The builder next proceeds to let himself out by enlarging the proposed
doorway into the form of a Gothic arch, three feet high and two feet and
a half wide at the bottom, communicating with which they construct two
passages, each from ten to twelve feet long and from four to five feet
in height, the lowest being that next the hut. The roofs of these
passages are sometimes arched, but more generally made flat by slabs
laid on horizontally. In first digging the snow for building the hut,
they take it principally from the part where the passages are to be
made, which purposely brings the floor of the latter considerably lower
than that of the hut, but in no part do they dig till the bare ground
appears.

The work just described completes the walls of a hut, if a single
apartment only be required; but if, on account of relationship, or from
any other cause, several families are to reside under one roof, the
passages are made common to all, and the first apartment (in that case
made smaller) forms a kind of antechamber, from which you go through an
arched doorway five feet high into the inhabited apartments. When there
are three of these, which is generally the case, the whole building,
with its adjacent passages, forms a tolerably regular cross.

For the admission of light into the huts, a round hole is cut on one
side of the roof of each apartment, and a circular plate of ice, three
or four inches thick and two feet in diameter, let into it. The light is
soft and pleasant, like that transmitted through ground glass, and it is
quite sufficient for every purpose. When, after some time, these
edifices become surrounded by drift, it is only by the windows, as I
have before remarked, that they could be recognised as human
habitations. It may, perhaps, then be imagined how singular is their
external appearance at night, when they discover themselves only by a
circular disk of light transmitted through the windows from the lamps
within.

The next thing to be done is to raise a bank of snow, two and a half
feet high, all round the interior of each apartment, except on the side
next the door. This bank, which is neatly squared off, forms their beds
and fireplace, the former occupying the sides, and the latter the end
opposite the door. The passage left open up to the fireplace is between
three and four feet wide. The beds are arranged by first covering the
snow with a quantity of small stones, over which are laid their paddles