Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/152

and built into a platform 30 cm above the floor; two small side platforms were also made. The diameter of the house was 4 metres; of this the platform occupied 2.2 m. The tent-sheet was used for a roof, being spread out flat so that the hairy part covered the rear side of the house, the front side being covered with a double fold of the hairless part. The tent sheet was supported by the tent poles and two salmon spears laid from wall to wall and fastened by a strong seal thong which was tied round the house about half a metre below the upper edge of the slabs, where a number of notches had Image missingFig. 83.Ice house; Southampton Island. been hewn in the angles of the walls. At night an ice block was used as a door, cemented in with dry snow, and outside the door a small shelter wall was built of snow. This house was much warmer than the tent and pleasantly light; but it did not become as tight and warm as a snow house. Fig. 83 shows this ice house with the two other forms of dwellings, the tent and the snow house, at Hansine Lake, October 21st.

Parry^[1] mentions and figures an ice house with a skin roof. from Iglulik. This differs from the foregoing in that the walls are mostly built of two slabs placed one on top of the other, and in having a long entrance passage, likewise of ice slabs. In the same place he shows a dog's house and kayak supports of fresh-water ice. Gilder^[2] too, says that the Aivilik Eskimo "Toolooah" built an ice house on King Williams Land.

At Hall's Lake, near Iglulik, I saw on March 23rd, 1922, a deserted ice house. It was built of 14 ice slabs, about 10 cm thick, rather narrow, 1.5 × 0.7 m, inclining slightly inwards. Its diameter was 3½ m.