A GREENLAND CEMETERY. 



181 



session of all that is now known as the great ice-cap, this remnant 

 of a once important tribe worked their way down the coast to 

 Davis Straits, where they now struggle in poverty for existence. 

 While waiting for relief, a matter of two weeks, we exam- 

 ined the settlement and its surroundings. My first thought 



NO. 2. CEMETERY LOOKING SOUTH. 



was, in case of death where might we be buried ? but in any 

 event I desired to see the place where the Sukkertoppeners 

 buried their dead. Their method of burial is not as they 

 would have it if living in a more favored clime, but is caused 

 by the conditions of climate and surroundings. Disposition 

 of the dead has been from remote times mostly a grave sub- 

 ject. The ancients had a way of embalming and depositing 

 their dead in tombs ; hence the mummies. The origin of 

 mummification in Egypt has been much discussed, but it has 

 been proved that the preservation of the human body was 

 deemed essential to the corporeal resurrection of the dead. 



