82 A SUMMER IN GREENLAND 



being tied behind the back, and each competitor 

 carried a seal on his shoulders. In an article on 

 the Eskimo Stone Rows (Nangissats in the Eskimo 

 language) contributed by Mr Porsild to the 

 Geographical Review (vol. x, November, 1920) it 

 is stated that they appear to be confined to 

 localities between lat. 67 N. and lat. 72 N. and 

 are unknown outside Greenland. 



Walking alone on the shore one morning, far 

 from any habitation, I saw with surprise, and with 

 a suddenness that was startling, the figure of a dog 

 silhouetted in the distance against the sky on the 

 top of a large boulder. In the summer the dogs 

 are usually left to themselves and it is not uncom- 

 mon to meet them or to see their footprints on the 

 sand far from a Settlement. To the Eskimo dog 

 the contrast between winter and summer must be 

 a very real one; in the winter the dogs are regularly 

 fed and kept in good condition for the invaluable 

 services they perform, but in the summer they 

 become scavengers and vagabonds or are kept 

 within a wired enclosure. They are only partially 

 domesticated and are almost as much wolf as dog. 

 Though generally not unfriendly, or at least in- 

 different, to human beings, they sometimes make 

 furious attacks upon children or even adults. 

 Hunger and wildness cause them to dominate the 

 situation in the Settlements of North Greenland, 

 where sledges are the only means of transport and 

 travel in the winter; sledges and kayaks are kept 

 on special stands raised several feet above the ground 

 or on roofs of houses out of their reach. 



