. The shore to the south is steeper than the 

 eastern, but like this level. In winter the snow makes it impos- 

 sible to distinguish where the south beach and the sea ice meet. — 

 From the sea the ground rises quite evenly over a distance of about 

 7—800 meters to a height of ca. 30 meters, then a steep slope leads 

 up to a wide plain with patches of barren and fertile land inter- 

 mingled. At several places on the plain we found many cast rein- 

 deer antlers. Side valleys and passes lead to the musk-ox grounds at 

 Sælsøen. 



It has been chiefly the coast between the rocky knoll and the 

 dried up pond and further north, which was used as tenting 

 ground^, for which purpose its evenness (see fig. 9) has made it 

 specially suitable. Here we found many bones (bean-goose, grey 

 gull, (feathers), dog, polar bear, walrus, bearded seal, fjord seal, 

 reindeer (among which, naturally cast antlers), musk-ox, whale- 

 bone and ribs of the whalebone whale, narwhal). Some low gra- 

 velly ridges rise in undulations along the coast, parallel to this, 

 and on one of these we found the one set of kayak rests (93, fig. 21). 

 The winter-houses lie nearest to the south shore (see also the chart 

 fig. 18). The place seems to have been occupied the whole year 

 round. 



The 16 winter-houses lay close together, with their entrances 

 pointing towards the south or south-east. They were very old and 

 much sunken in the ground and thus very difficult to measure with 

 satisfactory accuracy. None of these houses were dug out. — In spite 

 of repeated search I did not succeed in finding graves in the neigh- 

 bourhood. 



Details of the winter-houses measured are given in the following 

 table (see PI. II). 



' Cf. Duc d'Orléans 1: pp. 255 — 256, illustrations p. 255. and Due d'Orléans 2: 

 p. 16. It may be remarked however, that the "Trois tombes" mentioned are 

 included among the stone remains described by me (97 — 100), which can be 

 seen from the illustration Plan V (here: fig. 22) in the above-named v;ork. 



