DESERTED SETTLEMENTS 81 



push before them a block of ice. Being attracted 

 by the native, we engaged him to accompany us 

 for a few days and took his kayak on board. He 

 soon became an expert fossil collector and ex- 

 pressed his satisfaction by singing doleful tunes 

 that he had learnt in church. The natives generally 

 regarded us with curiosity and, we were told, spoke 

 of us as vagabonds or tramps. 



Traces of former habitations in localities now 

 deserted always appeal to the imagination, particu- 

 larly on a desolate coast such as that of the stormy 

 and gloomy Vaigat. A small wooden cross on the 

 summit of a low hill close to the water's edge 

 marked the burial-place of some nameless Green- 

 lander from one of the half-ruined stone houses 

 not far away and abandoned some years ago. On 

 the site of the former Settlement there were 

 luxuriant patches of two common grasses which 

 are invariably found on ground rich in organic 

 material in the neighbourhood of dwellings. Older 

 graves were often met with, consisting of rough 

 blocks of stone enclosing a small space in which, 

 if the grave had not been disturbed, fragments 

 of bones might still be seen. Another relic of the 

 past, it may be of a comparatively remote past, was 

 jepresented by the remains of two series of stones, 

 placed on the ground about a yard apart andforming 

 the intersecting arms of a cross twenty or thirty yards 

 long. In former days the Eskimoes arranged blocks 

 of stone in long rows to serve as a test of skill and 

 endurance; the game consisted in the competitors 

 hopping from stone to stone on one leg, the other 



