(Footnote.  See Introduction to Hearne’s Journey page 24.)

The winter habitations of Esquimaux who visit Churchill are built of snow and, judging from one constructed by Augustus today, they are very comfortable dwellings.  Having selected a spot on the river where the snow was about two feet deep and sufficiently compact he commenced by tracing out a circle twelve feet in diameter.  The snow in the interior of the circle was next divided with a broad knife having a long handle into slabs three feet long, six inches thick, and two feet deep, being the thickness of the layer of snow.  These slabs were tenacious enough to admit of being moved about without breaking or even losing the sharpness of their angles and they had a slight degree of curvature corresponding with that of the circle from which they were cut.  They were piled upon each other exactly like courses of hewn stone around the circle which was traced out and care was taken to smooth the beds of the different courses with the knife, and to cut them so as to give the wall a slight inclination inwards, by which contrivance the building acquired the properties of a dome.  The dome was closed somewhat suddenly and flatly by cutting the upper slabs in a wedge-form instead of the more rectangular shape of those below.  The roof was about eight feet high, and the last aperture was shut up by a small conical piece.  The whole was built from within and each slab was cut so that it retained its position without requiring support until another was placed beside it, the lightness of the slabs greatly facilitating the operation.  When the building was covered in a little loose snow was thrown over it to close up every chink and a low door was cut through the walls with a knife.  A bed-place was next formed and neatly faced up with slabs of snow, which was then covered with a thin layer of pine branches to prevent them from melting by the heat of the body.  At each end of the bed a pillar of snow was erected to place a lamp upon, and lastly a porch was built before the door and a piece of clear ice was placed in an aperture cut in the wall for a window.

The purity of the material of which the house was framed, the elegance of its construction, and the translucency of its walls which transmitted a very pleasant light, gave it an appearance far superior to a marble building and one might survey it with feelings somewhat akin to those produced by the contemplation of a Grecian temple reared by Phidias; both are triumphs of art, inimitable in their kinds.

Annexed there is a plan of a complete Esquimaux snow-house and kitchen and other apartments copied from a sketch made by Augustus with the names of the different places affixed.  The only fireplace is in the kitchen, the heat of the lamps sufficing to keep the other apartments warm. (Not included in this ebook.)

REFERENCES TO THE PLAN.