166 DANIEL BRUUN. 
had to spend the winter, having in bad years insufficient food, perhaps 
fed in an emergency on twigs and fish, and so forth. In the summer 
the milking-cows probably grazed in the vicinity of the farms so that 
they could be driven home to be milked. 
The stables were chiefly built of earth-turf and stones. The hay 
barns which were joined to them, were on the contrary mostly built 
of stones so that the wind could have free scope. 
As the lowlands near the farms are not specially well off with regards 
to grass vegetation, the Norsemen have been obliged to gather hay in 
the highlands or where they otherwise could get it. The hay is then 
brought home in boats, in the winter on sledges, sometimes on horseback, 
like in Iceland, and distributed in the different animal's stables. The 
milking cows got the best, the wethers and the young cattle the worst. 
As the forrage was distributed so the domestic animals were divided 
into the different stables. 
The horses stables are certain to have been arranged like the cow's 
stables, yet the boxes were as a rule, only along the one side-wall of the 
house. They are, most frequently not found in the immediate vicinity 
of the dwellings, but a little further away. It was not of so great impor- 
tance, as with the cows, to have them always at hand. 
It is not easy to substantiate how far they, in Greenland, lived 
during the summer like in Iceland, on the outfarms with the milking 
cows and milking sheep ete., as it is difficult to ascertain whether the 
smaller groups of ruins with a few houses, should be explained as out- 
farms or as small independant farms. In a few places it seems to be 
fairly certain that outfarms had been used. 
It is probable that the lambs and young cattle, like in Iceland were 
driven during the summer into the highlands, so as to get their forage 
there in the open air. In some places large pens are seen, to which smaller 
compartments are joined, which could have been used as separation pens. 
Here the separating and distributing of sheep (and goats) to the different 
farms might have taken place, as the owners identified the animals by 
marks in the ears. In many cases one only need let the animals of a 
lew farms go together into the highlands, but in some cases one could 
not, on account of the circumstances of nature, hmder the sheep of 
several farms getting mixed. 
Cattle breeding required a lot of looking after. The hay on the home- 
fields had to be mown, but all the hay for winter forage had, as mentioned, 
to be gathered far away. 
Cereal culture, as mentioned, was tried, likewise they had tried to 
eultivate garden plants in different places. у 
Such enclosures, were, for instance, seen on the farm “Undir Höfda”, 
which resembled the Icelandie Kvann-gardens. There was hardly any 
question of there being a luxuriant growth of bushes and plants in such 
gardens”. 
