Chap. VI. CAPTAIN PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE, 187 



clean and comfortable snow huts while new, is thus 

 described : — 



" On going out to the village, we found one-half of the 

 people had quitted their late habitations, taking with them 

 every article of their property, and had gone over the ice, 

 we knew not where, in quest of more abundant food. The 

 wretched appearance which the interior of the huts now pre- 

 sented baffles all description. In each of the larger ones 

 some of the apartments were either wholly or in part de- 

 serted, the very snow which composed the beds and fire- 

 places having been turned up, that no article might be left 

 behind. Even the bare walls, whose original colour was 

 scarcely perceptible for lamp-black, blood, and other filth, 

 were not left perfect, large holes having been made in the 

 sides and roofs for the convenience of handing out the goods 

 and chattels. The sight of a deserted habitation is at all 

 times calculated to excite in the mind a sensation of dreari- 

 ness and desolation, especially when we have lately seen it 

 filled with cheerful inhabitants ; but the feeling is even 

 heightened rather than diminished when a small portion of 

 these inhabitants remain behind to endure the wretchedness 

 which such a scene exhibits. This was now the case at the 

 village where, though the remaining tenants of each hut had 

 combined to occupy one of the apartments, a great part of 

 the bed-places were still bare, and the wind and drift blow- 

 ing in through the holes which they had not yet taken the 

 trouble to stop up. The old man Hikkeiera and his wife 

 occupied a hut by themselves, without any lamp, or a single 

 ounce of meat belonging to them ; while three small skins, 

 on which the former was lying, were all that they possessed in 

 the way of blankets. Upon the whole, I never beheld a 

 more miserable spectacle, and it seemed a charity to hope 

 that a violent and constant cough with which the old man 

 was afflicted would speedily combine with his age and in- 

 firmities to release him from his present sufferings. Yet in 



