308 



ribs still occur at long-deserted settlements^; but unfortunately 

 we have no information regarding the size of these ruins. 



For the sake of completeness it may be added, with regard 

 to these large ruins at Umanark, that the Polar Eskimos have 

 taken note of them and that they believe, they belong to an 

 ancient period of adventure, when "people might wish them- 

 selves somewhere else". If there is anything in this of import- 

 ance for the solution of the question, it is of a purely negative 

 character, namely, that the Polar Eskimos do not ascribe these 

 ruins to any other tribe. Nor is it in opposition to my sup- 

 position, that they were merely the forerunners of tbe present- 

 day houses, built of material more adaptable to larger houses, 

 which has now been used up. 



Fig. 6. 



Part of a hare-barrier, consisting of 3 stone-heaps. Between the two left portions 

 the nooses are represented, between the two right a row of small stones. 



One of the modern houses at Umanark lay quite uninha- 

 bited with tumbled-down roof. The reason was, that it con- 

 tained a corpse. When any one dies in a house, winter-house 

 or tent, it is forsaken, and a long time passes before such a 

 deserted house is again taken into use. Up from the settle- 

 ments about a couple of hundred meters from the shore there 

 were several old and more recent graves at a place with 

 numerous stone-boulders, but all had been disturbed, most 

 probably by foxes — if not by dogs — as also by the earlier 

 expeditions. At one of these lay the remains of implements; 

 it was the grave of a man, to judge from the remains of a 

 kayak. Even the skeletons and skulls had almost all been re- 

 moved from the graves. These consisted of stone-work above 



* Knud Rasmussen, 1. с, p. 85. — cf. R. Peary. Northward etc., p. 380. 



