QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 147 B 



The dimensions of tbj3 house represented in plan and elevation in Dimensions of 

 figures 35 and 36, of size rather greater than usual, in the Kung 

 Indian Village, Virago Sound, were found to be as follows: — Breadth 

 of front of house, 54' 6" ; depth, from, front to back, 47' 8" ; height of 

 ridge of roof, 16' 6"; height of eaves, 10' 8"; girth of main vertical 

 posts and horizontal beams, 9' 9" ; width of outer upright beams, 1 

 10"; thickness, about 5"; width of upper sloping beams, 2' 7"' 

 thickness, 5"; width of carved post in front of house, 3' 10". 



A second, and not unusual, style of house has only a single frame, 

 consisting of four vertical flattened posts at each end, supporting 

 sloping beams. The outer supporting posts are generally morticed 

 out, and the outer ends of the sloping beams passed through them. 

 Stout beams flattened on the lower side, and generally three in number 

 on each side, are then made to rest on the sloping beams, and bear 

 above them the cedar planking of the roof, held in place by stones 

 heaped upon it, or by small beams laid over them above. 



In a passage quoted by Mr. J. G. Swan in the Smithsonian Con tri- Description of 

 butious to Knowledge, No. 267, Marchand (1791, see page 11 B.) chand. 

 describes the houses on North Island in the following terms : — 

 "The form of these habitations is that of a regular parallelogram, 

 from forty- five to fifty feet in front, by thirty-five in depth. Six, 

 eight, or ten posts, cut and planted in the ground at each front, form 

 the enclosure of a habitation, and are fastened together by planks ten 

 inches in width, by three or four in thickness, which are solidly joined 

 to the posts by tenons and mortices ; the enclosures, six or seven feet 

 high, are surmounted by a roof, a little sloped, the summit of which is 

 raised from ten to twelve feet above the ground. These enclosures 

 and the roofing are faced with planks, each of which is about two feet 

 wide. In the middle of the roof is made a large, square opening, which 

 affords, at once, both entrance to the light, and issue to the smoke. 

 There are also a few small windows open on the sides. These houses 

 have two storys, although one only is visible, the second is underground, 

 or rather its upper part or ceiling is even with the surface of the place 

 in which the posts are driven. It consists of a cellar about five feet in 

 depth, dug in the inside of the habitation, at the distance of six feet 

 from the walls throughout the whole of the circumference. The descent 

 to it is by three or four steps made in the platfbimi of earth which is 

 reserved between the foundations of the walls and the cellar: and these 

 steps of earth, well beaten, are cased with planks, which prevent the 

 soil from falling in. Beams laid across, and covered with thick planks, 

 form the upper floor of this subterraneous story, which preserves from 

 moisture the upper story, whose floor is on a level with the ground. 

 This cellar is the winter habitation." 



