146 THE GREAT DENE RACE.

on the plates 6. To ensure additional comfort and warmth inside, the lower
end of each stick was covered up with earth. The middle ones were made pur-
posely shorter, so as to create an opening for the smoke. A covering of spruce
bark was then added, with poles resting against it for a support.

To form the gable end opposite to the entrance a transversal beam c
was laid on side plate 6, while uprights filled in the whole space, over
which fascines of evergreens or saplings leant so as to close all possible
interstices. As to the entrance, it was formed by two stakes driven in the
ground and the resulting space either closed by means of sewn salmon skins,
or by a large board which, suspended from above, was allowed to swing in
or out according to the movements of the inmates.

As a further precaution against the cold, a door-yard or vestibule was
added by means of poles whose small ends rested on the gable, while their
butts described a semi-circle on the ground. An additional entrance was
closed by some worthless skin in the hair. This semi-circular appendage was
covered with brush, and served not only as a shelter for fire-wood, but also
as a kennel for the dogs and a bath-room for the old men. The whole
structure will be better understood by a glance at fig. 16, which shows both
ground plan and cross-section of the same.

Circular Huts or Tents.

Figs. 17 and 18 give respectively the frame and a transversal cut of a very
different type of building. It was used in winter by the southern Carriers and
the Chilcotins, who had borrowed it from the
neighbouring Shushwaps. This was the famous
ttizkheen or underground hut. The accom-

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To eeneno-”

Fig. 17. Fig. 18.

panying figures are plain enough to require no more than a very few words of
explanation. An excavation was made some three feet deep and about eighteen
in diameter, after which the butt ends of four large beams were laid”some
distance from the brim, while their smaller ends were locked in those’ of as
many shorter beams, which formed at the same time the door way and the
chimney of the hut. The main posts, protected by inner props, were covered
by split poles laid over additional stakes (fig. 18).