140 THE GREAT DENE RACE.

at house building. Whenever practicable these shelters went in pairs, the
second hut facing the first so as to complete the circle, yet leaving sufficient
room between the two for the fire-place, which was common to both. This
arrangement had also the advantage of creating a draft in the proper direc-
tion, and reducing to a minimum the amount of smoke in the lodges them-
selves. It is still followed by the western Dénés whenever they camp out.

The huts of the Loucheux whom Thomas Simpson met on the lower
Mackenzie, in the summer of 1837, and indeed those of several other
northern tribes visited by the early explorers, were likewise “formed of green
branches” !, But the author is not precise concerning their respective loca-
tions, though he records the fact that they lined the river banks.

Whymper enters into more details concerning the Alaskan Loucheux.
He expressly mentions the geminate arrangement of the habitations as still
obtaining among the native population of the old Fort Yukon. Those lodges
were, he says, “usually placed two together, the doorway facing each other,
with a small fire burning between them’’?,

As they came into contact with the Crees of the south, their innate
penchant for imitation made them adopt the well known Algonquin tepees,
or conical skin-covered lodges, which are now in almost general use throughout
the territory of the eastern Dénés. The accompanying illustration will explain
their construction and appearance for the benefit of such as may be entirely
unacquainted with American aboriginal technology. Their chief advantages
are their portability, their heat-keeping properties, and consequently the
economy in fuel which they render possible. The poles that form their frame-
work are easily carried about, a most important consideration in a barren
country occupied by nomads, and a few twigs or an inconsiderable quantity
of half rotten wood will keep them warm. It is true that delicate eyes may
at times be tempted to complain of the smoke; but during the summer
months fire is, of course, built outside.

The same receptiveness which prompted the eastern Dénés to adopt
the tepees of their southern neighbours induced their western congeners to

* “Narrative” etc., p. 103.

*s, > Op. cit., p. 222. The above had been written
0 for some time when I came upon the accompanying
H plan of the Yukon Loucheux huts in Fred. Schwatka’s
> “Along Alaska’s Great River’ (New York, 1885, p. 229),
? which fully confirms my assertions. The huts described
& by that explorer were composed of two poles crossed
Pemses snes bnew sone 27? at their upper extremities, forming an angle over the
Ground Flan apex of which rested the end of a third or ridge pole,
of Yoton Loucheux Huls. close to which spruce brush was disposed in a semi-
circle, with a moose or cariboo skin on top of the
structure. I have seen many such huts among the Sékanais. In a large village on the middle
Yukon “the ridge poles were common to two houses, and as both leaned forward considerably,

this gave them strength to resist violent winds” (ubi supra, pp. 228—29).

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