MURDOCH] HOUSES. 73 
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at or near the top of a hillock is simply leveled to receive the floor. In 
this case the back of the house on a hill side, like some in Utkiavwin, 
would be underground. 
The passage is entered at the farther end by a vertical shaft about 6 
feet deep in the center of a steep mound of earth. Round the mouth is 
a square frame or combing of wood, and blocks of wood are placed in 
the shaft to serve as steps. One or two houses in Utkiavwin had ship’s 
companion ladders in the shaft. This entrance can be closed with a 
piece of walrus hide or a wooden cover in severe weather or when the 
family is away. The passage is about 4 feet wide and the sides and 
Fic. 10.—Interior of iglu, looking toward door. 
roof are supported by timbers of whalebone. On the right hand near 
the inner end is a good-sized room opening from the passage, which has 
a wooden roof covered with earth, forming a second small mound close 
- to the house, with a smoke hole in the middle, and serves as a kitchen, 
while various dark and irregular recesses on the other side serve as 
storerooms. The passage is always icy and dark. 
At the inner end of the passage a circular trapdoor in the floor opens 
into the main room of the house, close to the wall at the middle of one 
end. The floor is at such a height from the bottom of the tunnel that a 
man standing erect in the tunnel has his head and shoulders in the 
room. These rooms vary somewhat in dimensions, but are generally 
about 12 or 14 feet long and 8 or 10 feet wide. The floor, walls, and 
roof are made of thick planks of driftwood, dressed smooth and neatly 
fitted together, edge to edge. The ridgepole runs across the house and 
the roof slopes toward each end. The two slopes are unequal, the front, 
or that towards the entrance, being considerably the longer. The walls 
