LIFE AMONG THE ESKIMOS 231 



morals and their domestic relations as regards the division of labor between 

 man and woman include much that might well be copied by other nations. 



The method of building an Eskimo snow-house is told by one of the ex- 

 plorers who learned the trick from the natives. He says : 



"The process of constructing a snow-house goes on something in this way, 

 varied, of course, by circumstances of time, place, and materials. First, a num- 

 ber of square blocks are cut out of any hard-drifted bank of snow you can meet 

 with, adapted for the purpose ; which, when cut, have precisely the appearance 

 of blocks of salt sold in the donkey-carts in the streets of London. The dimen- 

 sions we generally selected were two feet in length by fourteen inches in height, 

 and nine inches in breadth. A layer of these blocks is laid on the ground nearly 

 in the form of a square ; and then another layer on this, cut so as to incline 

 slightly inwards, and the corner blocks laid diagonally over those iinderneath, 

 so as to cut off the angles. Other layers follow in the same way, until you have 

 gradually a dome-shaped structure rising before you, out of which you have 

 only to cut a small hole for a door, to find yourself within a very light, com- 

 fortable-looking bee-hive on a large scale, in which you can bid defiance to 

 wind and weather. Any chinks between the blocks are filled up with loose 

 snow with the hand from outside ; as these are best detected from within, a man 

 is usually sent in to drive a thin rod through the spot where he discovers a 

 chink, which is immediately plastered over by some one from without, till the 

 whole house is as air-tight as an tgg." 



The Eskimos are well cared for by the government of Denmark, and always 

 have been as far back as 185 1, Kennedy wrote. Speaking of Upernavik: 



"It is one of that interesting group of little colonies with which the enter- 

 prise of the Danes has dotted the west coast of Greenland. Here, considerably 

 within the Arctic Circle, we found a Christian community, not only living, but, 

 after a fashion, thriving. We were informed by the governor that there were, 

 even at this early period of the season, one thousand Danish tons of oil and 

 blubber stored, from the produce of the summer fishery. There was likewise 

 visible evidence in every direction of an abundance of venison, water-fowl, and 

 eggs, as well as seals. The houses were built of wood, very small, and had a 

 singularly amphibious look about them, from being covered with tar from top 

 to bottom, — appearing, for all the world, like' so many upturned herring-boats, 

 ready, on any emergency, to take to the water. 



"A party of the Esquimos, attached to the settlement, had come in with the 

 produce of some hunting excursion in which they had been engaged; and I 



