114 Dr King on the Industrial Arts of the Esquimaux. 



the lower part or foundation being of stones, and the rest of 

 bones, gradually inclining inwards, and meeting at the top ; 

 the crevices, as well as the whole of the outside, are covered 

 with turf, which, with the additional coating of snow in the 

 winter, serves most effectually to exclude the cold air ; they 

 are about seventeen or eighteen feet at the base, and about 

 nine feet in height ; the entrance is towards the south, and 

 consists of a passage ten feet long, and not more than two in 

 height and breadth, built of flat slabs of stone, and externally 

 covered like the hut; the beds, which are raised, by stones, two 

 feet from the ground, occupy, at the inner end, about one- 

 third of the apartment. Near the huts when they were dis- 

 covered were large tumuli, formerly dwellings, but then solid 

 moss-covered mounds. 



Although during winter the Esquimaux generally occupy 

 permanent dwellings, it not unfrequently happens, from 

 scarcity of provision or some other calamity, that it is neces- 

 sary for them before spring arrives to seek a new^ home. 

 "When we consider the low temperature of the country, that 

 in many parts it is destitute of wood even for fuel ; that the 

 fixed habitations being cemented together by frost cannot be 

 removed, and that the summer tents, from their construc- 

 tion, are not calculated to resist the cold, we are at first led 

 to suppose that, if driven at the inclement season from his 

 accustomed haunts, death must soon close the sufferings of 

 the poor inhabitant of the North Pole. But this is far from 

 being the case, for these ingenious people have learnt to 

 convert snow into building materials, by which means they 

 can raise an establishment for their families in a few hours ; 

 an establishment which, from the purity of the material of 

 which it is composed, the elegance of its construction, and the 

 translucency of its walls, gives it an appearance far superior 

 to a marble building. " One may survey it," we are told, 

 " with feelings somewhat akin to those produced by the con- 

 templation of a Grecian temple reared by Phidias ; both are 

 triumphs of art inimitable of their kind."* 



■^' Franklin's First Journey. 



