﻿348 ESKIMOS. 



thickly with earth, and are used only in winter. 

 They have no windows, and are entered by a low 

 side door, or, when they stand in situations where 

 the drift-snow lies deep, by a trap-door in the 

 roof. The floor is laid with timber, and they have 

 no fire-places ; but a stone placed in the centre 

 serves for a support to the lamp, by which the 

 little cooking that is required is performed. For 

 the site of a village, a bold point of the coast is 

 generally chosen where the water is deep enough 

 to float a whale ; and to the eastward of Cape 

 Parry, where we saw no whales, we met mth no 

 villages, although solitary winter-houses occur here 

 and there on that coast. The association of a 

 number of families is necessary for the successful 

 pursuit of the whale. When the villagers of the 

 estuary of the Mackenzie, or of Cape Bathurst, 

 are fortunate enough to kill one or more of these 

 marine beasts, they revel in greasy abundance 

 during the dark months, and the ponds and the soil 

 around are saturated with the oil that escapes. 



In March the seals have their young, and soon 

 afterwards they become the principal objects of 

 chase to the Eskimos, who greatly esteem their 

 dark and unsightly flesh, reckoning it as choice 

 food. The seal, being a warm-blooded animal, 

 respiring air, requires a breathing-hole in the ice, 

 which it has the power of keeping open in the 



