An Anthropogeographical Study of the Origin of the Eskimo Culture. 189 
as a non-original form of structure; it is a house type which has originated 
in districts where wood and whales’ bones have been lacking. That this 
is also evident from its construction one will easily see from the descrip- 
tions. I will refer to my own description and illustration in M. o. G., 
Vol. 34, р. 107 and pp. 311 sqq. (cf. the plate in this volume, fig. 2). 
Thus I have endeavoured to show that the “pear-shaped house” 
must originate from a rectangular house, where whales’ bones have been 
the most important building material. In favour of this I may say, firstly 
that one finds in the same district old remains of rectangular houses 
which also were somewhat larger than the present stone houses!, and 
secondly that it appears from the construction itself, with stones which 
project in pairs opposite each other and help to carry the roof, that in 
these places the construction at one time must have had beams lying 
from right to left in ordér to carry the roof. It is distinctly evident 
that such a main beam (of wood or possibly of whale bone) must have 
lam across the centre and just where the main platform began?. As 
a third argument I may now quote the result of the Danmark Expedition 
to the north coast of Greenland; a glance at Tuostrup’s figures shows 
that small rectangular houses have been used side by side with such 
as approach the pear-shaped type’. 
From this it follows that THALBITZER" cannot be right when he 
regards the pear-shaped house as a relic of the Mackenzie Eskimo house. 
This building being constructed on quite a different principle, and the 
similarity in the inner arrangement also being only superficial, inasmuch 
as the side platforms in the Mackenzie house have the same value as 
the hindmost platform, while in the pear-shaped house only the hind- 
most platform is for human use, the side platforms being small lamp 
platforms. 
If on the other hand one wishes to find a house-type which, both 
in its construction and in its arrangement, shows affinity with the pear- 
shaped house as well as with the small rectangular house from the north- 
east coast of Greenland, one must go to Point Barrow. The main feature 
in the construction of the pear-shaped house, viz., the above mentioned 
couple of projecting stones at the fore end of the main platform, recurs 
in the Point Barrow house in the form of a main beam, which carries 
the roof, which in reality in both cases, according to its construction, 
is a gable roof, even if the outer covering of earth hides this, and even 
if the difficulty in finding a sufficiently long beam may cause the house 
to have a greater extent from the front to the back than from the right 
to the left (cf. figs. 1—4 on the plate). 
The arrangement of the platform, the lamps, the house passage 
ис. р. 307. 
? Cf. М. о. G., Vol. 34, figs. 8—10. 
SME 0. Cr, 44, Pl. IT. у 
4M. о. G., Vol. 34, рр. 360—861. 
