Dr King 07i the Industrial Arts of the Esquimaux. 115 



Having selected a spot where the snow is sufficiently com- 

 pact, the workmen commence by tracing out a circle of from 

 eight to fifteen feet in diameter, proportioned to the number 

 of occupants the hut is to contain, and then prepare a number 

 of oblong slabs of snow, six inches deep and two feet long, 

 which are tenacious enough to admit of being moved without 

 breaking, or even losing the sharpness of their angles. These 

 slabs, which have a slight degree of curvature corresponding 

 with the circular foundation, are piled upon each other exactly 

 like courses of hewn stone, and care is taken to make them 

 fit closely to each other by running a knife adroitly along the 

 under part and sides, and to cut them so as to give the wall 

 a slight inclination inwards. Tier after tier is thus laid on 

 by one man standing within the wall, who is supplied with 

 material by one or more a,ssistants from without ; but for the 

 better convenience of transmitting this supply, when the wall 

 has attained a height of five or six feet, a hole is cut on the 

 south side close to the ground. Thus he continues labouring 

 till he has brought the sides nearly to meet in a perfect and 

 well constructed dome, sometimes nine or ten feet high, which 

 he takes particular care in finishing, by fitting the last block 

 or key-stone very nicely in the centre. The people outside 

 are in the mean time occupied in throwing up snow with the 

 snow-shovel, and stuffing it in where holes have been acci- 

 dentally left. The builder next proceeds to let himself out 

 by enlarging the hole on the south side in the form of a 

 Gothic arch, intended as a doorway three feet high and two 

 and a half feet wide at the bottom, communicating with which 

 he constructs two passages about twelve feet long and five 

 high, the lowest being that next the hut. The roofs of these 

 passages are sometimes arched, but more generally flat, 

 by slabs laid on horizontally, and the workmen select the 

 building material principally from the spot where the pas- 

 sages are to be made, which purposely brings that part con- 

 siderably lower than that of the hut. 



The work just described completes the walls of a hut, if a 

 single apartment only be required ; but if, on account of re- 

 lationship or from any other cause, several families are to 

 reside under one roof, the passages are made common to all, 



