76 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



In the fall of the year, when the natives return from inland to resume their 

 winter life, the snow is not everywhere suitable for building a hut. Consequently 

 they have recourse to their heavy spring tents, and only abandon them when 

 they reach some convenient place in which to cache them until the sprmg. 

 This occasionally leads to curious combinations. A large band of Eskimos 



Fig. 25. An ordinary single hut enlarged to accommodate more inmates 



settled in Bernard harbour in November, 1915. Some lived in tents with 

 passages of snow, others in snow-huts of the usual types. In one case the 

 passages of a snow-hut and a tent were joined together like the huts in Fig. 17, 

 in another the tent and snow-hut were made to form a two-roomed dwelling, 

 like the double snow-hut of Fig. 19. 



These winter settlements sometimes spread over a considerable area, 

 while at other times they are crowded together within a very narrow space. 

 The determining factor is the amount of snow. A settlement in the Duke, of 

 York archipelago in February, 1915, covered an area of about 300 x 125 yards. 

 There were 21 dwellings, only five of which were two-roomed; the rest were 

 all single and isolated, for the snow was shallow in this vicinity. When half 

 of the settlement migrated a week or two later to Bernard harbour they built 

 their houses almost touching one another. In November, 1914, the Puivlik 

 Eskimos had a settlement in Forsyth bay, and their houses were all two-roomed, 

 or in pairs with common passages, arranged in a single line along the face of a 

 low ridge. Their next settlement was made behind a sandspit about four 

 miles along the coast. Here most of the houses again were two-roomed, or in 

 pairs, but the line was verj^ irregular and there was a single house standing about 

 100 yards away from the rest. Their third settlement was at Putuhk, one 

 of the Liston and Sutton islands. In this their houses followed roughly the 

 line of the shore, and the single huts were in the minority. At the end of Feb- 

 ruary they migrated to the westward, and were joined by other natives; but 

 now they were living far out on the ice and had no shore to guide their planning, 

 so their huts were scattered in all directions. Fully half of them were detached 

 and single, while the rest were two-roomed or in pairs with common passages. 

 In the middle of March they moved west again, at least all who had not before 

 that time gone eastward and joined the Eskimos of Coronation gulf. One man 

 now set up a large skin tent, the rest building ordinary huts of snow; but since 

 there was only one long drift which offered a sufficient depth of snow they 

 built their houses side by side, some single, others in pairs with the passages 



