102 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



skin with tlie exception of a space in the centre just large enough 

 for a man to sit in. As to stability it would compare favourably 

 with a small Indian birch-bark canoe. It is propelled by a double- 

 bladed paddle, in fact in much the same manner as a Rob Roy canoe. 

 I have often read that the Eskimo can, if capsized, right his kyak 

 again ; I ha.ve never seen it done, nor have I ever come across any- 

 one who. has seen it. Perhaps this skilful feat has been forgotten. 

 I certainly think it would require an immense amount of pi actice, 

 and I can scarcely imagine anyone, unless by accident, taking a bath 

 in water of temperature near the freezing point. The "umiak," or 

 woman's boat, is much larger than the kyak, and has a flat bottom. 

 It is made of slender sticks fastened together with whalebone and 

 covered over with seal-skins. It will sometimes hold as many as 

 twenty or thirty people, is proj)el]ed by rudely made oars, and is 

 steered with a rudder. 



During November it became evident, from the number of new faces 

 we saw, that the natives from other parts of the coast were congre- 

 gating in our neighborhood. About the middle of the month my 

 two men paid a visit to the encampment, and found that instead of 

 five scattered tents there were about ten snow igloos, all close 

 together. As each igloo is generally inhabited by from ten to twelve 

 people, this meant a population of over a hundred. In building 

 their snow igloos the Eskimos take advantage of the fact that, owing 

 to the intense cold, with no thaws and continual drifting, the snow 

 becomes quite hard and compact and can be cut into blocks and 

 slabs. The igloos are generally built on the shore, not far from high 

 water mark ; a tolerably level spot where the snow is, say, about a 

 foot and a half deep, is chosen. The builder first marks out a circle 

 of about twelve feet in diameter ; he then goes to work with a long 

 knife, called by the Hudson Bay Co. a snow-knife, and hollows out 

 the circle, cutting the snow into blocks about a foot square or of a 

 rectangular shape of say 1 x 1 -.5 feet, and from 4 to 6 inches thick. 

 With the blocks thus obtained, together with others cut near by, a 

 circular wall is built by putting one block on top of another. As 

 the construction proceeds the wall is made to gradually curve inward 

 until finally an almost perfect dome is formed of about 12 feet 

 diameter and 8 feet high in the centre. The door, a hole about 2 ft. 

 broad and 3 in height, always faces the southward. The inner half 

 of the igloo is built up with blocks of snow to the height of about 2^ 



