116 Dv King oif the Industrial Arts of the Esquimaux. 



and the first apartment, in that case made smaller, forms a 

 kind of ante-chamber, from which the entrance is through an 

 arched doorway, five feet high, into the inhabited apartments. 

 When there are three of these, which is generally the case, 

 the whole building, with its adjacent passages, forms a toler- 

 ably regular cross. For the admission of light, a round hole 

 is cut on one side of the roof of each apartment, and a circu- 

 lar plate of fresh water ice, three or four inches thick and 

 two feet in diameter, let into it.* The light is soft and plea- 

 sant, like that transmitted through ground glass, and is quite 

 sufficient for every purpose. If fresh water ice is not within 

 reach, melted snow is poured into a vessel and thus frozen 

 into a transparent plate.t The next thing is to raise a bank 

 of snow two feet six inches high, around the interior of each 

 apartment, which^forms the bed and fire place, the former oc- 

 cupying the sides and the latter the end opposite the door. 

 One might walk completely over them without suspecting the 

 little hive of human beings that is comfortably established 

 below ; but this, however, is not always done with impunity 

 when the thawing within has too much weakened the roofs, 

 in which case a leg sometimes makes its way through, to the 

 no small terror of the inmates ; for, when these edifices be- 

 come surrounded by snow drift, it is only by the windows 

 that they can be recognised as human habitations. 



The beds are arranged by covering the snow with layers of 

 small stones, of paddles, tent-poles, and pieces of net-work, 

 made of thin slips of whalebone, or twigs of birch and deer- 

 skins, a bed capable of affbrding not merely comfort but lux- 

 urious repose, in spite of the rigour of the climate. 



With the lamps lighted and the hut full of people and dogs, 

 a thermometer placed on the net over the fire indicates a 

 temperature of 38° Fahr. ; when removed two or three feet 

 from this situation it falls to 32°, and placed close to the wall 

 stands at 23°, the temperature of the open air at the time 

 being 25° below zero. A greater degree of warmth than this, 

 produces extreme inconvenience by the dropping from the 

 roofs, which is prevented by applying a little piece of snow 



* Cartwright. t Ross's Appendix to Second Voyage. 



