Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 139 June to November 1919 . simpler than that of building withblocks of masonry, for stone is an in-tractable substance and has to be shapedaccording to a mathematical calculaticnor molded in an exact form before it isput in its intended position; but, snowbeing a most tractable substance, allforethought becomes unnecessary. Weplace the block in its approximate posi-tion in the wall and then lean it gradu-ally against the block that next pre-ceded it, and, by the method of trial anderror, continually snip off* piece afterpiece until the block settles comfor
Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 139 June to November 1919 . simpler than that of building withblocks of masonry, for stone is an in-tractable substance and has to be shapedaccording to a mathematical calculaticnor molded in an exact form before it isput in its intended position; but, snowbeing a most tractable substance, allforethought becomes unnecessary. Weplace the block in its approximate posi-tion in the wall and then lean it gradu-ally against the block that next pre-ceded it, and, by the method of trial anderror, continually snip off* piece afterpiece until the block settles comfortablyinto the position where it belongs. Aglance at the photographs, especially theones illustrating the latter steps in thebuilding, shows that the blocks cannotpossibly fall unless they first break. It becomes evident, therefore, that,with photographs and a description andpossibly, for suretys sake, a diagram ortwo in addition, the building of snowhouses could be taught by correspond-ence to boys in any place on earth wherethe winters are cold enough and the. A HALT FOR DINNER CARE IS REQUIRED TO GET THE BLOCKS IN POSITION winds strong enough to form hard snow-drifts that last for several days or weeksat a time. Yet it is curious and hard toexplain that the building of snow houseshas until just lately been considered asort of mystery. Sir Leopold McClintockwas one of the first (if not the first) ofpolar explorers to point out that snowhouses are so comfortable that their usewould make Arctic exploration a sim-pler, safer, and pleasanter occupation,but he goes on to say that unfortunatelywhite men cannot make snow houses,and that he himself did the next bestthing by erecting vertical walls of snowand roofing them over with a comments on the inferiority of thisdwelling to the real snow house, but in-sists that it is greatly superior to theordinary tent used in exploration. Whileit is odd that McClintock should be sofar behind the Eskimos with whom heassociated, in
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