, and tied there by ozier twigs or ropes. The
outside of these is covered with birch or pine bark, over which there is
sometimes a thatching of coarse grass, fastened down by other poles and
oziers. This kind of hut is generally erected in the centre of a square
platform, elevated ten or twelve feet, upon large posts planted deep in
the ground. Poles are again placed in rows under the building and
between the posts, where they dry their fish, which the hut serves to
cover from the weather, as well as to store and preserve them when
dried. The door of the ballagan is always opposite to the water; the
fire-place on a bed of earth outside, at one corner of the platform. A
large piece of timber, with notches cut in it instead of steps, and
placed against the platform at an angle of forty-five degrees, is the
method of ascending and descending, particularly unsafe and inconvenient
for those not accustomed to so uncouth a staircase.

The winter house, or _jourta_, is a sort of subterranean dwelling. It
generally consists of a frame of timber, put into a square hole four or
five feet deep, and within the frame a quantity of stakes are set close
together, inclining a little inwards, and the earth thrown against them.
The stakes are left round on the outside, but hewn within, and the top
is framed over in the same manner and arched and supported by
stanchions. In the centre of the roof is a square hole, which serves the
double purpose of a door and a chimney, the inhabitants passing in or
out by means of a piece of timber with notches cut in it, such as we
have before described. The top and sides of the jourta are covered
outside with a quantity of earth and sodded. At one end, there is a
large hole with a stopper to it, which is opened when the oven is
heating, to force the smoke out at the door. When once heated, and the
stopper closed, jourtas are warm, and, were it not for the smoke, would
be comfortable. The description of such subterranean habitations, and of
the lives led by these rude people during their long and bitter winters,
cannot be read without reviving in the memory those lines of Virgil,
which describe a race similar in all respects--even to the acid liquors
they distil; but dwelling in regions far less remote from the warm skies
of Italy.--

"Ipsi in defossis specubus secura sub alta
Otia agunt terra; congestaque robora, totasque
Advolvere focis ulmos, ignique dedere.
Hic noctem ludo ducunt, e