Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/201

ruses were found, these doubtless being more capable of resistance than caribou and whale bones.

A little to the east of this group of ruins and a couple of metres lower down is another rather large ruin. It is, however, completely covered with sand intergrown with Elymus and so turned up by foxes, which have their holes here, that it is impossible to measure it. The shape, which can more or less be accurately determined, is that of a sort of clover leaf with three rooms with platforms and the doorway facing the sea (i. e. south).

It is undoubtedly out of the question that these houses were built under the present prevailing natural conditions. The Eskimos would then have erected their dwellings where they now have their tents, i. e. down by the beach. No one would think of living at a place to which all hunting spoils either had to be dragged up a steep cliff ten metres high or transported over a detour of about a kilometre. There can be no doubt that when the houses were occupied there was easy and immediate access to the beach above which they now lie. The high cliff did not exist at that time. It must be observed here that the formation of a cliff is in itself a normal abrasion phenomenon which need not be due to a change in the sea level; but in this particular case the houses must have stood a good way from the beach if the cliff had been formed simply by a backward moving abrasion, and this does not agree with the fact that, as the bones show, the inhabitants have been seal and walrus hunters. The most reasonable explanation therefore seems to be that the land has risen about five to eight metres since the houses were built.

Finally it must be remarked that these houses cannot be regarded as having been built by the Padlimiut tribe, as in the first place they never have permanent winter quarters, and secondly, they never spend the winter by the sea.

Igluligardjuk is the name of the place on the south side of Chesterfield Inlet where the Hudson's. Bay Company have established their trading station; there is here a group of house ruins,^[1] visited by Knud Rasmussen, Birket-Smith and Bangsted in 1922. Two of them were excavated in 1923 by P. Freuchen and the following description of the settlement is taken from Freuchen's report:

On the promontory Igluligardjuk by the southern entrance to Chesterfield Inlet there are 18 house ruins, arranged in four rows, the one furthest south with 5, the others with 2, 4 and 6 ruins respec-