258 HUTS IN KOTZEBUE SOUND. 



which near the entrance of Hotham Inlet, Kotzebue Sound, is worth 

 mentioning, more particularly as it bears some resemblance to one 

 described by Sir John Eichardson, on the east side of the Mackenzie 

 Kiver. The outside did not differ in appearance from the others, 

 except in size, as indeed they were all pretty well covered with 

 snow, but the interior was in shape something like three sides of a 

 cross, twenty feet by sixteen, with a roof sloping down on all sides, 

 like that of a verandah, from a square framework in the centre, 

 supported by four straight pillars, one at each corner, seven feet 

 high and eight feet apart. The quadrangular space in the centre was 

 covered with loose boards, which were removed when the fire was 

 required for cooking. It was bounded by logs stretching between 

 the bases of the pillars, and rounded on the upper surface to rest 

 the head upon during sleep, and had above it the usual square 

 aperture answering alternately the purpose of a chimney and a 

 window. Three sides of the house formed as many recesses, five 

 and a half feet from the log stretching between the pillars to the 

 walls, and were occupied at the time of our visit by six families, 

 each family having their own lamp in the intervals between the 

 recesses. The fourth side was only two feet deep, and left 

 space for little more than the entrance-hole in the floor and a 

 few household utensils. The walls were only three feet high, 

 and inclined slightly inwards the better to support the sloping roof, 

 which, like them and the flooring of the recesses, was made of 

 boards nearly two feet broad, quite smooth and neatly joined. 

 The whole building was remarkable for the regularity of the form 

 of the interior, and for the mechanical skill displayed in the work- 

 manship. Huts of this description may be looked upon as a com- 

 bination of several, each recess representing a separate establish- 

 ment, united in this form for mutual convenience, and are used 

 where driftwood, is abundant, the large cooking-fire in the middle 

 of the building imparting its warmth to all around. But the 

 rushing down of cold air, and the smoke not always ascending, 

 proved sources of greater discomfort to us whenever we visited 

 them than the close atmosphere of those in which oil only is 

 burned. 



A modification of the last form, built of undressed timber, and 

 sometimes of very small dimensions, with two recesses opposite 

 each other, and raised about a foot above the middle space, is very 

 common on the shores of Kotzebue Sound ; but on the rivers, where 

 trees grow, structures of a less permanent kind are erected. Then 

 the smaller trees are felled, cut to the length required, and split; 

 then laid inclining inwards in a pyramidal form, towards a rude 



