issionaries were stationed at four or five spots,
for the purpose of converting the Esquimaux to Christianity. "Those
must be Christians, indeed, to my mind, who will go and live in such a
climate, for the sake of teaching their religion to the ignorant
heathen, who would not otherwise have a chance of having the truths of
the gospel preached to them," he observed; and I agreed with him. "I've
been told," he continued, "that during the winter the thermometer often
falls 30 degrees below the freezing point; and though the houses of the
missionaries are heated by stoves, the windows and walls are covered all
the time with ice, and the bed-clothes freeze to the walls. Rum is
frozen in the air as rapidly as water, and rectified spirits soon become
thick like oil. From December to June the sea is so completely frozen
over that no open water is to be seen. Once some of the missionaries
ventured, in February, to visit some Esquimaux forty miles distant, and
although wrapped in furs, they were nearly destroyed. Their eyelids
froze together, so that they were continually obliged to pull them
asunder, and, by constantly rubbing, prevent their closing; while one of
them had his hands frozen and swollen up like bladders. During their
short summer, however, the heat is excessive; and mosquitoes, in swarms,
infest the air."

"I hope we shall not have long to remain in those regions," I remarked.

"I hope not," said Thompson; "but who can tell? Ships, when they get
into the ice, cannot always get out again, and some have been frozen up
for several years together; yet, by proper precautions, few of the
people on board have died, and at length have returned to their friends
and country."

"It must be very dreary work, Andrew, having nothing but the ice and
snow to look at for such a length of time together," I remarked.

"I'll tell you what, Peter, when you have lived as long as I have, you
will discover, I hope, that it is not what one sees on the outside, so
much as what is in the inside of a man, which makes him happy and
contented, or the contrary," said Andrew. "Now I have met several men,
who have passed two winters running in those regions, when the sun was
not to be seen for months together, and ice and snow was all around
them; but the captain and officers being kind, and doing everything to
amuse them and to take care of their health, they assured me they never
enjoyed themselves more in their lives."

"I would r