272 RICHARDSON'S AND RAE'S EXPLORATIONS. 



within their own community the rights of property are 

 held in great respect, even the hunting-grounds of fami- 

 lies being kept sacred. Yet their covetousness of the 

 property of strangers, and their dexterity in thieving, 

 are remarkable, and they seem to have most of the vices, 

 as well as the virtues, of the Norwegian Vikings. Their 

 personal bravery is conspicuous, and they are the only 

 native nation on the North American continent who 

 oppose their enemies face to face in open fight. In- 

 stead of flying, like the northern Indians, on the sight 

 of a stranger, they did not scruple, in parties of two or 

 three, to come off to our boats and enter into barter; 

 and never, on any occasion, showed the least disposi- 

 tion to yield anything belonging to them through fear." 

 The Esquimaux winter huts are thus described : 



" These buildings are generally placed on points 

 where the water is deep enough for a boat to come to 

 the beach, such a locality being probably selected by 

 the natives to enable them to tow a whale or seal more 

 closely to the place where it is to be cut up. The 

 knowledge of this fact induced us generally to look for 

 the buildings when we wished to land. The houses are 

 constructed of drift-timber, strongly built together, and 

 covered with earth to the thickness of from one to two 

 feet. Light and air are admitted by a low door at one 

 end ; and even this entrance is closed by a slab of snow 

 in the winter time, when their lamps supply them with 

 heat as well as light. Ten or twelve people may seat 

 themselves in the area of one of these houses, though 

 not comfortably ; and in the winter the imperfect admis- 

 sion of fresh air, and the effluvia arising from the greasy 

 bodies of a whole family, must render them most disa- 

 greeable as well as unwholesome abodes. I have been 

 told that when the family alone are present, the several 

 members of it sit partly or even wholly naked." 



