387 



'On the south side of Sk-cergaardshahö, where we landed, 

 Eskimo had previously lived. On tlie whole stretch of coast from 

 Cape Dalton up to here, we had not found a single trace of 

 Eskimo having travelled or lived there. But here we found no less 

 than 8 house ruins, 6 tent places, 11 fox traps, 1 bear trap, and 

 numerous graves. It was quite apparent from the nature of the 

 houses that they had not been inhabited simultaneously. Owing 

 to the lack of turf the houses had been buiU mainly of stones, 

 fitted together awkwardly. Several of the houses were very old, 

 and some of them had quite tumbled to pieces. One of them 

 was apparently of more recent date, and unusually well preserved. 

 In this house the platform along the back wall was built of flat 

 stones, so that it seems as if the inhabitants did not possess parti- 

 cularly large quantities of wood. But there must be excellent op- 

 portunities for hunting in the Kangerdlugsuak fjord, for there were 

 plenty of seals, several bears and narwhals were seen, and in Skcer- 

 gaardshalvö itself there were numerous traces of bears. 



We set to work at once to excavate and examine the houses 

 and graves. Several of the graves were extraordinarily well con- 

 structed. On the Expedition of 1898 — 99, we had found in Depotö 

 Island (66° 07' lat. N.) a grave which had a feature that marked 

 it off from all others we had seen , viz. , that a little chamber 

 was constructed by the side of it. In Skcergaardshalvö we dis- 

 covered several graves of this kind, and at the same time lighted 

 upon the explanation of what the chamber was used for. It was 

 intended as a repository for all the implements etc., which were 

 put in along with the dead, whereas in the graves without a chamber 

 these were placed in the graves themselves. 



In one of the graves examined the corpses seem to have lain 

 fully clad upon a bedding of bear-skin, for we found remains both 

 of hairy seal-skin and hairless skin, and on the skulls, which were 

 otherwise complete skeletons, the lanky black hair of the head was 

 still adhering. The excavations of the houses gave no result at all, 

 while the graves, on the other hand, yielded what under the circum- 

 stances may be called an unusually rich collection of ethnographical 

 objects, most of which we took with us. We had also room in 

 the boat for three of the best-preserved skulls." 



The objects from Skaergaard.shalvö are thus, with a single 



') Meddeleleer om Grenland Vol. XXVII, 240-241. 



