70  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
Mr.  Ford's  careful  excavations  not  only  revealed  the  outlines  and 
essential  structural  features  of  the  houses  themselves  but  also  brought 
out  the  important  point  of  their  mutual  relationship,  as  described  below. 
House  no.  j. — In  plates  8  and  9  are  shown  a  number  of  views  of 
houses  no.  3  and  4,  both  of  which  were  originally  included  in  the 
excavation  which  was  begun  as  cut  9.  They  are  also  shown  in  text 
figure  II.  The  larger  house,  no.  3,  faced  NW.  Plate  8,  figure  3,  look- 
ing NW.,  shows  the  exposed  stone  floor,  the  remnants  of  walls  and 
the  roof  timbers  of  the  entrance  passage  after  the  superimposed  debris 
had  been  cleared  away.  The  outer  end  of  the  passage  had  been  en- 
larged to  form  a  small  antechamber  11  feet  long  by  6^  feet  wide. 
This  antechamber  was  roughly  oval  in  outline,  with  a  stone  floor,  and 
walls  made  of  whale  skulls,  stones,  timbers,  and  smaller  bones.  The 
roof  was  formed  of  timbers  placed  transversely  across  two  whale 
jaws  which  extended  NW.-SE.  The  inner  (SE.)  wall  consisted 
principally  of  a  small  whale  skull  which  had  been  placed  base  down- 
ward on  cross  timbers  beneath  which  the  occupants  had  to  crawl  to 
enter  the  passageway  leading  to  the  house. 
The  entrance  passage  proper  was  5  feet  wide  and  16  feet  3  inches 
long  and  had  a  stone  floor.  The  walls  were  made  of  stones  and  whale 
bones — principally  jaws  and  scapulae— with  an  occasional  walrus  skull. 
The  roof  was  of  timber,  consisting  first  of  three  transverse  beams, 
of  about  10  inches  diameter,  which  spanned  the  passage  at  4-foot 
intervals ;  and  over  these  a  layer  of  smaller  logs  averaging  6  inches 
in  diameter,  laid  lengthwise.  There  were  two  series  of  these  small 
horizontal  timbers,  one  extending  for  12  feet  from  the  antechamber 
toward  the  SE.,  with  their  ends  resting  on  the  third  transverse  beam ; 
the  other  only  4  feet  long,  with  ends  resting  on  the  same  beam  and 
abutting  the  ends  of  the  longer  logs.  The  SE.  ends  of  the  4-foot 
timbers  rested  on  two  cross  beams  which  formed  the  inner  end  of 
the  passage  (pi.  8,  fig.  4)  ;  just  beyond  were  laid  a  few  additional 
timbers  and  a  whale  jaw,  with  an  opening  between,  through  which 
the  occupant  would  emerge  as  he  left  the  passage  and  entered  the 
house.  Remains  of  two  roof  supports  were  found  at  the  entrance, 
one  the  upright  whale  jaw  visible  in  plate  8,  figures  3  and  4,  and 
the  other  a  small  log  on  the  opposite  side.  In  front  of  these,  em- 
bedded in  the  floor,  was  a  5-foot  section  of  a  large  whale  jaw,  which 
formed  the  threshold.  The  roof  of  the  entrance  passage  had  fallen 
almost  to  the  floor,  only  6  inches  to  i  foot  of  heavy  sand  and  gravel 
lying  between  the  fallen  timbers  and  the  floor  stones  From  the 
positions  of  the  broken  off  ends  of  the  transverse  roof  beams  it  could 
be  seen  that  originally  the  roof  sloped  downward  toward  the  house. 
