Tonight, we’ll read about igloos and other polar quarters, from the book Secrets of Polar Travel written by Robert E. Peary and published in 1917.

Peary, a famed American Arctic explorer, led multiple expeditions to the far north and claimed to be the first person to reach the geographic North Pole. His writing blends technical insight with firsthand accounts of survival in extreme cold, offering a glimpse into the ingenuity required to build shelter in some of Earth’s harshest climates.

Although igloos, or snow shelters, are often associated with all Inuit, they were traditionally used only by the people of Canada’s Central Arctic and a part of Greenland. Other Inuit groups constructed more permanent dwellings from driftwood, whalebone, and hides, using snow as insulation rather than structural material. Snow works as an insulator because of the tiny air pockets trapped within it—an important fact when outside temperatures plunge to −45 °C (−49 °F), while inside a well-constructed igloo, body heat alone can raise the temperature to a surprisingly livable 16 °C (61 °F).