154 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



way a domino would stand on a table. With his hunting 

 knife he then undercut the inner edge slightly so that 

 the block leaned in just enough so you could notice it. 

 The second block was similarly put on edge, domino 

 fashion, and in a position such that the circle eventually 

 made would be about ten feet in diameter. The inner 

 edge of this block was similarly undercut so that it leaned 

 in. This block also leaned against the end of the first 

 block so that a pressure from the outside could not have 

 pushed one over without pushing both over. In a similar 

 manner the other blocks were erected until the first circle 

 had been completed. 



I had always wondered how an Eskimo would start the 

 second tier of blocks but this proved very simple. 

 Ovayuak looked carefully over the whole circle and 

 selected a place where the blocks were especially uniform 

 in shape and of obviously good material. This was be- 

 cause he was a particularly careful builder. I learned 

 later that no such nicety is essential and that you can 

 start the second tier any place. From a point three 

 blocks away from where he intended to begin the second 

 tier Ovayuak made a diagonal cut downward so that he 

 removed the upper quarter of one block, the upper half 

 of the next, and about three-quarters of the third block, 

 bringing the cut almost down to ground level. He then 

 took a snow block of ordinary size and put it in the niche 

 so that its right-hand end rested against the end of the 

 whole block that was next to the right. (Had Ovayuak 

 been left-handed this process would have been exactly 

 reversed; the left-hand end of the first block of the 

 second tier would have been set against a block to the 

 left of it.) 



Once he had started the second tier, Ovayuak built it 



