The construction of one of these primitive habitations, half excavated beneath, half built above the surface, would seem at first glance to demand nothing beyond a considerable outlay of manual labor in transporting and arranging the stones. Yet the spanning of a space twelve by fourteen feet in such a way as to support a heavy load of stones, turf, and snow, is not an entirely simple problem in a country where there is literally not a splinter of wood or anything that can serve as a substitute for it. Yet these children of the ice have met and solved this problem with the cantilever principle, and the roofs of these old stone houses are every one supported with massive stone cantilevers, firm and unyielding as a masonry arch. In the plan and arrangement of his house, too, the Eskimo has met and solved each problem that confronted him, and though the entrance is never closed, yet no draught or current of air disturbs the quiet interior, the thick non-conducting walls of stone and turf are perfect insulators from the savage cold, and the heat from every drop of the precious oil burned in the stone lamps is fully conserved. Many of these igloos have every appearance of being centuries old. Vertebrae of the now extinct whale are almost invariably built into their walls and frequently such enormous stones are used in supporting the roofs, that it seems impossible they could have been handled without mechanical appliances.
All the roof and bed platform stones, which must be large, flat and thin, as well as many of those for the walls, had to be brought by the men on their backs from the mountains, sometimes a distance of several miles. The construction of the igloos falls very largely upon the women, and in an emergency they even assist in bringing stones.
These stone dwellings are occupied from the latter part of September till April or May, depending upon the season, locality, and movements of the occupants. By May they usually become very damp, and then the family betakes itself to its tupik, removing, at its departure from the igloo, the windows and a portion of the roof, so that throughout the summer the sun and wind may have free access to the interior. There is no ownership of these igloos beyond the period of actual occupancy. Any one of them is free to each and all, and it is the exception rather than the rule that a family lives in the same igloo, or in fact in the same place, two years in succession.... The building of a new igloo is rather a rarity, also, and is necessary only when, for some special reason, an unusually large number of natives are attracted to one place. Usually no more families locate in a place than the existing igloos will shelter.
A temporary form of habitation used by the Eskimos at the spring walrus hunt at Cape Chalon, and sometimes when a death in winter drives a family out of the permanent habitation, is constructed of snow, lined, in the case of the more-well-to-do Eskimos, with their skin tupiks, or tents.
These igloos are for use only for a few weeks. The Whale Sound Eskimos do not, like the Baffin Land tribes, use snow houses for their permanent winter habitations. The following is a description of one of these:
It was twelve feet long, by twelve feet wide, and seven feet high, in the highest part beneath the sealskin lining. The bed-platform, raised a foot and a half above the floor, was six and a half feet deep; and the standing room in front of it six feet by five feet. The window of seal intestines was two feet square. The igloo was lined throughout with the tupik or summer tent, so arranged as to leave an air space between it and the snow walls of the igloo, thus preventing the latter from melting, and keeping the interior dry. A small hole in the highest part of this lining, and another directly over it in the top of the igloo, afforded ventilation.
A long, low, narrow snow tunnel gave access to the igloo, and protected the interior from drafts or penetration by the furious spring storms.
AFTER A WINTER BLIZZARD
“Roosevelt” surrounded by chaos of shattered and upheaved ice