and
customs of the Esquimaux, their wretched hovels, or "yourts,"
snow-dwellings, and underground huts, and the general want of
cleanliness in their persons and dwellings.

Speaking of a tribe which he visited, he says, "We found them very
honest, extremely good-natured and friendly. Their tents were
constructed of skins, loosely stretched over a few spars of
drift-wood, and were neither wind nor water tight. The tents were, as
usual, filthy, but suitable to the taste of their inhabitants, who no
doubt saw nothing in them that was revolting. The natives testified
much pleasure at our visit, and placed before us several dishes,
amongst which were two of their choicest,--the entrails of a fine
seal, and a bowl of coagulated blood. But desirous as we were to
oblige them, there was not one of our party that could be induced to
partake of their hospitality. Seeing our reluctance, they tried us
with another dish, consisting of the raw flesh of the narwhal, nicely
cut into lumps, with an equal distribution of black and white fat, but
they were not more successful here than at first."

The Seal

The seal's flesh supplies the natives with their most palatable and
substantial food, which however has a fishy flavour, as the creatures
feed chiefly on fish. Seals are sometimes taken on land, when
surprised basking in the sun, with their young. As soon as they are
alarmed by the sight of their enemies, they scuttle away, and make for
the sea[4]. It is on the great deep that the Esquimaux, driven by
hunger, chiefly seeks his precarious food. In his light canoe, which
is made of seal-skins stretched over a slight framework of wood, he
hunts, in all weathers, for his prey, especially for the much-prized
Narwhal.

There, tumbling in their seal-skin boat,
Fearless, the hungry fishers float,
And from the teeming seas supply
The food their niggard plains deny.

[Footnote 4: See ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES, _Common Seal_. Published by the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.]

The Narwhal

[Illustration: ESQUIMAUX STRIKING A NARWHAL]

The same intrepid boldness is shown in their chase of the reindeer,
the bear, and the fox. Over the boundless deserts of snow they are
borne rapidly along by their faithful dogs, which are harnessed to a
sledge, six or seven to the team, and which scamper away, often in
seeming confusion, but with a precision of aim and object which is
perfectly surprising. No country presents a finer