192 H. P. STEENSBY. 
which whales’ bones may also enter, and which was called the round, 
dome-shaped type; this will be mentioned later. 
The distribution of the rectangular house in the Central Archipelago, 
Baffin Land and Labrador is but little known. As mentioned, it is pro- 
bable that even in the Archipelago it was early merged into a pear- 
shaped form. It is also probable that in some places it is intermingled 
with the round type of house which otherwise has been predominant in 
the Archipelago. It seems as if Boas’s observations from Baffin Land 
may indicate this’. 
In Alaska, however, the rectangular house plays a great rôle. Be- 
sides the before mentioned younger forms two types of houses are pre- 
dominant in Alaska, one of which is decidedly rectangular, while the 
second perhaps seems to be derived from a square form. It is, howewer, 
just the origin and history of development of these house-forms which 
we now shall try to find out. For convenience sake we may again call 
the first type the Point Barrow type, because Point Barrow is the place 
in Alaska where we first met with this form, while the other was long 
ago named after the Mackenzie Eskimo. 
The Mackenzie house was the predominant one with that group of 
Eskimo which we have here named after the Mackenzie River. In addi- 
tion it occurred at Kotzebue Sound, although here it was not predo- 
minant?. A house of the Point Barrow type is predominant, on the 
other hand, along the entire west coast of Alaska from Point Barrow 
to the region south of the mouth of the Kuskoquim River. SARFERT 
describes it as the typical West Eskimo house, which, however, might 
be misunderstood, as the most ancient West Eskimo house probably 
was of a still older type (the round dome-shaped type). On the Aleu- 
‘tian Islands underground houses occurred originally, which were of con- 
siderable size, and held several families; they were probably built with 
the aid of drift-wood and whales’ bones, and were probably a form of 
this rectangular house. 
According to Parras the houses in Unalaska were dug а fathom 
deep in the ground, and covered with drift-wood. In Kadiak are found 
remains of underground houses which seem to be of the same type as 
the house in the Aleutian Islands”. It is possible that this common- 
house represents a form of development which is parallel to the com- 
mon-house in Greenland; SARFERT*, however, is probably right in as- 
suming that it originally came from the Asiatic Pacific Coast, where 
such large houses were formerly in use. 
On further observing the house of the Point Barrow type, or the 
predominant winter house in West Alaska, we get through the forms 
1 The Central Eskimo, pp. 494—502. 
> COLLINSoN, III, [Fig.]; Simpson, III, pp. 932 $44. 
5 Cf. JocHELSON, р. 464. 
4 SARFERT, pp. 61—62. 
