Built With Snow.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XVIII, 30 April 1904, Page 61

Built With Snow.

Many natives of Alaska can construct snow huts in about the time that would be required to erect an ordinary tent. They select a place where the snow is about four feet deep. A space six feet by nine is marked out. Blocks two feet square are cut from the surface snow and set up on edge around the excava tion of the walls. At one end three feet of the space are dug down to the ground; in the balance about two feet of snow are left for a couch. The side and ends are built up tightly, and the whole is roofed with broad slabs of crusted snow, cut in pro- . per dimensions to form a flat gable roof, and loose snow is thrown over all to chink it. At the end which is dug down to the ground, a hole is cut just large enough to admit a man crawling in on his hands and knees. The hut is now finished, and the bedding and provisions are packed inside, but the arms and ammunition are generally left outside. After the outside work is finished everybody crawls into the hut,, and the opening is stopped up from the inside with a plug of snow which has been fitted carefully, and no one is expected to go out until it is time to break camp. The combined heat from the bodies of the inmates, together with the lamp they use, soon raises the temperature, and a degree of comfort is obtained, no matter how cold it may be outside. When feul is obtainable, a kitehen is added to the structure, with a fireplace cut out of the solid walls of snow. Fire in such a fireplace has been used for an hour a day for a month. The first heat softens the exposed snow, but the snow afterwards changes into solid ice, and remains unchanged so long as the temperature in the open air is below zero. About the middle of April these snow houses are no longer available,, as they become too damp for comfort and the natives then usually dig a hole down into the ground and roof the abode with skins.