The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-12-03
COMFORTS OF A SNOW HOUSE.

How to Build One and Live in 1t
Better than Tent.
The experience of those who tent in
the arctic during the colder winter
months is to be summarized about as
follows:
When the tent has been pitched the
temperature within 1T is some 10 or 20
degrees higher than outside, or 30 de-
grees If it is 80 degrees in the open
ole Is damp and warm from the siren
nous exercise of the day, but soon be-
comes cold and shiyers; one crawls
into his sleeping-bag and make entries
In the diary clumsily with ones NIT
tens on; the heat from ones body forms
boar frost on everything Iii the tent,
and congeals in the sleeping-bag, so
that 1t becomes stiff and heavy with
ice during the days travel when 1t
freezes, and soaking wet when one gets
into Ii at hight and thaws 1t out; this
in turn vets ones clothing. and the
trousers and coat freeze stiff as sole
leather when one breaks camp in the
morning; the twenty-four hours are a
round of wretchedhess, and the Ice
crusted tent and icy sleeping-bags be-
come heavy load for the s'ed, writes
V. Stefansson in Harper's Magazine.
When one follows Eskimo methods
the conditions are markedly different
On any treeless open (unless 1t be per-
haps during the first month of winter,
an area of compactly drifted snow is
easily found the snow-kniyes (of bone
or iron, according to clrcumstances(
are brought out and the surface of the
drift is divided into blocks of domino
shape, says fourteen by thirty inches
and four inches thick these are Their
placed on edge and end to end in cir
Gle the size of the desired ground area
Of the domeshaped hut; then, on the
principles of architecture that apply to
homes, whether made OF stone or snow
| the beehive house is completed. Two
men can in an hour build n house
large enough for eight to sleep in.
When the house Is completed a door
way is cut in Its side near the ground
skins are spread over the floor, on'
brushes himself clear of snow as posi-
bible aud crawls Inside. The oil lamps
are then lit, and the house is soon
brought to q temperature considerably
above the freezing point; for snow Is
one of the best-known nonconductors
| Of heat. aid the intense cold OF the
outside penetrates the walls only to
very slight degree. But when the house
gets warm the inner side OF the snow
| dome begins to thaw, and the water
formed is sucked up into the snow
blotter fashion, when this water pene-
trates far enough into the snow to meet
| the cold from the outside it freezes, and
| or snow house is turned into an ice
| . dle so strong that polar bear car
crawl over ii without danger of break
ing through.
When once inside the house the EsN
mos strip naked to the waist and hang
their clothes to dry on pegs in the wall.
On some Journeys we had sheet-iron
stoves (procured from whalers In for
mer years., which we installed In thu
snow houses, and In which we Duir
roaring fires.
One is we'll placed to take comfort 10
the ingenuity OF man overcoming a
harsh environment when, sitting snug,
warm and lightly clad, one listens t'
an arctic blizzard whining helplessly
over the ice vault that two hours be.
fore was an oval snow bank. longed
for dressing gown and slippers. but
one cannot burden his sled with such
luxuries. There was no cold to make
the hand numb in writing the diary,
no frost to CONCEAL on the bed clothing
and make them wet, none Of the nightI
discomforts and the morrow's forebod.
ings that have been the stock in trade
of the makers Of arctic books. And
when we broke camp In the morning wa
did not burden the sled with an ice'
stitched 1O0-pound tent, but stuck in
our belt the ten-ounce snow-knlfe, our
potential roof for the coming night.