Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/153

On this the roof was formed of four rows of snow blocks, 60 × 30 cm; the platforms were 40 cm above the floor and built of flat limestones; in front of the door there were two small fore-rooms of snow. This house is thus a transitional form between the qarmaq proper with skin roof and the snow house. Lyon,^[1] too, refers to ice houses with snow roofs, from Iglulik.

The snow-qarmaq. Is the most frequently used and the only one that is sometimes built in spring too. It is simply the snow house. uncompleted, the domed snow roof being replaced by the flat, outspread tent-sheet. How high the wall is built depends upon the nature of the snow; the softer it is, the less the wall can stand inclining inwards. These qarmat are used both in the autumn, before the snow has become sufficiently firm, and in spring, when the heat of the sun makes the snow house unsafe. I have seen these qarmal used right up to June 10th; as a rule, however, a move is made into the tent in the middle of May.

Finally it remains to mention that during the past few years experiments have been made to get the Eskimos at Ponds Inlet to live. in wooden houses (Fig. 84), rectangular houses of wood with a saddle-shaped roof, the interior containing a main platform and two-