Report on the Dominion Government Expedition to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Islands on board the D.G.S. Neptune, 1903-1904

by A. P. Low

During the winter the Eskimo lives in a snowhouse or iglo; in the summer in a tent or tupik, made of seal or deer skins. The year begins with the lengthening days of January, and this is usually a period of hard times, lasting for a couple of months. The Eskimo of the southern regions is then on his yearly journey to the trading post, where he will exchange the proceeds of the past year’s hunt for ammunition, tobacco, and a few luxuries of clothing and tools. The ice along the coast in January does not extend far from the shore, and the seals keep in the open water, where they can only be killed by being shot from the edge of the ice. This is a very uncertain subsistence for the native, owing to the storms of the season, which either break the ice from the shore, or crowd its edge with small floating cakes, forming an impassable barrier to the open water. If a good supply of deermeat has not been laid by during the fall, periods of starvation are now frequent; these, when severe and prolonged, result in death or disaster, more natives dying at this time than throughout the rest of the year. The annual journey is made in stages; the native remains in a suitable spot for killing seals until enough of these animals has been secured to meet the requirements of food for the family and dogs, for a few days; then everything is securely lashed on the long, narrow sleds, and the party, usually consisting of two or more families, travels slowly southward along the shore ice, a woman often walking ahead of the dogs to encourage them. The men wander about on the ice in search of seal-holes, and occasionally secure a seal while on the journey. In the evening a halt is made, and the men build a small snowhouse with blocks cut from a convenient bank. These small houses, built only for the night, seldom exceed nine or ten feet in diameter, and it is only when a considerable stay is expected that larger houses are built.

The Labrador Eskimos rarely live more than one family in a house, but on the west shore of Hudson bay and at Cumberland gulf two or more families often live together, either in connected houses or in a single large house. The largest single house, seen by the writer, at Cape Fullerton, was twenty-seven feet in diameter and twelve feet from the floor to the centre of the dome; it was inhabited by four families. This house was too large for the material, and the roof had to be supported by props shortly after being built; but several others, eighteen feet in diameter, showed no signs of such weakness.

Snowhouses at Fullerton.

The Eskimo first tests the snow of the neighbouring banks by probing with his long snow-knife, often a twelve-inch butcher knife, and when he finds a bank formed by the drift of a single storm, he cuts an oblong hole about five feet long, two or three feet wide, and about twenty inches deep, with a clean face on one of the longer sides. He next cuts blocks from this face; these blocks are about five or six inches thick, from twenty-four to thirty inches long and twenty inches deep. A line the width of the block is first drawn on the surface, then cuts are made at the ends and bottom of the block, after which the knife is thrust down several times along the rear line and the block is wedged off. One man usually cuts blocks, while another builds the house. A circle the size of the intended house is traced on the surface of the snow, and the first circle of blocks arranged around it. When this is completed, the first few blocks are cut down diagonally, so that the next layer of blocks will take a spiral form and continue to wind in a decreasing curve until the dome is closed by an irregular key-block. This manner of building is superior to a succession of lessening circles, as each block is so cut as to be held by the one placed immediately before, and thus one man only is needed at the work, whereas, if the circular method were used, the different blocks of the circle would require to be held in place until the circle was complete. The finished house is a snow-dome of about two-thirds the height of the diameter of the base, with the arch flattened towards the summit. When all the blocks are in place, the cracks between them are chinked with loose snow, generally by the women. A line of blocks is then placed across the centre of the floor-space opposite to where the door will be, with other blocks at right angles to thus reduce the floor-space to a rectangle extending from the door to the centre of the iglo. On the far side of these walls, blocks of snow are thrown, and cut to form a smooth platform about eighteen inches higher than the original floor; this forms the bed of the family, while the side platforms hold the camp and cooking utensils. A door is now cut in the wall opposite the bed; it is about thirty inches high and eighteen inches wide, and passes into a tunnel porch several feet long and somewhat larger than the door, built later, and serves as a shelter for the dogs. When the house is permanent, the porch is built with two or more lobes with doors at each contraction.

While the men are finishing the porch and other work outside, the women take the bedding and household goods from the sled and put the house in order for the night. The bed is formed by laying, upon the snow, mats of closely woven branches of a small willow, which separate the deerskins from the snow. The bedding is composed of several thicknesses of deerskins, dressed with the hair on; these completely prevent any cold from penetrating from below. On the bed thus formed rest the deerskin sleeping bags, which are only closed for about a third of the length at the bottom, or not at all. The lamp is next put in position, on the shelf at one side of the house between the door and bed. It is made of stone, and rests upon three or four short sticks thrust into the snow. When the soapstone, out of which the lamp is usually made, cannot be obtained, any other easily worked rock is used. On top the lamp is roughly triangular in outline, the sides of the triangle being long concave curves. There is one long side and two equal short ones which meet each other in a wide angle; this results in a triangle with a base about twice the length of the vertical. The length varies from ten inches to more than thirty inches, eighteen being an ordinary length. The upper surface of the lamp is slightly hollowed to form a receptacle for the blubber and oil. The lower side is curved so that the lamp has a thickness varying from an inch to two inches. The lamp is fed with seal blubber, or deer fat; the former most commonly. The blubber is cut in thin strips, partly suspended above the lamp on a stick, and a part of it bruised to start the extraction of the oil. A wick of dry, pulverized moss is placed around the edge of the lamp, and squeezed deftly into shape by the finger and thumb, after being moistened in the blubber. When the wick has been properly arranged, it is usually set alight with an ordinary match, or with a flint and steel, iron pyrites often taking the place of flint. The old usage of making fire by friction is seldom employed, and only in the case of the absence of the easier methods. At first the flame from the lamp is small, but the heat soon warms up the stone, and the blubber melts without much attention. As the flame increases the wick requires considerable manipulation so that the flame may burn evenly around the lamp and not cause smoke.

Interior of Snowhouse at Fullerton.

The more remote Eskimos suspend an oblong kettle of soapstone over the flame to melt ice and cook food, but most of the natives, having access to traders, have largely given up the use of the stone kettle and use tin ones in its place.

Cooked food, with its accompanying broths, is preferred to raw, but the Eskimos are not averse to raw meat, especially liver, the fat portions of the deer and all fish during the winter.