Ethnograpliic Description of the Eslcimo Settlements 341 



from the excellent rests elsewhere. We may believe, that the clumsy 

 boat connected with these rests has been constructed by Eskimos 

 who have come from the north and gradually forgot the elegant 

 construction of the kayak. 



Eskimos of the second-last period, 2nd immigration. 

 The winter-houses of this period, which are comparatively speaking 

 very prominent against the naked surrounding country, were not 

 found north of the Кар Bismarck district, but they were found 

 along the whole of the coast south of this, as far as to the regions 

 now dwelt in. As no transitional stages of houses were found 

 between the oldest and the second-last group, we may conclude, 

 until evidence of the existence of ruins of the latter period north 

 of lat. 77° is forthcoming, that the winter-houses suggest an immi- 

 gration from the south of the Eskimos of the second-last period; 

 especially as these in their migrations along the east coast of Green- 

 land have never reached further north, than lat. 77"^ (whereas their 

 winter-houses — as mentioned above — are not found more northerly). 



We may suppose, that the younger houses will be the more 

 easily seen — the more readily found — than the older, which 

 must really be searched for, but there is the possibility nevertheless, 

 that in the inner fjords of the northernmost districts more recent 

 houses may be found, since the districts best investigated lay along 

 the coasts, where as already remarked only ancient houses were 

 found; this possibility seems to me, however, a very slight one. 



In connection with the above mentioned, I may state that in the 

 second-last period it has been the custom to bury the dead, a custom 

 which can be traced from Кар York southwards along the west 

 coast of Greenland, round Кар Farvel and up along the east coast 

 to lat. 77°; north of this no graves have been found. 



The bones found at the more recent settlements show, as already 

 mentioned, that the natives belonging here have hunted the reindeer 

 and been more closely connected with the hunting of the marine 

 animals. Reindeer antlers were found in great quantities in the 

 Кар Bismarck district, whereas they are not known to occur north 

 of lat. 78°. I have asked our voyagers from the regions north of 

 Jøkelbugten, if they had found reindeer antlers there, but the 

 answer has been in the negative for both Greenland and Peary 

 Land. This is very remarkable, when we consider the enormous 

 numbers of reindeer antlers we found scattered everywhere in the 

 regions south of lat. 78°. Nor were reindeer bones brought home 

 among the bones from Eskimonæsset (though musk-ox bones were 

 among them), and neither Mylius-Erichsen nor Brønlund mention 

 having found them to the north. It seems almost as if the reindeer 



