One year all the houses in a settlement may be occupied; the next year none, or only one or two.
These houses are about six feet high by eight to ten feet wide by ten to twelve feet long, and one may be constructed in a month.

An excavation is made in the earth, which forms the floor of the house; then the walls are built up solidly with stones chinked with moss; long, flat stones are laid across the top of the walls; this roof is covered with earth, and the whole house is banked in with snow.

The construction of the arched roof is on the plan which engineers know as the cantilever, and not that of the Roman arch.

The long, flat stones which form the roof are weighted and counter-weighted at the outer ends, and in all my arctic experience I have never known the stone roof of an igloo to fall upon the inmates.

There are never any complaints made to the Building Department.