THE VARIOUS USES OF DOGS 



rare tufts of grass and moss are to be seen ripening 

 their seeds hastily in the sheltered hollows of rocks. 

 Still farther north the snow and ice cannot even melt 

 entirely in summer, the ground is never visible, and 

 no vegetation at all is possible." 



"And there are people who give the dear name of 

 home to those terrible countries 1 9 ' asked Jules. 



"There are people, the Eskimos, who inhabit them 

 the year round, in winter living in snow-huts, in 

 summer under tents of sealskin." 



1 ' They build houses of snow ! ' ' This from Emile. 



"Not exactly houses like ours, but huts indeed that 

 afford very good shelter. Eegular slabs of snow 

 are cut and piled one on another in a circular wall 

 capped by a dome of the same material. A very 

 low entrance, closed with skins, is left facing the 

 south. To get daylight, they cut a round opening 

 in the top of the dome, and fill it with a sheet of ice 

 instead of a pane of glass. Finally, inside, all 

 around the wall, a bench of snow is built, and it is 

 covered with gravel, heather, and reindeer-skins. 

 This bench is the sleeping-place for the family, the 

 skins are the mattress, and the snow is the straw. 

 In these dwellings there is never any fire: wood is 

 wanting and, besides, with fire the dwelling would 

 melt and come dripping down lil^e rain on the in- 

 mates." 



"That 's so," said Emile. "Then where do they 

 make the fire to heat the stones when they want hot 

 water?" 



"They do this outside, in the open air." 



