250 THE LIFE OF E. J. PECK 



To return to that Kikkerton journey. After 

 some time it was decided that Mr. Parker should 

 return to Blacklead Island, while Mr. Peck remained 

 to minister to the Eskimos around him. He then 

 took up his temporary abode in an Eskimo village. 

 His own pen gives a description which is worth 

 recording as giving a vivid picture of his surround 

 ings and his life. 



" A sketch of my present surroundings, etc., may 

 be of interest, especially as, by geographical com 

 putation, I am now situated almost on the Arctic 

 circle. 



" Item one is the Eskimo village. This consists 

 of fourteen snow-houses. These are built amongst 

 huge boulders of ice, and look like large bee-hive 

 shaped piles of snow. This peculiar little ' town,' 

 the inhabitants of which number in all fifty-five 

 souls, is situated on the frozen sea, some four miles 

 from the mainland. 



" The coast here is rugged in the extreme, and 

 the mountain peaks rise covered with a deep white 

 mantle of snow, sharply silhouetted against the 

 clear blue sky. 



" The whole picture is one of utter desolation, 

 though not devoid of a certain bold and rugged 

 grandeur, which fills the soul with a solemn and 

 wondrous sense of awe, as one remembers that all 

 this is * the work of His hands.' 



" My snow-hotel is inhabited by three persons 



