97 
Stranger than any of the dwellings erected by the Indian tribes 
of Canada was the Eskimo snow hut, a striking example of how 
admirably man sometimes adajits himself to his environment. Its 
origin is lost in antiquity; possibly it developed out of the beehive 
tent of willows covered with skins, ^ through the substitution of 
snow blocks for the envelope of soft, loose snow and the subsequent 
discovery that the snow blocks could be made to stand alone. The 
snow hut possesses several peculiar features. It resembles, super- 
ficially, a dome of stone constructed without mortar; but since blocks 
of snow adhere more tightly to each other than blocks of stone, 
the roof can be arched in at a steener angle. The Eskimo builds 
spirally from within, ti’imming each block as he jilaces it in position; 
like a stonemason, he generally avoids overlying joints, although 
this precaution is not essential for ultimate stability. After the 
key block has been inserted the hut is tightly sealed and a lamp 
kindled inside. The heated air, having no exit, begins to melt the 
face of the snow, which rapidly congeals again on the admission of 
cold air from the outside. Thus each snow block is firmly cemented 
to its neighbours and converted to ice on its inner face. Occupation 
for a few days then gradually changes the interior of the blocks, 
so that the structure is no longer a snow house, but a house of ice. 
The transformation gives it remarkable stability; a man may stand 
on its summit without causing its collapse, and half the house can 
be demolished without destroying the other half. Consequently, 
by building a series of intersecting domes and omitting, or opening up, 
the common segments, an Eskimo can enlarge a small, circular hut, 
capable of housing only one or two families, into a community 
dwelling of three, four, and even five rooms that will house fifteen 
or twenty people. 
Clance, for a moment, at the interior of an ordinary, single- 
room snow hut. You pass with bowed head along a narrow, roofed 
passage of snow blocks until you arrive at the doorway, a hole at 
your feet which you traverse on hands and knees. You rise to your 
feet. On the right (or left), two feet above the floor, is the lamp, 
a saucer-shaped vessel of stone filled with burning seal-oil, and with 
1 Tlif Eskimo of northern .Ainska. who cannot, l)iiil(l a circular snow Init, still use this tent, but 
replace the skins with canvas. On the coast tluiy occasionally cover a rectangular fi-ame of drift-wood 
with canvas, and line the walls and roof with snow -blocks : in such a dwelling they will pass a whole 
winter. For a night’s shelter, again, they sometimes build small, rectangular snow huts, so narrow 
that tlie roof can be si)anned by single blocks. 
