Fig. 503. Storehouse in Ukiadliving. (From a sketch by the author.)
In Ukiadliving I found, along with a great number of fine qarmat, some very remarkable storehouses, such as are represented in Fig. 503. Structures of this kind (ikan´) consist of heavy granite pillars, on the top of which flat slabs are piled to a height of from nine to ten feet. In winter, blubber and meat are put away upon these pillars, which are sufficiently high to keep them from the dogs. Sometimes two pillars, about ten feet apart, are found near the huts. In winter the kayak is placed upon them in order to prevent it from being covered by snowdrifts or from being torn and destroyed by the dogs. In snow villages these pillars are made of snow.
The purpose of the long, kayak-like building figured by Kumlien (see [Fig. 500]) is unknown to me. I found a similar one, consisting of two rows of stones, scarcely one foot high but twenty feet long, in Pangnirtung, Cumberland Sound, but nobody could explain its use.
In the spring, when the rays of the sun become warmer, the roofs of the snow houses fall down. At this season the natives build only the lower half of a snow vault, which is covered with skins.
Fig. 504. Plan and sections of tupiq or tent of Cumberland Sound.
Still later they live in their tents (tupiq) (Fig. 504). The framework consists of poles, which are frequently made of many pieces of wood ingeniously lashed together. The plan (Fig. 504 a) is the same as that of the winter houses. At the edge of the bed and at the entrance two pairs of converging poles are erected. A little below the crossing points two cross strips are firmly attached, forming the ridge. Behind the poles, at the edge of the bed, six or eight others are arranged in a semicircle resting on the ground and on the crossing point of those poles. The frame is covered with a large skin roof fitting tightly. The back part, covering the bed, is made of sealskins; the fore part, between the two pairs of poles, of the thin membrane which is split from the skins (see [p. 519]), and admits the light. The door is formed by the front part of the cover, the left side (in entering) ending in the middle of the entrance, the right one overlapping it, so as to prevent the wind from blowing into the hut. The cover is steadied with heavy stones (Fig. 504 c). In Cumberland Sound and the more southern parts of Baffin Land the back of the hut is inclined at an angle of 45°; in Davis Strait it is as steep as 60°, or even more. In the summer tent the bed and the side platforms are not raised, but only separated from the passage by means of poles.