LEARNING TO BUILD A SNOWHOUSE 155 



to the left, leaning each block against the one previ- 

 ously set up, so that the wall rose in a gradual spiral. 

 He was going to build a dome-shaped house and the 

 blocks of the second tier were, therefore, leaning in more 

 sharply than those of the first tier. There was no change 

 in method as the house approached completion. The 

 higher the blocks are in the wall the more they lean in; 

 if you lean each carefully against the one set up before 

 it no block can fall unless the end of the preceding block 

 against which it leans breaks off. If the blocks are set 

 up at all carefully this will never happen. 



Before we started the house building, Ovayuak himself 

 had cut fifteen or twenty blocks. While he was building 

 I carried these to him while his wife continued cutting 

 more blocks. I think it took altogether between forty 

 and fifty blocks to finish the house. When she had cut 

 what she thought was enough the house was already three 

 tiers high. Everywhere between the blocks there were 

 crevices, some narrow and some wide. She now started 

 rubbing soft snow into these openings, filling each one. 

 That had to be done gently, for the wall is fragile at first. 



When the house was three tiers high it became difficult 

 for me to lift the blocks high enough to pass them to 

 Ovayuak over the wall. He then cut a hole in the wall 

 at ground level for me to shove the blocks in to him, 

 he taking them up and placing them in position along 

 the wall. The complete house required five tiers of 

 blocks. 



I had imagined that building the roof would be harder 

 than the rest. But when you watch a house actually 

 being built, you soon see that roofing it is easier than 

 anything. In the ground tiers you are building in a 

 circle so large that the two adjoining blocks are almost 



