182 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 28. 



tion. What is vastl}- more important, it would 

 rouse an enthusiasm for science at tbie locality 

 of the meeting, which, if rightlj* fostered, 

 would give permanent results. 



The association has sought to meet some of 

 these wants and difiiculties by creating a lar- 

 ger number of sections, each of which has a 

 presiding officer, who is expected to deliver 

 a formal address. This is an advance, but 

 onlj' a half-way measure. The papers increase 

 in number every year ; and the several sections 

 must all work at once and arduously to finish 

 their reading in the allotted time. To manj' a 

 member, even to a specialist who may be en- 

 gaged in two distinct lines of research, comes 

 the disappointment of riiissiug the hearing of 

 valuable papers when two or three are delivered 

 simultaneously. 



Many of these features must appear promi- 

 nently at the present meeting. The attend- 

 ance will consist in greater proportion than 

 usual of the popular element. The member- 

 ship is now so large that there is no risk of 

 the meeting being insignificant in size, as at 

 Dubuque in 1872. But, since Minneapolis is 

 the farthest point to the west yet tried, its 

 distance must withhold many familiar faces. 

 After this, we shall know better whether th'e 

 kind invitations of Han Francisco may be 

 accepted two or three j'ears hence. Next j'ear 

 the meeting should not be too far from the 

 British association at Montreal. 



At least eight addresses will be given bj- 

 presidents of sections, — excellent in their 

 kind, but not quite a substitute for thoughts 

 that breathe and words that burn. If free and 

 wide discussion could be encouraged at these 

 meetings, the retiring president's address 

 would now give abundant occasion. Dr. Daw- 

 son hits hard where he thinks he sees a crevice 

 m the armor of the evolutionists or of the gla- 

 cialists, and many will chafe if there is no im- 

 mediate opportunity to return his thrusts. But, 

 while it ma}' fail of excitement, the meeting at 

 Minneapolis is verj' enjoj'able. The city and 

 vicinit}' are picturesque and delightful. The 

 hospitality of the west is as broad as its 

 X^rairies "W. C. W. 



THE IGLOO OF THE INNUIT.—I. 



The Esquimaux of the arctic regions of 

 North America call themselves ,' Innuits,' and 

 their winter-houses, built of ice and snow, ' ig- 

 loos.' This short explanation ma\' be needed to 

 make clear my somewhat obscure title. 



These strange huts have been incidentally 

 described by many travellers in the accounts 

 of their arctic explorations. But beyond the 

 fact that the}' are rude domes of snow, in which 

 4,hese polar people live for the greater part of 

 the 3'ear, little is known of the manner of their 

 construction, their internal arrangement, or of 

 the conditions which have led to their exist- 

 ence. 



The many inquiries I have been called upon 

 to answer in regard to these northern cabins, 

 and the misconceptions I have found even 

 among the better informed of m}' questioners, 

 have led me to believe that an account of the 

 igloo as I saw it during m}' life with the Innuits 

 would be of interest. 



The origin of the igloo can onl}' be guessed 

 from the few facts we know of early man. I 

 will not discuss the ethnological problem which 

 would identif}' the Innuit of the present diiy 

 with the cave-men of Europe, but, assuming 

 that it is true, will sketch a possible history of 

 the ice-hut. 



These cave-men are known to have existed 

 along the edges of the mer de glace, which, 

 during the ice period, overspread Europe, and 

 buried it as Greenland is probably buried at the 

 present day. AVhat caused this great flow of 

 frigidity to the south, or its retrogression to the 

 north, it is needless to consider ; suflice it to 

 suppose that our hyperboreans followed it in 

 all its migrations. The earliest evidences of 

 their history are those they left in the caves 

 of middle Europe when the glacier extended 

 nearly to the Alps and Pyrenees, beyond which, 

 with its outlying polar fauna of cave-men, cave- 

 bears, cave-hyenas, mammoths, and reindeer, 

 it never extended. 



These caves were the work of nature. When 

 these people lived in their vicinitj', it is proba- 

 ble that they knew no other habitations, winter 

 or summer, and disputed their possession with 

 the many animals whose bones are found beside 

 the implements and bones of the cave-men 

 themselves. 



As the mer de glace, with snail-like pace, 

 withdrew northward, it was followed b}' these 

 children of the cold (the cave-men), driven, as 

 some suppose, b}' the more powerful river-di'ift 

 men, or following that climate which was the 

 more conu;eDiaL 



