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Near the house, sheltered by an perpendicular wall of 

 rocks, two metres high, there stood four long heavy stones 

 placed edge-wise. It was on top of these stones that the 

 umiak had rested. Fragments of the wooden frame still lay 

 round the props. Between these and the rock walls there lay 

 the remains of at least three kaiak frames. Scattered among 

 these there were bone mountings for kaiaks and for all kinds 

 of hunting implements. Further there lay remains of sledges, 

 parts of tent-frames etc. 



Round about, carefully covered up with stones, there lay 

 wooden pieces, more or less carved, which were to have been 

 parts of new kaiak frames, hunting implements, or other kinds 

 of implements and utensils. 



Now, how many individuals did this colony number? 

 Probably at least thirty, for inside the house there were at 

 least eleven skeletons and outside it we found nine skulls, all 

 of which appeared to belong to adults. And this number seems 

 to agree with the size of the house. 



And how did they perish? Doubtless by poisoning. For 

 when we excavated one of the surrounding blubber-tanks we 

 discovered large pieces of still fairly fresh blubber and under 

 one of the stone pots a dried ringed seal flipper. The 

 poisoning may have been brought about by semi-putrid meat, 

 which the Eskimo regard as a delicacy. Instances of such 

 cases of poisoning with a fatal termination are well-known 

 among the Eskimo at Angmagsalik. It is also conceivable 

 that the inhabitants may have eaten poisonous things cast up 

 by the sea. Thus inside the house there was an old conical 

 tin box which had been opened at the narrow end, a proof 

 that this had been done by hands unfamiliar with such objects. 

 But it is by no means out of the question that they may have 

 died of starvation. For famine often weakens and emaciates the 

 people to such an extent that they die even if they still have 

 some blubber left, and we know from G. Holm that in the 



