NELSON] ST MICHAEL DWELLINGS 243 
A typical dwelling house used by the people of St Michael is con- 
structed by building a rectangular framework of logs, 8 or 9 feet high 
in the middle and 5 feet at the sides; this is covered with smaller logs 
or rude slabs, over which earth is thrown to a thickness of 3 or 4 
feet. Raised platforms occupy three sides of the single room and are 
used for sleeping places, commonly by a family on each side. The front 
of the room has a low, arched oorway leading in from the outer coy- 
ered entry, which is used only in summer, when a bearskin hangs over 
Fic. 75—Storehouse at St Michael. 
the doorway as a curtain; in winter this entrance is closed and an 
underground passage or tunnel leads from the outer end of the covered 
entry way to a point below the floor just inside the summer door. The 
place on each side of the door, or an unoccupied platform on one side of 
the room, is used for the storage of bags of seal oil, wooden dishes, tubs, 
or other domestic utensils, and of articles of food. Figure 74 is a sec- 
tion plan of one of these houses. Each family has a small saucer-shape 
clay lamp burning near its platform. On the earthen floor directly 
