Note 448 — Chapter IV · CALIFORNIANS.
Reading edition
'The lodges are dome-shaped; like beaver-houses, an arched roof covers a deep pit sunk in the ground, the entrance to which is a round hole.' Lord's Nat., vol. i., p. 278. 'Large round huts, perhaps 20 feet in diameter, with rounded tops, on which was the door by which they descended into the interior.' Fremont's Explor. Ex., p. 204. 'The Modoc excavates a circular space from two to four feet deep, then makes over it a conical structure of puncheons, which is strongly braced up with timbers, frequently hewn and a foot square.' Powers, in Overland Monthly, vol. x., p. 536; Id., vol. ix., p. 156. 'The style was very substantial, the large poles requiring five or six men to lift.' Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 175. 'Have only an opening at the summit.' Domenech's Deserts, vol. ii., p. 261. On the inside of the door they frequently place a sliding panel. 'The Kailtas build wigwams in a conical shape—as all tribes on the Trinity do—but they excavate no cellars.' Powers' Pomo, MS. See full description of dwellings, by Johnston, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 223. The entrance is a 'round hole just large enough to crawl into, which is on a level with the surface of the ground, or is cut through the roof.' Johnson, in Overland Monthly, vol. ii., p. 536; Miller's Life Amongst the Modocs, p. 377.