Sketches From Oldest America 



and the wolf, by changing the fat of the former to 

 the blubber of to-day, and by causing the thin, short 

 hair of the latter to grow into the thick, warm fur 

 of the present. Man, with his superior intellect, 

 was left to solve his own problem. Those people 

 who had remained behind soon found that their 

 cave-dwellings were not a sufficient protection 

 against the cold, which was recurring with greater 

 severity each succeeding winter, and undoubtedly 

 many perished. The polar bear had solved the 

 problem of sheltering herself by building a home, 

 according to circumstances, either on the land, or on 

 the ocean ice, and it was the latter that suggested 

 to man how to construct his first mound house, 

 called iglo. 



The female bear, in making the winter home in 

 which her cub is born, selects a site where the ocean 

 ice extends up against a cliff, and where the snow 

 has drifted the deepest; with her massive paws she 

 digs into the drift, throwing the snow behind her. 

 The entrance becomes filled, while the drifting 

 snow soon obliterates any external sign of her 

 presence. A good-sized room is formed and a 

 small hole in the roof, made by the warmth inside, 

 acts as a ventilator. The escaping steam is the sign 

 78 



