Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1910-05-31
With Saw Knife Good Shelter May
He Constructed I'm an HOur

With Saw Knife Good Shelter May
BE Constructed In an Hour.
Since the first days of our polar
excitement the United States has been
daily bandying about little molecules
of the Eskimo language. Sometimes
we have got an igloo mixed up with
kayak and one poet recently spoke
of Commander Peary journeying to-
ward the pole "by the igloo's pale
light" Nobody knows just what was
in the poets mind, but here, accord
ing to Commander Peary in Hamp-
tons, Is an explanation of the igloo;
No man should go into the field
In the north in winter unless he knows
how to build a shelter for himself
against the cold and the storm.
The size of the igloo depends usu-
ally upon the number of men in the
party. If built for three men 1t will
be about five feet by eight feet on
the inside; If for five men 1t will
be about eight by ten, in order to give
greater width to the sleeping platform.
Four good men can build one of
lncSG SAOW uOuSSS III al uOuI. uSJ
each take a saw knife from the up
ISLANDERS of the sledge and set to work
cutting snow blocks. The saw knives
are about twenty inches long and are
strong and stiff, with cutting edge
on one side and saw teeth on the 9TH
er. The blocks of snow are of differ
ent sizes, those for the bottom row
being larger and heavier than those
for the upper rows, and all of them are
curved on the inner side, so that
when set together they will form
circle. The thickness Of the wall de-
ponds upon the hardness of the snow.
If it Is closely pacekd the walls may
be only few inches thick; If the snow
is soft the walls should be thicker,
partly for warmth and partly that the
blocks may hold their shape The
blocks for the bottom layer are some
times two or three feet long and two
feet high, sometimes they are much
smaller; there Is no regular rule about
it. When there are sufficient blocks TO
make an igloo the site Is selected,
usually sloping bank of snow, and
an Eskimo takes his position on the
spot which is to be the center of the
structure. Then the others bring the
snow blocks and place them end to
end, on edge, to form an eggshaped
ring about the man in the center. The
second row is placed on top of the first,
but sloping slightly inward, and the
following rows are carried up in a
gradually ascending spiral each sue
cessive layer leaning inward little
more and each block held in place by
the blocks on either side. until finally
an aperture is left in the top to be
filled with one block.
This block is then properly shaped
by the man inside the igloo, he pushes
1t up endwise through the aperture.
turns it over by reaching through the
top, lowers 1t into place and chips off
the edges with his knife until it fits
the hole like the keystone of an arch,
firmly keying the beehive7shaped strue-
ture.
A hole Just large enough for a man
to crawl through Is cut close to the
bottom on one side and any super
fiuous snow inside the igloo Is thrown
out through this hole. In the rear, or
larger end. the sloping floor is leveled
off to form bed platform, and in
front OF this the floor is dug down a
foot or more for standing space and
a space for the oil stoves.