Dwellings 



81 



removed, or sometimes both deerskins and sealskins combined; a family from 

 Prince Albert sound had a tent even of musk-ox skins. Walking-sticks, ice-pick 

 handles, and fish-spears serve for poles, with the addition of one or two light 

 sticks that are generally carried along for this specific purpose. The doorway 

 is more open than in the spring tent, since the ends are rarely long enough to 

 meet in front without making the interior too restricted; even with the end 

 partly open the occupants barely have room to stretch themselves out at night. 

 Such a tent is comfortable and airy enough in fine weather, but it affords very 

 poor shelter in a storm. The rain drips through the seam along the ridge, 

 and the wind beats in through the open door while the poor Eskimo crouches 

 shivering within. He can raise it up on walls of turf, or in the fall on snow- 

 blocks, and block his door with a spare skin, but these are sorry makeshifts; 

 so, before the rigour of the autumn overtakes him, he generally retraces his foot- 

 steps and recovers the heavy tent he used in spring. 



f Pho+o by R, M. Anderson) 



Fig. 28. A summer tent at the fishing lake behind Bernard harbour 



The interior arrangement of the summer tent differs in no way from the 

 spring tent as above described. Often both in spring and summer two tents 

 are joined together so as to have a common entrance, like the common passage 

 of a two-roomed hut. They then lie, not in a straight line, but at an obtuse 

 angle with one another so that the walls meet together on the side facing the 

 common door. Just as in the snow-hut, more than one family sometimes sleep 

 in a single tent; but, as every household has a tent of its own, this seldom occurs 

 except when one is visiting another, or when a party wanders off on a hunting 

 or fishing excursion for a few days, and leaves most of its property behind. 



All over the country the Eskimos have left traces of their camping sites 

 in the shape of rings of stones that have once held down their tents, with the 

 hearth-stones lying a few feet to one side. Early explorers have often noticed 



23335—6 



