Distance lends enchantment to the view of their houses, which will not bear close inspection.
[Illustration: A GILYAK VILLAGE.] Some of the houses might contain a half dozen families of ordinary size, and were well adapted to the climate.

While we took wood at a Gilyak village I embraced the opportunity to visit the aboriginals.
The village contained a dozen dwellings and several fish-houses.

The buildings were of logs or poles, split in halves or used whole, and were roofed with poles covered with a thatch of long grass to exclude rain and cold.

Some of the dwelling houses had the solid earth for floors, while others had floorings of hewn planks.
The store houses were elevated on posts like those of an American 'corn barn,' and were wider and lower than the dwellings.

Each storehouse had a platform in front where canoes, fishing nets, and other portable property were stowed.