hut they occupied was in some respects as remarkable as themselves.
It measured about six feet in height and ten in diameter. The walls
were made of flattish stones, moss, and the bones of seals, whales,
narwhals, and other Arctic creatures. The stones were laid so that each
overlapped the one below it, a very little inwards, and thus the walls
approached each other gradually as they rose from the foundation; the
top being finally closed by slabs of slate-stone. Similar stones
covered the floor--one half of which floor was raised a foot or so above
the other, and this raised half served for a seat by day as well as a
couch by night. On it were spread a thick layer of dried moss, and
several seal, dog, and bear skins. Smaller elevations in the corners
near the entrance served for seats. The door was a curtain of sealskin.
Above it was a small window, glazed, so to speak, with strips of
semi-transparent dried intestines sewed together.

Toolooha's cooking-lamp was made of soapstone, formed like a clam-shell,
and about eight inches in diameter; the fuel was seal-oil, and the wick
was of moss. It smoked considerably, but Eskimos are smoke-proof. The
pot above it, suspended from the roof, was also made of soapstone.
Sealskins hung about the walls drying; oily mittens, socks and boots
were suspended about on pegs and racks of rib-bones. Lumps of blubber
hung and lay about miscellaneously. Odours, not savoury, were therefore
prevalent--but Eskimos are smell-proof.

"Mother," said the giant, raising his eyes from the flame to his
parent's smoke-encircled visage, "they are a most wonderful people,
these Kablunets. Blackbeard is a great man--a grand man--but I think he
is--"

Chingatok paused, shook his head, and touched his forehead with a look
of significance worthy of a white man.

"Why think you so, my son?" asked the old woman, sneezing, as a denser
cloud than usual went up her nose.

"Because he has come here to search for _nothing_."

"Nothing, my son?"

"Yes--at least that is what he tried to explain to me. Perhaps the
interpreter could not explain. He is not a smart man, that interpreter.
He resembles a walrus with his brain scooped out. He spoke much, but I
could not understand."

"Could not understand?" repeated Toolooha, with an incredulous look,
"let not Chingatok say so. Is there _anything_ that passes the lips of
man which he cannot understand?"

"Truly, mother, I once thought there was no