412 cook's voyage to aug. 



large enough to cover both head and shoulders. 

 Their hair seemed to be black ; but their heads were 

 either shaved, or the hair cut close off; and none of 

 them wore any beard. Of the few articles which 

 they got from us, knives and tobacco were what they 

 valued most. 



We found the village composed both of their sum- 

 mer and their winter habitations. The latter are 

 exactly like a vault, the floor of which is sunk a little 

 below the surface of the earth. One of them which 

 I examined, was of an oval form, about twenty feet 

 long, and twelve or more high. The framing was 

 composed of wood, and the ribs of whales, disposed 

 in a judicious manner, and bound together with 

 smaller materials of the same sort. Over this framing 

 is laid a covering of strong coarse grass ; and that 

 again is covered with earth ; so that, on the outside, 

 the house looks like a little hillock, supported by a 

 wall of stone, three or four feet high, which is built 

 round the two sides, and one end. At the other end 

 the earth is raised sloping, to walk up to the entrance, 

 which is by a hole in the top of the roof over that 

 end, The floor was boarded, and under it a kind of 

 cellar, in which I saw nothing but water. And at 

 the end of each house was a vaulted room, which I 

 took to be a store-room. These store-rooms com- 

 municated with the house by a dark passage ; and 

 with the open air, by a hole in the roof, which was 

 even with the ground one walked upon ; but they 

 cannot be said to be wholly underground; for one 

 end reached to the edge of the hill, along which 

 they were made, and which was built up with stone. 

 Over it stood a kind of sentry-box, or tower, com- 

 posed of the large bones of large fish. 



The summer huts were pretty large and circular, 

 being brought to a point at the top. The framing 

 was of slight poles and bones, covered with the skins 

 of sea-animals. I examined the inside of one. There 

 was a fire-place just within the door, where lay a 



