SKETCH OF THE BOOTHIANS. 23 



Their snow huts have been so particularly described that it is su- 

 perfluous to speak of them again : while I have also noticed their 

 method of proceeding with the construction in the course of the 

 preceding journal. I need only name what has not yet been 

 mentioned, namely, their method of procuring the ice window, 

 which, in this country, is not to be found on the surface of a pond. 

 For this purpose, a seal-skin is laid on the snow, so managed at 

 the edges that it may contain two inches of water in depth, pro- 

 cured by thawing snow before the lamp. This is immediately 

 frozen into a transparent plate : and such, I presume, is esteemed 

 the value of the fuel used for this purpose, that these windows are 

 always removed and carried with them in their migrations. It 

 is already equally known, that when the roofs of the snow huts 

 begin to melt under the influence of the sun, they are removed, 

 and a covering of skins substituted, as the summer tents consist of 

 skins raised into a conical form by means of a central pole, from 

 which lines are extended, and surrounded at the base by circles of 

 stones. 



The walrus does not frequent these straits : and whether it is that 

 the whale is rare or not, we could not understand that they ever took 

 any, and many had never seen one. The seal, the musk ox, the 

 reindeer, the fox, and the hare, form their quadruped game : they 

 kill but few grouse, which, being considered delicacies, are reserved 

 for the women and children ; but their supplies of fish seem to be 

 very considerable. This last is eaten raw, if often half dried: the 

 flesh of animals seems acceptable in any way, but it is always 

 cooked, if possible, apparently for the sake of the oil soup. 



