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SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANKOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
excavations  in  1928.  The  following  description  of  the  Metlatavik 
house  may  therefore  be  taken  as  applying  also  to  Wales  and  the 
American  side  of  Bering  Strait  generally. 
The  Metlatavik  houses  differ  in  several  important  respects  from 
those  below  Bering  Strait,  principally  in  having  a  more  elaborate  en- 
trance room,  a  different  form  of  sleeping  platform  and  roof,  and  in 
the  lack  of  separate  upright  roof  supports.  Text  figure  26  shows 
the  outline  of  the  best  preserved  house  at  Metlatavik.  There  are  two 
entrances  to  the  house,  both  opening  into  the  entrance  chamber  (A), 
Fig.  26. — Outline  of  floor  plan  and  profile  of  Eskimo  bouse  at  Metlatavik, 
Bering  Strait. 
which  is  very  irregular  in  shape.  The  main  entrance  is  through  the 
top  of  a  passage  12^  feet  long,  4  feet  10  inches  wnde,  and  4  feet  3 
inches  high,  lined  with  spHt  timbers.  The  floor  of  the  passage  is  14 
inches  higher  than  the  floor  of  the  entrance  room,  which  is  covered 
with  heavy  planks.  The  walls  of  the  entrance  room  are  of  split  logs, 
leaning  slightly  inward  on  all  sides.  The  roof  is  5  feet  9  inches  high 
at  the  center  and  is  held  up  by  two  cross  beams  which  are  supported 
by  uprights.  Over  the  two  cross  beams  lie  the  timbers  forming  the 
flat  central  portion  of  the  roof ;  from  this  the  roof  of  the  large  alcove 
at  the  N.-NE.  end  slopes  upward.  In  the  top  of  this  roof  is  a  second 
