562 REPORT — 1895. 



the bed is spread at the low end of the hut, the head end being at the 

 side remote from the tree. The structure is lashed together. 



When two families desire to inhabit one house, two of these structures 

 are joined together, so that they stand end to end, and one is built a little 

 higher than the other (tig. 2). Thus the roof of one side overlaps that of 

 the other and prevents the entrance of rain. This house has a door on 

 each vertical side. It is also built close to the butt of a tree as a protec- 

 tion against snow and rain, the trunk of the tree being close to one of the 

 vertical sides. When the tribe moves to another camp the houses are 

 taken apart and the poles are tied together and to a tree. When the 

 party returns to the same place they untie the bundle and use the same 

 poles. 



In winter the poles are tied more strongly, and very stout supports 

 are selected. When the snowfall is very deep the doors are blocked up 

 and the exit is through the roof. .It would seem very likely that this 

 winter house may be the primitive form out of which the subterranean 



Fig. 2.— Double hut of the Ts'Etsa'ut. 



lodge of the interior of British Columbia may have developed. The 

 advantage of covering the walls with dirt instead of waiting for a snow- 

 fall, to ensure protection against winds and cold, would become easily 

 apparent, and then the ground plan of the two houses would become very 

 much alike. The advantages of the bilateral arrangement would also 

 disappear when the houses were built underground instead of overground. 

 I would remark at this place that the supports of the subterranean lodge 

 are slanting outward, not vertical, as indicated on page G33 of the Sixth 

 Report of the Committee, and that Dr. Dawson's figure (' Transactions 

 of the Royal Society of Canada,' 1893, ii.) renders the plan correctly. 



The bed is cover^^d with mats made of cedar-bark. Quilts or blankets 

 are made of the skins of goats, bear, and marmot. Baskets are used for 

 cooking and for carrying water, berries, and other kinds of food. They 

 are made of spruce roots or of bark. Spoons are made of bark or of 

 mountain-goat horn. Axes and adzes were made of bone or horn. 



Fire was made either by means of the firedrill or with a strike-a-light. 

 The stone for the latter is found in Tombstone Bay, but the description 

 of the kind of stone'was too indefinite for the purpose of identification. 



