ARCTIC ICE-TRAVELS. 481 



in about half an hour ; one man cuts the blocks, another builds, and 

 the other two carry the blocks and fill up chinks, etc. 



Building a hut with a large party, however, is a different matter, 

 the difficulty in constructing the dome greatly increasing as its diam- 

 eter is enlarged. It then becomes a question whether it would not be 

 more advisable to build two huts, and to divide the tent-robes etc. 

 between them, or to build four walls inclosing a space of about six and 

 a half feet wide, and long enough to accommodate the whole party 

 (fourteen inches being the allotted space of each man). The tent is 

 then used as a roof, by being laid over the walls, and snow thrown on 

 it to prevent the wind blowing it off. The walls should incline in- 

 ward slightly, and be about five feet high, and the floor excavated to 

 a foot or so to give additional height inside. The advantages a snow 

 hut has over a tent-roofed house is, that should the temperature be- 

 come high, the moisture overhead runs down the walls in the former, 

 whereas in the latter it dri{)S, and makes the tent so wet that when it 

 freezes again it is almost impossible to spread it. The snow hut 

 which Englishmen should construct (that is, without the aid of the 

 Esquimaux) is made of slabs of caked snow about two feet long, one 

 wide, and six inches thick. The site (a circle) is first marked out on 

 the ?now, and beginning with a very narrow slab, inclining slightly 

 inward, the building is commenced and continued spirally, until at a 

 height of about five feet, when a single rounded slab is cut, closing 

 up the centre of the dome. The entrance is as low as possible, and is 

 cut the last thing by the man inside. When the temperature is low 

 it will be found preferable to encamp on snow rather than on land, 

 and still warmer ujaon ice when there is water underneath, which will 

 materially add to the warmth and comfort of the encampment. 



While dragging the sledges it is very necessary to keep continu- 

 ally changing the leading men on the drag-ropes, as on them rests 

 the severe task of exerting their eyes in order to pick their road, and 

 they are therefore more subject to snow-blindness than the others. 

 The officer, when not engaged in dragging the sledge, should be very 

 particular in selecting a good and easy line of country ; this is of the 

 utmost importance. 



We will now suppose that the season for sledge-traveling has 

 passed, the sun no longer sinks below the horizon, the object for which 

 the sledge-parties have been striving has been gained, and they have 

 all returned to their ship, which they left three months before frozen 

 up in the solitude of their winter quarters. Some, which have re- 

 turned early, after taking out depots for the extended parties, have 

 since been actively engaged on regularly-organized shooting-excur- 

 sions. But all are back by July. They return to a busy scene. Ac- 

 tive preparations are being made to get the ship ready for sea. The 

 housing is taken down and stowed away below, and it is to be hoped 

 will not again be seen, as rumor whispers they are homeward bound ; 



TOL. Til. 31 



