58 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



on the summit of the same hill, was another tent-ring, with its hearth-stones 

 close beside it, and a low wind-break of stones from behind which the country- 

 north and east could be scanned for several miles. 



Birds and animals had evidently been the latest occupants of the hut 

 for we found their bones scattered both above and below the floorstones. The 

 ground was frozen hard, and I had no time to stay and excavate. It is hardly- 

 possible that the structure could ever have been a dwelling, since there was 

 barely room for a man even to squat inside. The natives gave varying accounts 

 of its origin. Some said it was made by white men long ago, possibly Rae's 

 party when it tried in vain to cross the strait to Victoria island.' Certainly 

 if it was intended for an observation post looking out on the gulf to the east 

 and south, no better site could have been chosen anywhere. Another version 

 assigned it to the tornrin, the dwarf people who were driven underground by 

 the Copper Eskimos long ago.^ They were responsible, too, for a curious 

 structure that we found on the plain behind Cape Lambert. It was made of 

 large fiat slabs of dolomite set on edge in the shape of a rectangle, about 8 feet 

 long by 4 feet wide, and from 1 foot to 1 foot 6 inches high. It was unlike the 

 remains of a Copper Eskimo camping-site, and may have been due to the western 

 natives. Whether the stone houses should be assigned to the same origin (stone 

 being used because of the lack of driftwood), or whether they belong rather 

 to that earlier people who have left similar remains round Hudson bay and 

 in the Parry archipelago, must be left uncertain until the Copper Eskimo country 

 and the adjacent regions have been more fully explored and we have more 

 information concerning the distribution of these houses.^ 



The only types of dwellings known to the Copper Eskimos are the snow- 

 hut and the tent. Sometimes a traveller finds them with neither, but camping 

 instead under the open sky; only rarely, however, for it is seldom that a man 

 can sleep with comfort out of doors in this region. Occasionally of course 

 night overtakes a hunter without a tent, and without any means of building 

 a snow hut. He will then wander round for a time, searching for his camp, 

 and when weariness overcomes him, squat down on the ground or snow for a 

 while and fall asleep, with his chin resting on his chest, his legs outstretched, 

 and his arms withdrawn inside his coat and folded' against his body. In time 

 the cold awakens him and he rises and resumes his journey. In June and July, 

 sometimes too in August, a party will often leave its tents and journey off to 

 hunt or fish for a few days in some adjoining district, carrying only sleeping- 

 bags and a few skins. Such open-air bivouacs are very pleasant as long as the 

 weather remains fine; the warm hours of the morning are generally given over 

 to sleep, and the party does not stir till nearly noon. Should rain come on or 

 a fog arise they can soon construct a rude shelter by converting their ice-chisels, 

 fish-spears and walking-sticks into tent-poles and stretching their skins around 

 and over them. At the end of May, 1915, we made a trip of some 50 miles to 

 meet the Esldmos of Prince Albert sound. Two families in our party left their 

 tents behind. At first they merely set up a wind-break, driving a row of sticks 

 into the ground at an inclined angle and spreading their skins over them; later, 

 when we had to wait for several days at the rendezvous, they ranged their poles 

 in an oval and made a regular tent. Then a blizzard struck them, and the howling 



'See Richardson, p. 178. 



^Cf. Boas, Central Eskimo, p. 635; Meddelelser om Gr^nland, Vol. XXXIX, p. 688 ct seq. 



'The stone huts on Southampton island which were used for meat caches had no doorway, but were 

 opened at the top '(Boas, Bulletin IV, A.M.N.H., Vol. X-y, p. 475). Captain Bernard tells me, however, 

 that the natives of Adelaide peninsula build huts like those among the Copper Eskimos for trapping foxes. 

 A bait of meat or fish or blubber is laid on the floor, the door cl sed, and the roof either opened, or closed 

 with a lightly balanced stone that will cave in when the fox steps on it. Once the animal has entered the 

 trap it is unable to escape. I cannot help thinking, however, that this is a secondary use, the structures 

 being originally intended, perhaps, for meat^caches. The doorway would be convenient, but not a'oso- 

 lutely essential. 



