NO.    I  AKCHi:0LOGY    OF    ST.    LAWRENCE    ISLAND COLLINS  265 
To  the  east  of  Point  Barrow  we  find  a  house  of  a  distinctly  different 
type,  the  well-known  Mackenzie  house,  described  and  illustrated  by 
Petitot  and  reproduced  later  by  Murdoch.  The  Mackenzie  house  is 
built  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  with  four  alcoves  with  sloping  roofs. 
The  alcoves  at  the  rear  and  the  two  sides  have  raised  sleeping  plat- 
forms ;  the  entrance  hole  from  the  passage  opens  through  the  sloping 
floor  of  the  front  alcove.  The  central  space  between  the  alcoves  is 
square  and  like  them  is  floored  with  planks.  The  center  of  the  roof 
is  likewise  square  and  is  supported  by  four  upright  timbers  and  cross 
beams. 
Considering  the  distribution  from  Bering  Strait  to  the  Mackenzie 
region,  we  see  that  there  are  two  distinct  types  of  houses  along  the 
Arctic  coast  of  Alaska,  the  Point  Barrow  and  the  Mackenzie  types. 
We  have  also  seen  that  from  Bering  Strait  to  Point  Hope  there  is 
a  blending  of  the  two — the  Metlatavik  type — in  which  the  inner  room 
is  like  that  of  the  Barrow  houses,  with  a  gabled  roof  and  a  single 
wide  platform  at  the  rear,  whereas  the  entrance  room  resembles  the 
Mackenzie  house  in  the  irregular  sha^^e  of  the  floor  plan,  the  alcoves 
with  sloping  roofs  and  floors  higher  than  that  of  the  central  floor  space, 
and  sometimes  in  having  the  roof  supix)rted  by  four  uprights.  In  spite 
of  its  rather  specialized  form,  the  Mackenzie  house  betrays  a  rela- 
tionship to  the  houses  of  southwest  Alaska  in  the  form  of  its  roof  and 
in  the  presence  of  low  platforms  along  the  sides.  The  Point  Barrow 
house,  on  the  other  hand,  is  unlike  anything  below  Norton  Sound, 
and  appears  to  be  intrusive.  It  will  be  well,  therefore,  to  inquire  fur- 
ther into  the  relationship  between  these  two  types  of  houses  and  de- 
termine if  possible  their  respective  origins. 
The  Point  Barrow  and  Mackenzie  houses  have  both  figured  prom- 
inently in  previous  discussions  of  the  origin  and  relationships  of  the 
various  types  of  Eskimo  houses. 
Thalbitzer  ( 1914.  p.  360)  considers  that  there  is  a  relationship  be- 
tween the  Point  Barrow  house  and  those  of  Ammassalik  and  South 
(Greenland.  Steensby  (1916,  pp.  190,  181)  admits  a  similarity  between 
these  but  emphasizes  the  difiference  in  size,  the  South  Greenland  house 
being  larger  and,  he  thinks,  the  result  of  a  row  of  smaller  houses 
being  built  into  one. 
Mathiassen  (1927,  vol.  2,  pp.  150,  151)  and  Birket-Smith  (1929, 
vol.  2,  p.  47)  think  it  improbable  that  the  rectangular  houses  of  Alaska 
and  Greenland  are  related  in  origin,  pointing  to  the  absence  of  such 
houses  in  the  central  regions.  Birket-Smith  explains  the  rectangular 
houses  of  Greenland  as  being  the  result  of  Norse  influence,  and  Ma- 
