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Fireplaces Of Snow

Fireplaces Of Snow image
Parent Issue
Day
9
Month
July
Year
1897
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

About tbc ead cf J'uuary, or when the snu ajrsin sppean above the horizon, rnany families a.t the two Eskimo villages uear Point Barrow, in Alaska, leave their winter houses and travel inland 75 or 100 miles to hunt reindeer along the npper waters of the large rivers that flow into the Arctic oceau east of the point. Here they encamp in large, corufortable suow houses, nsually dug out in a solid snowdrift. Like all Eskimo wiuter houses, these are entered by means of a long, low tunnel, and opening out of one side of this tunnel there is a fireplace built of snow slabs. A young man and nis wife moved down from Point Barrow after winter had set in, aud as there was no accommodation for them in any of the permanent wooden houses they built themselves a small hut from blocks of snow and roofed it over with sailoloth. I made them a visit one afternoon and found the house pretty cold and uncomfortable in spite of the large stone lamp that was buruing all the time. The entrance tuimel was about ten feet long. At the left hand as you entered and close to the door was the fireplace. This was about 2% feet square and neatly built of slabs of snow, with a smoke hole at the top and a stick stuck across at the proper height to hang a pot on. When the first fire is built in such a fireplace, there is considerable melting of the surface of the snow, but as soon as the fire is allowed to go out this freezes to a hard glaze of ice, which afterward melts only a very lïttle. These fireplaces are used only for cooking, as the Eskimos rely wholly on the oil lamps for warming the dwellinc. -

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News