The interior walls, in severe weather, become coated with frost films from the breath, etc., condensing and crystallizing on the inside of the dome and often presenting by the lamplight a brilliant show of myriads of reflecting surfaces scintillating with greater luster than skillfully set gems.
If the roof is not carefully shaped it is liable to cave in from the heat within softening the snow, especially in moderate weather, and then the entire structure falls.
Where the owner of the house has considerable possessions which must be protected from the dogs and the weather, a similar structure is prepared alongside of the dwelling and often connected with it by means of a communicating passage-way. An exterior opening may be made and closed with a block of snow. The larger articles, such as bags of oil and bundles of skins, are put inside before the walls are up, if intended to be stored for some time.
As I have slept in these snow-houses I can assert that, while very uncomfortable, they afford a protection which can not be dispensed with. When the doorway is open they soon become very cold, and when closed upon several persons the heat becomes intolerable. Odors from the food remain long after the remnants are disposed of, and where one has been occupied for a long period the accumulation of refuse becomes so great that a new structure is indispensable in order to get rid of it. All the work of the different members of the family is performed within the walls. The skins of animals are dressed and tanned there. The offal of game and the hair from dressed skins mingle in one mass, which soon putrefies and creates such a stench that only an Eskimo with most obtuse sense of smell could inhabit the place.
When spring comes the huts begin to melt and in the course of a few warm days fall down. If the weather is too inclement to permit a skin tent to be occupied, the first hole in the wall may be patched with a deerskin, but this will afford very limited protection from the cold of nights, for, however warm the days, the nights will, until late in May, be so cold that only the older individuals withstand the cold.
When the structure falls, melted by sun or rain, the miserable occupants must erect temporary shelter of deerskin or cloth on the bare rocky ridges. Those too poor to own a skin tent have often but a blanket of deerskin, stretched over three or four poles, set to shelter them from the chilly northerly winds usually prevailing at that season.