The _balagans_ are raised upon nine posts, fixed into the earth in three rows, at equal distances from one another, and about thirteen feet high from the surface. At the height of between nine and ten feet, rafters are passed from post to post, and firmly secured by strong ropes. On these rafters are laid the joists, and the whole being covered with turf, constitutes the platform or floor of the _balagan_. On this is raised a roof of a conical figure, by means of tall poles, fastened down to the rafters at one end, and meeting together in a point at the top, and thatched over with strong coarse grass. The _balagans_ have two doors placed opposite each other, and they ascend to them by the same sort of ladders they use in the _jourts_. The lower part is left entirely open; and within it they dry their fish, roots, vegetables, and other articles of winter consumption. The proportion of _jourts_ and _balagans_, is as one to six; so that six families generally live together in one _jourt_.
The loghouses (_isbas_) are raised with long timbers piled horizontally, the ends being let into one another, and the seams caulked with moss. The roof is sloping like that of our common cottage-houses, and thatched with coarse grass or rushes. The inside consists of three apartments. At one end is what may be called the entry, which runs the whole width and height of the house, and is the receptacle of their sledges, harness, and other more bulky gears and household stuff. This communicates with the middle and best apartment, furnished with broad benches, for the purpose, as hath been above-mentioned, of both eating and sleeping upon. Out of this is a door into the kitchen; one half of which is taken up by the oven or fire-place, so contrived, by being let into the wall that separates the kitchen and the middle apartment, as to warm both at the same time. Over the middle apartment and kitchen are two lofts, to which they ascend by a ladder placed in the entry. There are two small windows in each apartment, made of talc, and in the houses of the poorer sort of fish-skin. The beams and boards of the cieling are dubbed smooth with a hatchet (for they are unacquainted with the plane), and from the effects of the smoke are as black and shining as jet.