82 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
As such a house is only large enough for one family, there is only one 
lamp, which stands at the right-hand side of the house’. 
At the hunting grounds, or on the road thither in the winter, a place 
is selected for the house where the snow is deeply drifted under the edge 
of some bank, so that most of the house can be made by excavation. 
When necessary, the walls are built up and roofed over with slabs of 
snow. Such a house is very speedily built. The first party that goes 
over the road to the hunting ground usually builds houses at the end of 
each day’s march, and these serve for the parties coming later, who 
have simply to clear out the drifted snow or perhaps make some slight 
repairs. On arriving at the hunting ground they establish themselves 
in larger and more comfortable houses of the same sort; generally for 
two families. Lieut. Ray, who visited these camps, has drawn the plan 
represented in Fig. 14. There is a banquette, a, at each end of the room, 
Fic. 14.—Ground plan of large snow house. 
which is much broader than long (compare the form of house common 
at Kotzebue Sound, mentioned above, p. 78), but only one lamp, on 
a low shelf of snow, ), running across the back of the room and excavated 
below into a sort of cupboard. There are also similar cupboards, ¢, at dif- 
ferent places in the walls,and a long tunnel, f, with the usual storerooms, 
i,and kitchen, h, from which a branch tunnel often leads to an adjoining 
house. The floor is marked d, the entrance to the tunnel g, and the 
door e. The house is lighted by the seal-gut windows of the iglu 
brought from the village. 
On going into camp the railed sled is stuck points down into the snow 
and net-poles, or ice-picks, thrust through the rails, making a tempo- 
rary cache frame,’ on which are hung bulky articles—snowshoes and 
1Compare Dr. Simpson's description. op. cit., p. 259. 
2 Compare the woodcut on p. 406, vol. 1, of Kane’s 2d Exp., where two sleds are represented as stuck 
up on end with their ‘‘upstanders” meeting to form a platform—Smith Sound. 
