ESQUIMAUX HUT OF ICE SLABS.
The summer tents are made of several seal or walrus skins, the former without the hair, and the latter with the thick outer coat taken off, and the rest shaved down so thin as to admit light through them. They are irregularly sewn together, forming a kind of oval bag, supported in the middle by a pole of several deers’ horns or bones of other animals lashed together. On the top of this is a cross or T-piece, which serves to extend the top of the tent, 6ft. or 7ft. from the ground the lower part of the tent pole rests loosely on a large stone, from which any accident will knock it off. The borders of the skins are kept down by stones laid on them, and the top is stayed by a thong on the outer side, stretching to a heavy stone at some distance. The door is merely two flaps, one of which overlaps the other, secured by another stone.
Sometimes a little shelter from the wind is given by an outer wall of stone.
If a larger tent is required, two of these bags are made to overlap at the edges, and are set up with a couple of poles.
The accumulation of seal and walrus flesh and blubber during the summer months makes these habitations disgustingly filthy; but it is to be remembered that the great necessity of the Esquimaux is to keep himself warm, and he cannot afford to lower the temperature of his skin by washing off the grease and dirt which encrust it.
On one experimental trip Captain Parry was compelled by a sudden decrease of temperature to shelter his party in a small tent. They attempted to warm themselves by smoking, and found the temperature at their feet to be 1° below zero, while overhead the smoke had raised it to +7°, the outer air being -5°, soon falling to -15°. It was then found possible to dig a kind of cavern in the snow, the spade being lent as a favour to the men who most required to warm themselves, a small fire and a pot of soup were made, and by confining the smoke and hot air the temperature was raised to +20°, while outside it was -25°.