AuorsT .•!!, ISS."..! 



SCIENCE. 



•25!) 



between those people tliat erected the extensive 

 earth-works of the Ohio valley and elsewhere, 

 and the ' wild tribes ' of the Atlantic sea- 

 board, is practically nothing. I still hope to 

 find numistakable artificial mounds in New 

 Jersey ; busing my expectation upon the fact, 

 that natural hillocks or knolls were fre<iaently 

 used as places of liurial. and were chosen as 

 desirable sites for the erection of wigwams. 



Charles C. Abbott, M.U. 



THE IGLOO OF THE INNUIT.^ —Ul. 



The only instrument used in the construction 

 of the igloo is the snow-knife. Where the In- 

 nuits have intercourse with white men, thev bar- 



Jl iMi ii««« tiiMUjumiiM I" ""^W 



MODEUN 8NOW KNIFB 



ter for cheese-knives or long-bl.aded butcher- 

 knives, remove the double handle from the 

 tang, and put on a single one about tliree times 

 as long, which can be readily grasped by both 

 hands. The old knives were made of reindeer- 

 horn or from tlie shin-bone of the reindeer. 



SNOW. KNIFE OF SONS. 



Among the Esquimaux in and around King 

 William's Land I found snow-knives made of 

 copper stripped from Sir John Franklin's 

 ships, the imprints of the queen's broad arrow 

 still showing on many, the blades double-edged 

 or dagger-shape, and the handles of musk-ox 

 and reindeer horn rudeh" attached by sinew 

 lashings. 



The snow-knife of iron, while more conven- 

 ient in many ways, is far more liable to break 

 in the intense cold of tlie winter weather, sucli 

 accidents with them being ver^- common. I 

 have seen igloos built when the thermometer 

 registered — 70^F. At such temperatures the 

 snow becomes almost stone-like in its com- 

 pactness. The snow-knife is often used as a 

 substitute for the snow-tester whenever that 

 instrument is broken or left behind, for the 

 Esquimaux are a very careless and absent- 

 minded people. 



Before starting to cut the snow-blocks, the 

 builder gets from the sledge a pair of gauntlets 

 used for this purpose, onl3* being of finer and 

 softer reindeer-fur, so as to give the hands the 

 most complete freedom of motion. These 



1 CoDtinued from Xo. 29. 



gloves extend half way up the fore-arm, and 

 have a puckering-string around the top, which 

 the builder's wife pidls tight, and ties so as to 

 completelj" exclude the snow while he is at 

 work in it. 



The igloo is built f)n the sloping drift of 

 snow, the entrance being at the lowest point. 

 The first trench from which the snow-blocks 

 are cut is so disposed as to have its axis coin- 

 cident with the diameter of the igloo, which 

 runs directly up and down hill, or which makes 

 the greatest angle with the horizontal. These 

 snow-blocks are from a foot to a foot and a 

 half wide, from a foot and a half to two or 

 ihieefeet long, and eight or ten inches thick. 

 The first block cut from the trench is a thick 

 triangular one, which is thrown away (see a, 

 wliich is a vertical section through the axis of 

 the trench). A ground plan of the blocks 

 would show that they are partially curved, but 

 in no manner to such an extent as would be 

 needed to conform to the curvature of the igloo. 

 This curvature is the result of their manner of 

 cutting by a swinging motion of the whole body, 

 held almost rigid, and rotating about the foot 

 steps, a, in the figure. This motion of the whole 

 body gives them considerable power ; and the 

 resulting curved blocks, if large, are in the 

 best shape for the first part of the structure. 

 In cutting the block b, first the right-hand edge, 

 erf, is cut by three or four powerful downward 

 strokes of the knife, and then the opposite 

 edge. c'd'. The knife, with its blade held hori- 

 zontallv, is passed unrler the block in front of 

 the toes of the builder's feet. About three or 

 four inches in depth of the line d'd is cut ; and, 



/^fc/ff CAg Jftfiltr 



with the knife in the right hand, two or three 

 deep vertical thrusts are made along this line, 

 which generally se|)aratc the snow-block from 

 its bed, and it is caught with the left hand as it 

 falls forward. I have tried to represent these 

 gashes in the figure. They are ))laiidy visible 

 on the snow-block inside and out, and a good 

 artist would represent them in his pictures of 

 the huts. The blocks are carefully lifted out and 

 placed beside the trench, as, under some circura- 



