ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 639 



appearances, liaviug been built higher and some additions have also 

 been made. A room was constructed last fall back of the main build- 

 ing- for a storehouse. In this all bartering with the Eskimos and the 

 distribution of supplies take place. We have also added a private 

 room for the superintendent and another for Eev. Brevig, and also a 

 kitchen. The east end of the main building was arranged as a dwell- 

 ing for the minister and his family. The middle part of the building 

 has been used as a schoolroom and the east end is used by the superin- 

 tendent, as was the case with my j)redecessor. 



The snow drifted around about the house aided materially in shut- 

 ting in the heat, as the house was literally buried in snow up to the 

 rafters, so that tunnels thirty feet long had to be made, through which 

 we went in and out. We made similar tunnels ten to fifteen feet long 

 to each window by the aid of barrels, out of which we took the bottom 

 and top. These barrels were placed in the upper end of these light 

 tunnels, and through these holes, fifteen to twenty feet long, we obtained 

 a small amount of light. Seen from a distance, the barrels look like 

 large Krupp cannon sticking out of the snow banks, and civilized 

 people would doubtless have taken the station for a fortification of 

 snow supplied with very heavy cannon. Thus, in a sense, we lived 

 under ground, a mode of life which seems to be preferred even by white 

 men after they have spent a few years in Alaska. Wherever you go, 

 you find men talking about building their houses under ground ; that 

 is to say, they bury themselves alive. 



In the course of the year we have put up the following new buildings : 



1. A house for the herders and apprentices built of lumber and 

 thatched v/ith straw. It is 24 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 10 feet high, 

 has five windows and two doors. Has a wooden partition which 

 divides the building into two rooms, one used by the Lapps, the other 

 by the Eskimos. Then there is a loft where a part of the people sleep. 

 This is the third house of this kind at the station. 



2. A temporary carpenter shop built of lumber, thatched with walrus 

 skins. It is 16 feet long, 14 feet wide, and 6 feet high. It has two 

 windows and a door. In this building most of the sleds have been 

 made. Here the boats have been built, and here also the hides and 

 skins have been tanned. 



3. A schoolhouse 33 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 10 feet high. It has 

 six windows and a door; built of lumber, but has not as yet been 

 thatched for want of walrus skins. 



Then a blacksmith shop has been fitted up in the subterranean dwell- 

 ing built by Miner W. Bruce. 



This is all that we have been able to do and it is our intention to 

 have new buildings fitted up until the lumber drifting in here has been 

 exhausted, and the following is our future plan of building: (1) A 

 large convenient house for the apprentices ; (2) some important changes 

 in the main buildings; (3) a larger workshop; (4) a larger storehouse; 



