SNOW HOUSES 



of doors again. One woman who came to live at 

 Okak complained bitterly of the warmth. "It is 

 breaking my life," she said, "it is breaking my 

 life " ; and it was fully a year before she became 

 acclimatised. 



They escape from some of the hardships of 

 tent life when the time comes to move into 

 snow houses. It is generally on towards December 

 before the snow lies hard enough for building ; the 

 time varies, of course, according to the weather. 

 Mere snow is not enough ; it must have been beaten 

 to stony hardness by the wind, and toughened by the 

 cold, before it is fit to be cut into really durable 

 blocks. A snow house for an odd night's shelter on 

 a journey can be put up in a couple of hours, but a 

 Killinek snow house, which must stand for weeks or 

 even months, takes a day or more in building. 

 There are no jerry- workmen in Killinek. They 

 shape the blocks with the greatest care, fitting and 

 smoothing them into a tough wall in which no joints 

 are to be seen, and making the house into a perfect 

 beehive shape without a weak spot in it. The floor 

 is below the level of the snow around, because the 

 blocks for building are cut from within the circle of 

 the wall. This makes the house look small and low ; 

 but I know of one which was fourteen feet across, 

 and in which the missionary, a six-foot man, could 

 stand upright and walk. Every house is protected 

 by a wall of snow built round it a few feet away ; 

 this is a wise provision in a windy land like Labrador, 

 for it keeps the wind away, and the storms can only 

 whistle about the rounded top, which offers the best 

 possible shape for safety. 



The door is a hole, closed by a slab of frozen 



36 



