474 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



had a more advanced culture. They are made even more interesting 

 by the presence of numerous totemic carvings. The most conspicu- 

 ous of these are the gigantic columns known as totem poles. To- 

 temic symbols are carved not only on the totem pole but on the 

 house, inside and out, and on canoes, boxes, dishes, spoons, and a 

 great variety of objects. 



That all the rectangular plank houses have pits is a curious thing 

 indeed. It is difficult to see in what way they are advantageous. 

 Furthermore, the rectangular plank structures containing pits are 

 distributed along the margin of an area where genuine pit dwell- 

 ings exist, i. e., in which the pits are a vital part of the house con- 

 struction. The simplest explanation would seem to be that the rec- 

 tangular plank houses represent the transformation of the old con- 

 ical earth-covered pit dwellings made of poles, in an area where the 

 growth of giant spruces and cedars made the production of wide 

 boards or planks possible and fairly easy. Where the house came 

 to be made of planks the form almost inevitably became rectangular. 

 On the plateau suitable timber for plank houses does not exist. The 

 coast people have never been able, however, to get away from the 

 idea of the central pit. 



ESKIMO HOUSES 



The Eskimo have two forms of winter habitation, the snow house, 

 built when they are encamped on sea ice, and a form of under- 

 ground house. The construction of the latter differs widely in the 

 eastern and western parts of the Eskimo area, for in the east the 

 Eskimo is almost entirely without wood. In Greenland, in Labra- 

 dor, on the shores of Hudson Bay, and westward beyond Boothia 

 Felix the house is made of crude masonry. A pit is dug, and the 

 walls are carried upward with course after course of stone. When 

 flat slabs are obtainable the successive courses project inward, from 

 which it would seem that the Eskimo is trying in a crude way to 

 fashion his roof into an arch or dome. Material for supporting the 

 roof is often hard to find; jawbones of whales are commonly used 

 for the purpose. The house is below the level of the ground; and 

 in summer, when the snows melt, it fills up with water. Then the 

 Eskimo moves out and camps in a tent until winter comes again. 



In the western part of Arctic America timber is found in great 

 quantities. Even where trees are scarce large quantities of logs may 

 be obtained as driftwood along the coast. Here the house has 

 been in the past as nearly as possible a replica of the earth lodges 

 of the distant plateau. The modern Eskimo house especially among 

 the Eskimo of Alaska is, to be sure, very different from the earth 

 lodges of the plains, or the subterranean lodges of the plateau. 



