494 INTERIOR OF AN ESQUIMAUX HOUSE. 



More often, however, the entrance consisted of a sunken 

 passage, as in fig. 141* (p. 139) or fig. 143 (p. 163). 



As a general rule we may say that the western yourts are 

 subterranean, while those of the tribes who live east of the 

 Rocky Mountains are generally above-ground. The manner 

 in which the Esquimaux construct their snow igloos has been 

 well described by Captain Parry. They choose ( a drift of 

 hard and compact snow, and from this they cut oblong slabs, 

 six or seven inches thick and about two feet in length. With 

 these they build a circular wall, inclining inwards so as to 

 form a dome, which is sometimes as much as nine or ten feet 

 high, and from eight to fifteen feet in diameter. A small door 

 is then cut on the south side. It is about three feet high, two 

 and a half wide at the bottom, and leads into a passage about 

 ten feet long, and with a step in the middle, the half next the 

 hut being lower than either the floor of the hut or the outer 

 passage. For the admission of light, a round hole is cut on 

 one side of the roof, and a circular plate of ice, three or four 

 inches thick and two feet in diameter, is let into it. If several 

 families intend to live together, other chambers are constructed 

 which open into the first, and then, after a quantity of snow 

 has been shovelled up on the outside, the shell of the building 

 is regarded as finished. The next thing is to raise a bank of 

 snow two and a half feet high all round the interior of the 

 building, except on the side next the door. This bank forms 

 the bed. Over it is laid some gravel, upon that again paddles, 

 tent-poles, pieces of whale-bone, twigs of birch and of andro- 

 meda, etc., and finally a number of deer-skins, which form a 

 soft and luxurious couch. They have no fireplace, properly 

 so called, that is to say, no hearth, but each family has a 

 separate lamp or shallow vessel generally made of lapis ollaris, 

 in which they burn seal's oil, with a wick made of dry moss. 



t Parry, 1. c. p. 500. 



