260 



THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT 



[ETH. ANN. 18 



laterally or turned at an angle, as if to cut oft" a draft; but it is possible 

 this may have been caused by starting at both ends of the tunnel when 

 excavating it and failing to meet in a direct line. The houses had two 

 sets of broad sleeping benches on the right and left sides of the room. 

 Over the center of the floor was a square hole in the roof; just back of 



• ' Fig. 87 — Section of house on St Lawrence island. 



this a round opening had been made, in which was fitted a large ver- 

 tebra of a whale hollowed out to form a short cylinder, serving as a 

 smoke hole or ventilator, wbich could be left open during stormy 

 weather when the larger opening was covered. The accompanying 

 section of one of these houses (figure 87) exj)lains the method of their 

 construction. 



Pig. 88 — Summer camp at Hotham inlet. 



At Cape Espenberg, on Kotzebue sound, in July, 1881, we found a 

 camp of traveling Malemut. They had several low, round-top tents, 3 J 

 to 4 feet high and 6 to 7 feet wide, made of drilling drawn over slender 

 poles crossed and bent, with their ends thrust into the ground. One 

 conical lodge, also covered with drilling, was about 10 feet high and 8 

 feet in diameter on the ground. 



