Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/343

rings, many strongly-built, round, tent rings; higher up a strong, oval stone erection, possibly a festival place. This is the only place in Baffin Land where I have seen such a stone erection.

It will thus be seen that these house ruins are just as numerous in northern Baffin Land as further south; and the scattered finds from them show conformity with the finds from Qilalukan and Mitimatalik; in other words, the Thule culture has been spread generally in the north of Baffin Land. As to situation, the house ruins are on the average lower here than further south; the usual height is 6 to 8 m above sea level, as at Qilalukan and Mitimatalik; but in one case (Iterdleq) I have seen them down to 4 metres above sea level; heights of about 20 m, which were not rare further south, I have not seen at all in Baffin Land. Thus there has not been such a big rise of the land here since the erection of the houses as further south, whether this is due to the houses being later or that the land rises more slowly; as stated before, the specimens mostly speak in favour of the former hypothesis. Even if there are places where it is probable that these have been a small rise of the land, as at Qilalukan, Mitimatalik, Koroqdjuaq, Tulukan, and Iglorssuit, no rise need have taken place at, for instance, Iterdleq. The result of these investigations may thus be summarised in the following sentence: The Thule culture has in northern Baffin Land commenced later, but has also lasted longer, than in the Repulse Bay region.

Button Point (Esk. Sanerun), on the south-east corner of Bylot Island, is now the most important spring and early summer settle- ment at Ponds Inlet; in May-June-July there is grand hunting here, first of seals, later of narwhals — the hunting which is to secure supplies of provisions and dog-feed for the winter. From the earliest times Button Point seems to have been an important settlement; when the North-west Passage and the Franklin Expeditions went into Ponds Inlet to obtain news of the Eskimos or to trade with them, they always went first to Button Point as being the place where they were most certain to meet Eskimos.

During the first period of my sojourn at Ponds Inlet the Eskimos regularly brought me objects which they had found at Button Point, which on the whole was a place to which they warmly recommended me if I wanted to look for old specimens; so I stayed at Button Point from June 15th to 26th, 1923, and made excavations there.

Button Point (Fig. 66) is a flat point which, from the low fore- land in front of the highland, stretches out into the sea; a fairly