Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/143

fall; the lump then freezes on and will collect the melted water; it must be frequently renewed, however; if the dripping cannot be prevented, vessels must be placed under it. When a snow house has become so old that most of the wall has been turned to ice, it must be left; in the first place it is too cold, and secondly it drips incessantly. On Southampton Island we built a large snow house on November 25th; on December 8th it commenced to drip, but on December 25th it froze again owing to severe frost and then became lined with a layer of rime; on January 1st it was deserted. At Kingâdjuaq in April 1923 we came across a skin-lined house which had been inhabited all the winter; it was then completely "subterranean”, buried in snow; the window opened into a "well", supported by blocks of snow; the lower part of the skin lining was completely hidden by large masses of ice. formed by the melted water which had oozed down the walls.

In May the snow house becomes a less pleasant dwelling; the snow becomes very soft; holes are continually forming in the roof. which readily falls in and makes everything wet. Very often large bulges form in the roof, and they sink further and further down. until they break; for a time these bulges can be dealt with by tapping them of water by fixing a pointed cone of snow at the lowest part: from this the water runs in a stream. Otherwise the roof must be supported by means of rods and planks and it is at this time that the Eskimo moves into a qarmaq or, more often, a tent. When we left Iglulik on May 15th 1922, all the Eskimos were still living in snow houses; on the 18th at Amitsoq we met Eskimos of whom some lived in tents, others in snow houses. In the spring of 1923. on the way to Ponds Inlet, a snow house was built for the last time on 12th May, at Inuksuligârssuk, near the head of Milne Inlet.

From a hygienic point of view the snow house is undoubtedly an excellent dwelling. Its short lifetime involves that large heaps of refuse and dirt do not get time to accumulate. In snow houses which are used for a long time the women sometimes clean them out when they have become too dirty: With the ulo and the snow shovel they scrape a layer from the floor and a new snow layer is put down in its place. In many cases urine may not be passed inside the house, and even then only in a hole made for the purpose; bones and other refuse are collected behind the lamp or in a corner on the floor and are thrown to the dogs at certain intervals.

The temperature inside the snow house is illustrated by the following examples: the snow-house block fig. 78 at Itibdjeriang, 14th February 1922, 10 am; all lamps (1) burning; outside −34° C. On the platform in the living room: −3.1°; on the floor in the living