

OF THE POLAR SEA. 



265 



on the summer preceding their visit. Upon comparing the dates of 

 this murder with that of the last massacre which the Copper Indians 

 have perpetrated on these harmless and defenceless people, they 

 appear to differ two years ; but the lapse of time is so inaccurately 

 recorded, that this difference in their accounts is not sufficient to 



destroy their identity ; besides, the Chipewyans, the only other 

 Indians who could possibly have committed the deed, have long 

 since ceased to go to war. If this massacre should be the one men- 

 tioned by the Copper Indians, the Kang-orr-mceoot must reside near 

 the mouth of the Anatessy, or River of Strangers. 



The winter habitations of the Esquimaux, who visit Churchill, 

 are built of snow, and judging from one constructed by Augustus 

 to-day, they are very comfortable dwellings. Having selected a 

 spot on the river, where the snow was about two feet deep, and suf- 

 ficiently compact, he commenced by tracing out a circle twelve 

 feet in diameter. The snow in the interior of the circle was next 

 divided with a broad knife, having a long handle, into slabs three 

 feet long, six inches thick, and two feet deep, being the thickness 

 of the layer of snow. These slabs were tenacious enough to admit 

 of being moved about without breaking, or even losing the sharp- 

 ness of their angles, and they had a slight degree of curvature, cor- 

 responding with that of the circle from which they were cut. They 

 were piled upon each other exactly like courses of hewn stone around 

 the circle which was traced out, and care was taken to smooth the 

 beds of the different courses with the knife, and to cut them so as 

 to give the wall a slight inclination inwards, by which contrivance the 

 building acquired the properties of a dome. The dome was closed 

 somewhat suddenly and flatly by cutting the upper slabs in a wedge- 

 form, instead of the more rectangular shape of those below. The 

 roof was about eight feet high, and the last aperture was shut up by 

 a small conical piece. The whole was built from within, and each 

 slab was cut »so that it retained its position without requiring sup 



2 M 



