Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 363 



families live under one roof, is not typically Eskimo; it may have 

 been adopted by the Eskimo in the middle ages on becoming 

 acquainted with the large, rectangular buildings of the Icelanders in 

 Vestribygö and Eystribygô. Add to this, that they realized, on trying 

 this arrangement, that it brought them both social and economic 

 advantages, as G. Holm^) and Amdrup^) have already pointed out. 



The almost circular stone-house of the Southampton Island 

 Eskimo would appear to be a combination of the dome-shaped 

 whale-rib house (in the upper structure) and the Mackenzie River 

 house-type, and the same may perhaps be said of the Smith Sound 

 Eskimo's house. The latter have, further, it seems, with great 

 ingenuity added a new feature to the construction of their houses 

 in the skilful manner with which they build the roof. 



The snow-house, the well-known winter dwelling of the Central 

 Eskimo, belongs to the high-arctic regions. Here we find that they 

 have adopted the custom of building semicircular walls of snow 

 blocks to shelter them from the piercing wind, when they are out 

 on the watch at the breathing holes of the seal, often for a whole 

 day^). Would it be too far-fetched to suggest that the Eskimo might 

 have possibly borrowed the idea of their dome-shaped snow-houses 

 from the snow burrows of the seals on the ice'^)? 



In wide areas of the Central Eskimo region the snow house is the 

 only kind of winter-house, but this is no doubt a later development. 

 Turner^) mentions expressly, that in Hudson Strait "in former 

 times these people inhabited permanent winter -houses like those 

 used by the Eskimo elsewhere, as is shown by the ruins of sod 

 and stone houses to be seen in various parts of the country. These 

 appear to have had walls of stone built up to support the roof 

 timbers, with the interstices filled up with turf or earth". — The 

 form of the combined snow-house from the central regions (Iglulik 

 etc.), consisting of four circular domes built together, strongl}' 



1) Holm, here p. 186; (1888) p. 204. 



2) Amdrup (1909) pp. 320—321. 



S) Parry (1824) PI. between pp. 172—173, cf. Boas (1888) p. 477. 



*) Murdoch (1892) p. 271 : "Later in the winter the seals resort to very incon- 

 siderable cracks among the hummocks for air, and nets are set hanging around 



these cracks . At this season there are frequently to be found among 



the hummocks what the native call iglus, dome-shaped snow houses about 6 

 feet in diameter and 2 or 3 feet high, with a smooth round hole in the top, 

 and communicating with the water. These are undoubtedl}' the same as the 

 snow burrow described by Kumlien (Contributions p. 57), which the female seal 

 builds to bring forth her young in. They are curious constructions, looking 

 astonishingly like a man's work." 



5) Turner (1894) p. 228. 



