328 



The graves invariably lay in the immediate vicinity of the 

 houses, and in no place did we find the graves lying some 

 distance out towards the mountains, as is occasionally found 

 on the West coast ^). 



The graves discovered by Ryder likewise lay hard by 

 the houses. The graves were as a rule quite detached, so that 

 they could easily be perceived. They were sometimes built up 

 along a rock wail, or one of the walls were formed by a 

 terraced ledge in the surface of the rock^). As a rule they 

 were constructed with great care. 



In most cases several persons had been buried in the 

 same grave. In several places we found utensils buried with 

 the corpse. These lay either within the grave itself, between 

 the stones which formed the covering of the grave, or in a 

 little chamber in one of the sides of the grave. 



Finally there remains to be mentioned a highly remarkable 

 stone construction in the Moræne ö. 



A rectangle, 7-5 metres long, and 4'4 metres broad, had 

 been formed with 27 stones. The interstices between the stones 

 were nearly of the same length. This construction lay in the 

 extinct glacier bed on the NW. side of the island, not far 

 from the coast line, and with its long side parallel to the 

 coast. Could it be some Eskimo or other who had commenced 

 building a house there but afterwards abandoned the project? 

 Not far from it v/e found a number of putrefied seal bones. 

 The stones were too large for the construction to have been 

 erected by children. 



1) Meddelelser om Grønland. Vol. V. P. 21 — 25. 



2) — — Vol. XVII. P. 339. 



21— .5— 1909. 



