Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/132

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
119

the building and erection of the snow house among the Iglulik Eskimos.

When building a snow house, the first thing to do is to look for a snow-bank with sufficiently deep, firm and homogeneous snow;

Image missing
Fig. 72.Snow shovels and probe.

the bank should preferably be so deep (about half a metre) that the blocks can be cut vertically out of it. In particular, the snow must be uniform in consistence, as otherwise the blocks will easily break; snow that is too loose cannot be used, and too hard snow is also avoided as it is difficult to work with.

For the purpose of examining the nature of the snow they use the snow-probe (aputsiuk),[1] a thin rod of wood, bone or antler with a handle and a ferrule on the end. Fig. 72 c (Repulse Bay) has a

  1. ↑ Cf. Boas 1901, fig. 137.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.