NELSON] KING ISLAND SUMMER HOUSES 255 



fourth side, where the village is located, it is very difficult to make a 

 landing. In July, 1881, the Coricin anchored a few hundred yards off 

 the shore; the rugged granite yvalls rose in sharp, serrated, angular 

 slopes almost perpendicularly from the edge of the water to the village 

 and thence upward to the high crest. Along the edge of the water 

 great granite bowlders added to the difficulty of landing, thence up 

 to the village a broken j^ath zigzagged sharply up the jagged slope. 

 From the vessel the village presented the appearance of a cluster of 

 cliff- swallows' nests on the face of the island, the entrances to the 

 houses looking like rounded black holes among the granite bowlders 

 used for their walls. As the anchor chain went rattling out, the peo- 

 ple, who had been watching us from the houses, gave a loud shout and 

 ran down to the water, leaping from rock to rock and looking like pig- 

 mies, so dwarfed were they by the gigantic background. 



The winter houses at this place were made by excavating the loose 

 rocks, thus forming a deep niche in the steep slope, and by walling up 

 the front and sides with stones placed over a driftwood framework. 

 Access to these houses was gained by a long, arched stone passage- 

 way, which sloped from the outer entrance in and up to a hole in the 

 plank floor. The inside of the living rooms were arranged with plank 

 floor and benches, just as on Sledge island, but there were no outer 

 storerooms or cooking rooms in the passageway. Driftwood was abun- 

 dant there, but the principal material used for covering the houses was 

 broken granite. 



The summer houses were remarkable structures ; they were square 

 inclosures, made wholly of tanned walrus hide, with a slightly arched 

 roof of walrus skins drawn snugly over the wooden framework and 

 lashed firmly in place. The houses were elevated and held in place 

 by a framework which consisted of two main poles standing upright 

 with their bases fastened among the rocks and connected by a wooden 

 crossbar lashed to them 10 or 20 feet from the ground. From this 

 crossbar other bars extended on a level back to the slope of the hill, 

 where they were made fast. The floor was of roughly hewed planks, 

 and at the back rested against the face of the hill. From the hillside 

 a plank extended to one of the corners of the house, and a little plank 

 walk passed thence around the side of the house to the front, being 

 railed by a pole lashed, at about the height of a man's hand, to uprights 

 set in the rocks. On the seaward side was a circular opening, which 

 served as a combined door and window. Figure 84 represents one of 

 these summer houses. 



In some of these houses one corner was walled off from the room with 

 walrus hide as a square inclosure to serve as a sleeping room. In one 

 of the houses the entire rear half was walled across and again subdi- 

 vided by a walrus-skin partition, forming two sleeping rooms, entrance 

 to which was given by a round hole cut in the skin. Each of these 

 inner rooms served for a family, and contained their bedding and 



