ESQUIMAUX EUTS AND REMAINS. 511 



fat. We discovered little of any consequence. Isolated 

 pieces of bones, reindeer horns, and walrus' teeth we 

 found, full of holes bored close together, as Scoresby 

 has already described. This arrangement supplies in the 

 quickest and surest manner the want of a broom, and 

 seemed to have been cleverly filled in with splinters of 

 flint stone. The holes are the size of a goose-quill, or 

 perhaps smaller, but those near together are equal in size. 

 The bottom (if they do not go quite through) is rounded 

 ofi^, and the sides have grooves running horizontally 

 round them. On other pieces of bone or wood we 

 observed notches, which were certainly cut by stone 

 knives. Completed articles of any kind, we found but 

 few : only such as a harpoon-point and a kind of chisel. 

 We remained in the dark only as to the kind of roof of 

 these most lamentable of all human dwellings, and that, 

 from the description of others, we could imagine to have 

 been a flat covering composed of wood, stones, and earth. 



If any one wishes to realize the size of such a hut, let 

 him imagine ten men sitting on the bare floor and five 

 leaning against each side wall; thus quite filling the 

 room. Their stretched out feet would touch each other, 

 and allowing for the present shrinkage of the walls, the 

 flat roof could have been but little more than from one- 

 half to three- quarters of a yard above the head; so that 

 on their knees they might have moved about comfortably, 

 but in an upright position, never. 



In this wretched amount of room a whole family, on 

 an average five or six persons, had to live together for at 

 least seven long winter months. One must bear in mind 

 their far clothing, also that this was their sitting, sleep- 

 ing, and eating room, their kitchen, larder, nursery, and 



