eared about forty and twenty-two years of age,
and were accompanied by a good-looking and good-humoured boy of
nine or ten. They each held in their hand a sealskin case or
quiver, containing a bow and three or four arrows, with a set of
which they willingly parted, on being presented with a knife in
exchange. The first looks with which they received us betrayed a
mixture of stupidity and apprehension, but both wore off in a few
minutes on our making them understand that we wished to go to
their habitations. With this request they complied without
hesitation, tripping along before us for above two miles over very
rough ground, and crossing one or two considerable streams running
from a lake into the sea. This they performed with so much
quickness that we could with difficulty keep up with them, though
they good-naturedly stopped now and then till we overtook them. We
were met on our way by two women, from twenty to twenty-five years
of age, having each a child at her back; they too accompanied us
to their tent, which was situated on a high part of the coast
overlooking the sea. It consisted of a rude circular wall of loose
stones, from six to eight feet in diameter and three in height, in
the centre of which stood an upright pole, made of several pieces
of fir-wood lashed together by thongs, and serving as a support to
the deerskins that formed the top covering. Soon after our arrival
we were joined by a good-looking, modest girl of about eight, and
a boy five years old. Of these nine persons, which were all we now
saw, only the elder man and two of the children belonged to this
tent, the habitations of the others being a little more inland.
The faces of the women were round, plump, tattooed, and, in short,
completely Esquimaux. The _kayak_ or canoe belonging to this
establishment was carefully laid on the rocks close to the
seaside, with the paddle and the man's mittens in readiness beside
it. The timbers were entirely of wood, and covered, as usual, with
sealskin. Its length was nineteen feet seven inches, and its
extreme breadth two feet; it was raised a little at each end, and
the rim or gunwale of the circular hole in the middle was high,
and made of whalebone. A handsome sealskin was smoothly laid
within as a seat, and the whole was sewn and put together with
great neatness. The paddle was double, made of fir, and the ends
of the blades tipped with bone, to prevent splitting.

The fireplace in the tent consisted