82 



THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



As such a house i.s only large enough for one family, there is only one 

 lamp, which stands at the right-hand side of the house 1 . 



At the hunting grounds, or on the road thither in the winter, a place 

 is selected for the house where the snow is deeply drifted under the edge 

 of some bank, so that most of the house can bo made by excavation. 

 When necessary, the walls are built up and roofed over with slabs of 

 snow. Such a house is very speedily built. The first party that goes 

 over the road to the hunting ground usually builds houses at the end of 

 each day s march, and these serve for the parties coming later, who 

 have simply to clear out the drifted snow or perhaps make some slight 

 repairs. On arriving at the hunting ground they establish themselves 

 in larger and more comfortable houses of the same sort ; generally for 

 two families. Lieut. Ray, who visited these camps, has drawn the plan 

 represented in Fig. 14. There is a banquette, a, at each end of the room, 



g \ c 



FIG. 14. Ground plan of large snow house. 



which is much broader than long (compare the form of house common 

 at Kotzebue Sound, mentioned above, p. 78), but only one lamp, on 

 a low shelf of snow, b, running across the back of the room and excavated 

 below into a sort of cupboard. There are also similar cupboards, c, at dif 

 ferent places in the walls, and a long tunnel,/, with the usual storerooms, 

 , and kitchen, 7t, from which a branch tunnel often leads to an adjoining 

 house. The floor is marked d, the entrance to the tunnel g, and the 

 door e. The house is lighted by the seal-gut windows of the iglu 

 brought from the village. 



On going into camp the railed sled is stuck points down into the snow 

 and net-poles, or ice-picks, thrust through the rails, making a tempo 

 rary cache frame/ on which are hung bulky articles snowshoes and 



1 Compare Dr. Simpson s description, op. cit., p. 259. 



* Compare the woodcut on p. 406, vol. 1. of Kane s 2d Exp., where two sleds are represented as stuck 

 up on end with their &quot; upstanders &quot; meeting to form a platform Smith Sound. 



