78 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
large triple house described by Dr. Simpson, and compared by him 
with that described by Richardson, though in some respects it more 
closely resembles those seen by Hooper.! This house really has a fire- 
place in the middle, and in this approaches the houses of the southern 
Eskimo of Alaska. According to Dr. Simpson,? “a modification of the 
last form, built of undressed timber, and sometimes of very small dimen- 
sions, with two recesses opposite each other, and raised a foot above the 
middle space, is very common on the shores of Kotzebue Sound,” but he 
does not make it plain whether houses like those used at Point Barrow 
are not used there also. 
This form of house is very like the large snow houses seen by Lieut. 
Ray at hunting camps on Kulugrua, Dr. Simpson describes less perma- 
nent structures which are used on the rivers, consisting of small trees 
split and laid “inclining inward in a pyramidal form towards a rude 
square frame in the center, supported by two or more upright posts. 
Upon these the smaller branches of the felled trees are placed, and the 
whole, except the aperture at the top and a small opening on one side, 
is covered with earth or only snow.” These buildings, and especially 
the temporary ones described by Dr. Simpson, used on the Nunatak, 
probably gave rise to the statement we heard at Point Barrow that 
“the people south had no iglus and lived only in tents.” The houses at 
Norton Sound are quite different from the Point Barrow form. The 
floor, which is not planked, is 3 or 4 feet under ground, and the passage 
enters one side of the house, instead of coming up through the floor, 
and a small shed is built over the outer entrance to the passage. The fire 
is built in the middle of the house, under the aperture in the roof which 
serves for chimney and window, and there is seldom any banquette, but 
the two ends of the room are fenced off by logs laid on the ground, to 
serve as sleeping places, straw and spruce boughs being laid down and 
covered with grass mats.® 
The houses in the Kuskokwim region are quite similar to those just 
described, but are said to be built above ground in the interior, though 
they are still covered with sods.’ There are no published accounts of the 
houses of the St. Lawrence islanders, but they are known to inhabit sub- 
terranean or partly underground earth-covered houses, built of wood, 
while the Asiatic Eskimo have abandonded the old underground houses, 
which were still in use at the end of the last century, and have adopted 
the double-skin tent of the Chukches.° In addition to the cases quoted by 
Dall, Capt. Cook speaks of finding the natives of St. Lawrence Bay in 
1778 living in partly underground earth-covered houses.® 
1See ante. 
2 Op. cit., p. 258. 
3Dall, Alaska, pp. 13 and 14, diagram on p. 13. 
4Petroff, Report, ete., p.15. 
5See Dall, Cont. to N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 105. Mr. E. W. Nelson tells me, however, that the village 
at East Cape, Siberia, is composed of real iglus. 
Third Voyage, vol. 2, p. 450. 
