274 



Chr. Bendix Thosthup 



Highest up on the islet the ground consisted of ordinary beach- 

 gravel, a little large in the grain perhaps, but still suitable for build- 

 ing the tents. The ground must certainly have been somewhat level 

 at an earlier date, where the tent-rings now stand, but in the course 

 of time it has become so altered, that one would never think 

 of looking for tent-rings at such a place without special reason. 

 Some of them were cut through by furrows down to 075 M. deep. 

 If these were caused by melting water from the snows, a very long 

 time must have been taken for their formation, as there cannot be 

 very much snow on such a small islet, where the top in normal 

 years is free of snow and even after the snowy winter of 1907—08 

 was only partly covered. It seems almost impossible that the melt- 

 ing snow could have made these furrows, nor have I ever seen any- 

 thing like them even at places where the tent-rings are situated 

 right under the snow-slopes, from which each year a stream of 

 water from the melting snow flows down over the tent ground; per- 

 haps the cause is to be found rather in the splitting of the rocky 

 ground under the gravel due to frost. — Whatever the cause, the 

 furrows must have been produced after the Eskimos had placed 

 their tents there. 



I could not find any meat-stores, though several heaps of stones 

 might have been taken for such, but they were in such disorder and 

 so scattered, that I was unable or would not venture to say, whether 

 they were due to chance or collected by human beings for a definite 

 purpose. 



The passage round the islet contained so many submerged reefs, 

 that it is impossible to believe that the islet has been occupied at 

 the time of year when the water was open. 



On a third islet, Terneskæret, we found several temporary meal- 

 stores (375). 



