318 



carved accessories for umiaks and kaiaks, so that the room 

 probably was used as a kind of work-shop. 



Koch observes that the passage-way in houses I and III 

 curved towards the south, and refers us to the settlement at 

 Кар Stewart found and described by Score shy, where 

 the passage-ways in three of the ten houses discovered curved 

 towards the south, while that in the other seven houses faced 

 south without curving. 



Sc ore shy's idea was that the Eskimo always made the 

 passage-way face south in order to obtain the greatest possible 

 amount of the sun's heat, and at the same time have it facing 

 away from the direction of the prevailing wind. 



My experience, however, has been that the direction of 

 the passage-way has nothing to do with the four points of 

 the compass, but that the determining factor is the desire of 

 having the easiest possible access to the sea, while at the same 

 time consideration must be paid to the lie of the plateau on 

 which the house is built. 



Thus, when the longitudinal wall in house I is built at 

 right angles to the longitudinal wall in house III, this is 

 probably due to the lie of the plateau, and the passage-way is 

 curved in order to give ready access to the sea. 



The recess which Koch found in one of the corners of 

 house III was probably a store-room in which meat and 

 blubber were kept. In two of the houses examined by Ryder 

 store-rooms of this kind were found under the stone pavement^). 



Another interesting discovery in this settlement were the 

 bee-hive-shaped cairns, quite the same kind as those found by 

 Scoresby at Кар Swainson. They were probably used as 

 store-chambers. 



Finally a few there are among the ethnographical objects dis- 

 covered which had not previously been found inScoresbySund. 



*) Meddelelser om Grenland. Vol XVII. P. 298. 



