HABITATIONS. 151

reach of dogs and rats. Having the rodents in mind, the Carrier always strips
of their bark the uprights, which he strives to render as smooth-surfaced
as possible.

That style of caches! is, with one exception, general throughout the
basin of the North Pacific, including the Alaskan Loucheux. The exception
is formed by the Chilcotins, whose stores, or depositories, follow the pattern
of fig. 22 which, however, is evidently of modern origin.

When the Sékanais and other strictly roving tribes happen to be blessed
with an abundance of dried meat, they usually erect a sort of scaffolding
immediately against the trunk of a tall tree, which constitutes their only
cache. Two stout poles crossed against the tree to which they are fastened at
their points of intersection, with their ends secured in the branches thereof,
form the frame-work of the cache, over which rough boards or split sticks
serve as a floor. Thereon are deposited the eatables and other goods, gener-
ally well wrapped, or in sacks or bark vessels.

The menstrual lodge has no regulation style or fixed shape in the
north. It is simply a shelter or booth of foliage, often covered with spruce
bark among the Carriers. But the Hupas almost raise it to the dignity of an
institution by decorating it with a name of its own, mintc. Yet even there it
consists merely of a pit roofed with planks.

The fishing lodge is a mere shack open to every wind, with low walls
of superposed poles held up by pairs of uprights and a roof of spruce bark,
much like that of the smaller summer house. There is an entrance without
any door, and the walls of the gable ends are not any higher than those of
the sides, thereby leaving open the triangular space extending to the apex
of the shack. Perfect ventilation is thereby established, and air has unimpeded
access to the fish left to dry, suspended from the usual long rods resting on
the rafters. With the same end in view, no attempt is made to fill in the
numerous chinks between the component parts of the walls.

1 Cache is a French word, much used by the traders, which is derived from the verb
cacher, to hide away. The same style of aerial stores prevails also throughout eastern Siberia.