196 H. P. STEENSBY. 
previously mentioned all seem to originate from Asia, setting aside the 
North-West American plank-house, which, also, no doubt, will ultimately 
prove to be of Asiatic origin. The lately introduced forms, such as the 
pile-work and winter dwelling adopted from the Chukches, are of the 
smallest importance as regards dwellings. The so called Mackenzie house 
stopped at the Mackenzie area, and it is probable that lack of wood 
determined the limit. On the other hand the rectangular house of the 
Point Barrow type extended into Greenland to the eastern houndary 
of the Eskimo, though it had to be converted into a pearshaped house 
locally where only stones were to hand; into the small rectangular 
house in districts where the wood was replaced by whales’ hones; and 
finally into a large common-house in South Greenland. 
The whole of this group of houses has been adopted by the Eskimo 
in the districts round Bering Strait — in the second geographical focus 
of the development of the Eskimo culture, — and therefore, pursuant 
to the established terminology, must be designated as Neoeskimo. 
There now remain to be mentioned some forms of dwellings which 
will prove to represent the oldest development of Eskimo culture in the 
Arctic Archipelago — the first geographical focus — whence they have 
spread as far west and east as the primary Arctic distribution has reached. 
While the first-mentioned group consisted principally of rect- 
angular houses, this second group consists of forms with a circular 
ground-plan. The tent, the snow house, and the before mentioned winter 
house of a circular dome-shaped type belong to this group. 
Often it may be difficult to keep the last mentioned separate from 
the winter houses of the Neoeskimo group. As a rule the latter from 
outside also appear like round hills of earth, so that it is only by the 
interior or by the ground-plan that they can be distinguished. To this 
must be added that a rectangular house, where wood disappears or de- 
creases in importance, has a natural inclination to change to a roundish 
form. This appears distinctly in the pear-shaped house, and is also ob- 
served as regards the rectangular houses. 
Firstly I will mention the tent, because the circumstances as regards 
this are clearest. A tent of reindeer skin is the typical summer dwelling 
of the Eskimo from Alaska to Greenland and Labrador. It appears, 
however, in a somewhat different form. The dome-shaped tent known 
from the Indians in the forest regions in Alaska and the Hudson lands, 
which generally and justly is regarded as the old, original form for a 
summer dwelling occurs at Kotzebue Sound!, and the summer house 
at the Lower Kuskoquim described and illustrated by Prrrorr? like- 
wise has the form of the dome tent. For the rest, the Western Eskimo 
seem to use tents which are conical, like the “tipi” tents from the prairie, 
1 SARFERT, p. 25. 
? PETROFF, р. 128. 
