32 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



also serves to stand on while constructing tlie wall, whicliis always done 

 from tlie inside, the builder being furuislied with fresh snow-blocks from 

 the outside when his supply gives out. The wall is built in a spiral form, 

 so that, if viewed from above, it would have the appearance of a conical 

 coil. 



The only tools used in building are a saw, if they can get it, for saw- 

 ing out the blocks, and a long knife, made from a walrus tusk, for trim- 

 ming them into shape. In cutting and fitting the blocks of snow, they 

 show skill and ingenuity, so that they make as perfect an arch as the best 

 mason. When the hut is done, or rather enclosed, there is neither door 

 nor window, and the builder is a prisoner. A door, however, is soon 

 made, but at the opposite end from where the entrance is to be ; through 

 this aperture the women and children begin dragging in the "furniture," 

 while the men " chink" up the places where the blocks join each other. 

 The structure is so strong that it readily bears a man's weight on the 

 top. When everything is ready inside and out, the lamps are lit; some- 

 times more than the usual number are procured, and trimmed to burn as 

 brightly as possible; the heat begins to melt the inner surface of the 

 structiu'e, but it soon freezes and forms quite a coating of ice; this, of 

 course, adds considerably to the strength of the building. The inside is 

 now lined with the seal-skin tent of their summer toopiks, fastened uj). 

 all around the sides and top by means of small pegs of wood or bone. 

 A window is cut through the wall over the entrance-way, facing the 

 south ; it consists of a half-moon-shaped bow of whalebone, over which 

 are stretched the intestines of Phoca barbata, sewed together lengthwise. 

 This window admits the light quite well. 



The entrances are long, low structures, sometimes only two, often four 

 or even five. They gradually diminish in size from the igloo, but each 

 one has a door, which is so low and narrow that a large person is unable 

 to get through them, even on hands and knees. The door to the hut 

 proper is barricaded at night with a slab of ice or the scapida of a whale. 

 Ice is also sometimes substituted instead of seals' intestines for the win- 

 dow. On either side of the entrance- ways, the dogs are allowed to lie, 

 but never inside the dwelling apartment. 



About one-half of the floor at the end opposite the entrance-way is 

 from one to two feet higher than the rest. On this platform they keep 

 all then- skins, and it is used for a general lounging and sleeping place. 

 On the top of the snow they lay a coating of Cassiope tetragona, or some- 

 thing of this r,ort, and neatly spread the skins over it. One can see at 



