AN ARCTIC OASIS 55 



found in groups, or villages, at intervals along the 

 coast from Cape York Bay to Anoratok. As the people 

 are nomadic, these permanent dwellings belong to 

 the tribe, and not to individuals, constituting thus a 

 crude sort of arctic socialism. One year all the houses 

 in a settlement may be occupied; the next year none, 

 or only one or two. 



These houses are about six feet high by eight to 

 ten feet wide by ten to twelve feet long, and one 

 may be constructed in a month. An excavation is 

 made in the earth, which forms the floor of the house; 

 then the walls are built up solidly with stones chinked 

 with moss; long, flat stones are laid across the top of 

 the walls; this roof is covered with earth, and the whole 

 house is banked in with snow. The construction of 

 the arched roof is on the plan which engineers know 

 as the cantilever, and not that of the Roman arch. 

 The long, flat stones which form the roof are weighted 

 and counter-weighted at the outer ends, and in all 

 my arctic experience I have never known the stone 

 roof of an igloo to fall upon the inmates. There are 

 never any complaints made to the Building Depart- 

 ment. There is no door in the side, but a hole in the 

 floor at the entrance leads to a tunnel, sometimes ten, 

 sometimes fifteen, or even twenty-five, feet in length, 

 through which the tenants crawl into their home. There 

 is always a small window in the front of the igloo. 

 The window space is not glazed, of course, but is covered 

 with the thin, intestinal membrane of seals, skilfully 

 seamed together. To a traveler across the dark and 

 snowy winter waste, the yellow light from the interior 

 lamp is visible, sometimes, a long distance away. 



