266 NORTH MAGNETIC POLE AND NORTHWEST PASSAGE. 



that my information regarding one of the most interesting and least- 

 known races of the world is correct. What adds greatly to the value 

 of these searches is the series of splendid photographs taken by Lievi- 

 tenant Hansen during our sojourn in those parts. 



Xechjilli, which tlie Xechjilli Eskimo look upon as their home, 

 are the banks of tlie great Willersted Lake, on Boothia Isthmus, and 

 of the little bit of river which floAvs from the lake into the sea. 

 Unfortunately, we never had time to pay them a visit, but from the 

 Eskimo's often repeated descriptions I knoAv what the country looks 

 like and what their life is there. From the time the ice breaks up 

 in June or July to January or February the next j^ear, it is here 

 that they live — in summer in tlieir tents, and, when the snow falls, 

 in their snow houses. Often in transition periods, from winter to 

 summer and summer to winter, when the snow — as it is in the month 

 of June — is too water-logged to be used for the building of entire 

 snow huts, they are obliged to use a structure the walls of Avhich 

 consist of snoAv and the roof of skins, a combination of snow hut and 

 tent; or, as often happens in September, wlien the cold strikes in 

 and the lakes freeze before the snow comes, they are obliged to con- 

 struct a building of ice with a skin roof. 



When an Eskimo is about to build a snow house, he is always 

 careful first to consult his '' hervond.'' This is simply a stick of 

 straightened horn taken from the antlers of the reindeer. At the 

 lower end it has a ferrule of musk-ox bone and at the upper a 

 handle of reindeer bone. It is about a yard long. With his keen 

 glance he now scans the country, and at the place which pleases 

 him best thrusts his '' hervond " into the snoAv. He does this in 

 order to find out its quality, for it is as important for an Eskimo to 

 find good snow for his building as it is for a bricklayer to have lime 

 for his bricks. A very long experience is required in order to test 

 the snow in this manner, and, when several Eskimo are together, 

 it is a task generally left to the oldest ones. The most suitable snow" 

 is that of a solid and compact kind, with a superincumbent layer of 

 loose snow, about a foot in depth. Nor must the underlying snow 

 be too hard, or it will be difficult to cut out the blocks. The site 

 once chosen, the upper loose snow^ is shoveled away and is laid 

 round the spot where the house is to be. When the underlying hard 

 layer is laid bare, the builder begins with his knife — wdiich is usually 

 long bladed and long handled — to cut out and build up the blocks. 

 The house is constructed from inside, and the blocks are cut ex- 

 clusively from the building site. It is seldom that an Eskimo has 

 resort to the snow outside. The blocks are cut out of snow with a 

 high edge, and that is the reason why the site can contain sufficient 

 material. The hut is built spirally, in such a way that the succeed- 

 ing block is always supported on a preceding one, and in shape much 



