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that a man of average height will not be able to stand upright 

 in it. In all the other houses the front part of the roof just 

 over the threshold had been removed for the sake of ventila- 

 tion. In this house the greatest height at the front part of 

 the platform was 95 cm, usually it will be about 1 m in the 

 centre and a little lower at the sides. 



In the typical house of the Polar Eskimos the whole roof 

 is built up of stone-flags, and this is always the case with the 

 part which arches over the main platform. On the other hand, 

 it is not rare for the front part of the roof, just over the 

 floor, to be covered simply by skin, which is spread out over 

 cross-poles and covered outside by earth and stones. At Cape 

 York 1 saw a couple of houses of this kind, where the remains 

 of the covering skin still lay on the top of the house-wall. 



In winter the interior walls and roof of the house are 

 covered with seal-skin, the hairy side being turned towards the 

 wall and the light-coloured inside out towards the room. The 

 flat, stony floor of the main platform is covered with a layer 

 of dry grass and above this are laid the skins of reindeer or 

 bear. Each member of the house has a definite place for sit- 

 ting and lying on the platform, counting from the front to the 

 back. He either sits, as a rule with crossed legs, in front on 

 the platform, or lies on this with the head always towards the 

 open room, so that the head is always highest. The place of 

 the wife is outermost at the wall of the house close to the 

 side-platform, the lamp on which she must constantly be look- 

 ing after. Usually, in addition to the two large lamps on the 

 side-platforms, there is also quite a small, third lamp on the 

 one platform ; so far as I could gather, its flame is nourished 

 by the blubber which drips down from the large lamp and is 

 collected in a special holder below this. The blubber-lamps, in 

 addition to warming up the house, give a very pleasant and 

 clear light. 



One problem in the polar house-building, which the Polar 



