THE ESKIMO'S HOME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23686, 19 December 1938, Page 16

THE ESKIMO'S HOME

HOW IGLOOS ARE MADE Did you ever wonder if any inhabitants of the Arctic regions really live in houses made of ice? This question W. P. Keasebey answers in the " Christian Science Monitor " in the following manner:— Eskimos live in igloos, or winter huts, which vary considerably in construction. In Alaska, igloos are commonly constructed of planks and covered with earth., In Greenland, the walls usually consist of rocks, chinked with moss and earth, the structure being half underground, giving it a cave-like effect. No igloos made of ice are used, but some tribes of Eskimos make one-room, mound-shaped huts of hard snow for temporary shelters for use on hunting expeditions, and other tribes use snow igloos as winter homes. The snow igloo is simple in construction and may be built very rapidly by two men working together. One man cuts the cakes of hard snow, and the other man sets the cakes in position in a circle. The cakes or blocks of snow are shaped so that when put one on top of the other they lean inward, so that the hut wall arches over to form a low dome. . i For windows, the eskimos leave a square hole in the igloo roof, w which they put sheets of clear ice, or cover the aperture with the transparent intestine of a seal. The entrance is through a sort of tunnel through which it is necessary to crawl on hands and knees, for the snow houses have no doors. During the summer months the Eskimos leave their igloos. The Arctic summer is a continuous hunting season, during which the Eskimos live in " tuoeks " or tents made of skin, and of light enough construction to permit their being taken down and carried about by the Eskimos in their wanderings in search of «Cam*-