NELSON] 



ST MICHAEL DWELLINGS 



243 



V 



v^ 



A typical dwelling house used by the people of St Michael is con- 

 structed by building a rectangular framework of logs, 8 or 9 feet high 

 in the middle and 5 feet at the sides; this is covered with smaller logs 

 or rude slabs, over which earth is thrown to a thickness of 3 or 4 

 feet. Eaised platforms occupy three sides of the single room and are 

 used for sleeping places, commonly by a family on each side. The front 

 of the room has a low, arched doorway leading in from the outer cov- 

 ered entry, which is used only in summer, when a bearskin hangs over 



Fig. 75— Storehouse at St Michael. 



the doorway as a curtain; in winter this entrance is closed and an 

 underground passage or tunnel leads from the outer end of the covered 

 entry way to a point below the floor just inside the summer door. The 

 place on each side of the door, or an unoccupied platform on one side of 

 the room, is used for the storage of bags of seal oil, wooden dishes, tubs, 

 or other domestic utensils, and of articles of food. Figure 74 is a Sec- 

 tion plan of one of these houses. Each family has a small saucer-shape 

 clay lamp burning near its platform. On the earthen floor directly 



