LEARNING TO BUILD A SNOWHOUSE 159 



stove and around the stovepipe. The stovepipe hole did 

 increase in size gradually as the flames shot up the pipe 

 making it red to where it disappeared through the roof. 

 There was a certain amount of melting of the snow wall 

 back of the stove and, indeed, the entire interior of the 

 house melted more or less. But as the snow was gradu- 

 ally turned into water, it was soaked blotter-fashion into 

 the dry snow outside of it. In the roof this process 

 continued until the four-inch blocks had been thawed 

 down to perhaps two inches. By that time the roof was 

 damp and had become a good conductor of heat, as 

 compared with the porous snow. This gave the intense 

 cold outside a chance to penetrate in and meet the heat 

 from the interior, stopping the thawing and turning the 

 damp snow blocks into ice. Thus the thickness of the 

 roof is automatically regulated. It thaws thinner and 

 thinner until a balance is reached between the outer cold 

 and the inner heat. It is only in warm weather that a 

 snow roof could be completely melted away even by 

 maintaining inside the house a temperature of 70 °. 



While we were cooking supper the snowhouse was 

 almost as hot as our earth and wood house at Tuktuyak- 

 tok. Ovayuak told me, and I later verified it, that had 

 there been no stovepipe hole the snow house would have 

 remained at an agreeable temperature all night. As it 

 was, however, when the fire went out a certain amount of 

 warm air continued to go up through the stovepipe. This 

 allowed a corresponding quantity of colder air to enter 

 through the open door. The result was that by morning 

 it was freezing fairly hard inside the house. Our bedding 

 was warm, however, and I did not mind it. In the 

 morning when we lighted the fire the house became fairly 

 warm in a few minutes and, of course, remained so until 



