306 KEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



level of the door sill is about that of what may be called the ground floor. 

 Entering the door, one stands on a platform about 6 feet wide, running 

 around the four sides of the house. Next, one steps down about 3 feet 

 upon a ledge the same width, also running around the four sides. The 

 next level, 3 feet below this, is the solid ground, sometimes bare, some- 

 times with a board floor. In the center of this the fire burns, the smoke 

 ascending through a square smoke-hole in the roof in the center of the 

 building. All houses were formerly without windows, ventilation being 

 secured by the door and the smoke-hole. If the house is built on the 

 surface of the ground, the interior is excavated into a kind of cellar, the 

 ledges being cut in the earth and covered by large hewn slabs of cedar. 

 These ledges serve not only as sleeping and lounging places, but as 

 shelves to deposit all sorts of boxes, utensils, etc., belonging to the 

 family. In the Tlingit dwellings, the fire-place is usually boxed in with 

 boards, and filled in with stones. When the house is built on the sur- 

 face of the ground, one enters the door at the level of the ground, and 

 descends to the lower floor inside. If the house is built on a raised 

 foundation, the bottom floor or court is usually on the level of the out- 

 side ground. One mounts to the door, enters, and descends to the 

 ground inside. Between these two types are slight variations in which 

 the foundation of logs is not so high, and the interior is dug down only 

 about 2 or 3 feet. Amongst the Tlingit, the interior platform at the level 

 of the door-sill is sometimes divided into living apartments, or small 

 state-rooms, so to speak. Lisianski (1804) describes the houses about 

 Sitka as square in form and spacious, with openings all along the top 

 about 2 feet in width to let out the smoke. The fire-place was fenced 

 around with boards, the jilace between the fire-place and the walls be- 

 ing partitioned by curtains for the different families living in the lodge- 

 There were board shelves fixed around inside of the room for the stow, 

 age of boxes and utensils.* 



The primitive form of construction is not materially different from 

 that described and illustrated in Plate xxxv. The Tlingit form of front 

 is shown in Fig. 176, a local characteristic being given to it by the 

 vertical boards a a at each corner of the front as shown. Throughout 

 the whole coast, it was somewhat the custom to ornament the fronts with 

 painted representation of the totem of the chief occupant. To the south 

 this was the general custom. Amongst the Haida, Tsimshian, and Tlin- 

 git, it was only occasionally practiced. In Plate xxxv various styles 

 of house fronts are illustrated in connection with the typical method of 

 house construction. 



Fig. 173 is a chiefs house at Fort Simpson, British Columbia. Fig. 

 174 is a Tlingit front at Tongass, Alaska. Fig. 176 is the general Tlin- 

 git type as described above. Fig. 175 is an ancient form of front, after a 

 model from Sitka in the National Museum. Fig. 177 is a Kwakiutl front 



* Lisianski, Voyage, p. 239 and 240. 



