THE USE OF TUMULI AS DWELLINGS. 



137 



absence of great stones, formed of timber, while earth is 

 heaped up on the roof and against the sides, reducing it to 

 the form of a mound. The opening is on the south, and a 

 small hole for a window is sometimes left on the east side. 

 Instead of glass, a plate of ice is used ; it is at first a foot 

 thick, and four or five generally last through the winter. The 



FIG. 141. 



Summer and Winter Dwellings. Kamskatka. 



fire-place is opposite the entrance ; and round the sides of the 

 room, against the walls, "the floor is raised for a width of 

 about six feet, and on this elevated part the inmates slept at 

 night, and sat at work by day." 



Captain Cook gives a very similar description of the winter 

 habitations used by the Tschutski in the extreme north-east 

 of Asia. They are, he says,* " exactly like a vault, the floor 

 of which is sunk a little below the surface of the earth, 

 One of them, which I examined, was of an oval form, about 

 twenty feet long and twelve or more high. The framing 

 was composed of wood, and the ribs of whales, disposed in a 

 judicious manner, and bound together with smaller materials 



* Voyages to the Pacific Ocean, vol. ii. p. 450. See also vol. iii. p. 374. 



