DWELLING-HOUSE. 65 



wide, having a clining-hall in the centre, measuring 

 sixteen by fourteen, and the remaining space di- 

 vided into a store-room and three sleeping apart- 

 ments. A kitchen was added to the back of the 

 house, and a small porch to the front. Mr. Rae's 

 room and mine had glazed windows, glass for the 

 purpose having been brought up from York Fac- 

 tory. The other windows were closed with deer- 

 skin parchment, which admitted a subdued light. 

 Two houses for the men stood on the east, and a 

 storehouse on the west, the whole forming three 

 sides of a square, which opened to the south. The 

 tallest and straightest tree that could be discovered 

 within a circuit of three miles was brought in, and, 

 being properly dressed, was planted in the square 

 for a flag-post ; and near it a small observatory 

 was built, for holding magnetic instruments. 



Of the buildings which Dease and Simpson 

 erected, Mr. Bell, on his arrival in the middle of 

 August, found only part of the men's house and a 

 stack of chimneys standing ; the others having, 

 through the carelessness of the Indians, been de- 

 stroyed by fire. Our predecessors had cut down 

 most of the timber within a mile of the house, and 

 what we needed had consequently to be brought 

 in from a wider circle. A part of Mr. Bell's people 

 were constantly engaged with the fisheries, but the 

 others had worked so diligently, that the buildings 



VOL. II. F 



