SNOW-HOUSES. 



163 



The only mode of approach to these huts was by notches cut 

 in the trunk of the tree. 



How needful were these precautions was shown by the fact 

 that the missionary himself spent a night in one of these aerial 

 huts, and had the pleasure of hearing a number of lions snarl 

 and growl all night over a rhinoceros hump which he had 

 placed in an oven made of a deserted ant-hill. The oven, 

 however, was too hot for the lions, and they had to retreat at 

 daylight. 



Passing from the tropics to the polar regions, we now take 

 an instance where man has acknowledgedly copied an animal in 

 the construction of his dwelling. 



In Esquimaux-land, where no trees can grow, where for 

 months together the sun never rises above the horizon, where 

 the temperature is many degrees below zero, and where the 

 land and ice are alike covered with a mantle of snow so thick 

 that every landmark is abolished, it would seem that no human 



SNOW-HOUSE OF SEAL TNT ESQUIMAUX-LAND. 



SNOW-HOUSE OF ESQUIMAUX. 



beings could support life for one week. There is neither 

 timber for house-building nor wood for fuel, so that shelter, 

 warmth, and cookery seem to be equally impossible, and as 

 these are among the prime necessities of human life, it is not 

 easy to see how mankind could exist. 



Yet these very regions are inhabited by sundry animals, and 

 it is by copying them that Man can keep his place. We have 

 already seen how the Esquimaux hunter copies the Polar Bear, 

 and we have now to see how he copies the Seal in the material 

 and form of his dwelling-house, and not only contrives to live, 

 but to enjoy life all the more for the singular conditions in 



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