a
button behind.

Their breeches, of which in winter they also wear two pairs, and
similarly disposed as to the fur, reach below the knee, and fasten with
a string drawn tight round the waist. Though these have little or no
waistband, and do not come very high, the depth of the jackets, which
considerably overlap them, serves very effectually to complete the
covering of the body.

Their legs and feet are so well clothed, that no degree of cold can well
affect them. When a man goes on a sealing excursion, he first puts on a
pair of deerskin boots (_All~ekt=eeg~a_) with the hair inside, and
reaching to the knee, where they tie. Over these come a pair of shoes of
the same material; next a pair of dressed sealskin boots, perfectly
water-tight; and over all a corresponding pair of shoes, tying round the
instep. These last are made just like the moccasin of a North American
Indian, being neatly crimped at the toes, and having several serpentine
pieces of hide sewn across the sole to prevent wearing. The water-tight
boots and shoes are made of the skin of the small seal (_neitiek_),
except the soles, which consist of the skin of the large seal (_oguk~e_);
this last is also used for their fishing-lines. When the men are not
prepared to encounter wet, they wear an outer boot of deerskin, with the
hair outside.

The inner boot of the women, unlike that of the men, is loose round the
leg, coming as high as the knee-joint behind, and in front carried up,
by a long pointed flap, nearly to the waist, and there fastened to the
breeches. The upper boot, with the hair as usual outside, corresponds
with the other in shape, except that it is much more full, especially on
the outer side, where it bulges out so preposterously as to give the
women the most awkward, bow-legged appearance imaginable. This
superfluity of boot has probably originated in the custom, still common
among the native women of Labrador, of carrying their children in them.
We were told that these women sometimes put their children there to
sleep; but the custom must be rare among them, as we never saw it
practised. These boots, however, form their principal pockets, and
pretty capacious ones they are. Here, also, as in jackets, considerable
taste is displayed in the selection of different parts of the deerskin,
alternate strips of dark and white being placed up and down the sides
and front by way of ornament. The women also wear a moccasin
(_Itteeg~eg~a_) over all i