138 Our North Land. 



The stockade, or palisade, that once surrounded the place is fast 

 going to decay, and in many places is entirely broken down. It has 

 a generally dilapidated appearance, and what is still standing has a 

 slope outwards and sideways, which says plainly enough that its 

 usefulness as a stockade has gone. The entrance faces the river, 

 which at this point was nearly due north. The buildings consist of 

 Mr. Spencer's house, which stands at the west end of the enclosure. 

 On the north side is one long wooden building which from its ap- 

 pearance might have been built a century ago. This is the servants' 

 tenement house. Opposite to this is the little church to which I 

 have already fully referred. Next to this is the clerk's quarters. It 

 is a low, long building. Next to this is a small hut, tne dwelling 

 of one of the principal hunters of the village. Then comes the 

 store-house, work -house or factory, the dairy of the chief trader, 

 and the stock-house, and further on, the magazine, built from stone 

 with a lead-covered roof. 



The little garden seemed a lonely feature of the place. It is not 

 more than sixty feet square, and I was informed by Mr. Spencer 

 that the soil of this garden had been carried in baskets and barrows 

 from a considerable distance. It contained turnips and a few other 

 vegetables, but these had made but little headway and would not 

 be able to reach maturity. The turnip tops are used as greens ; the 

 roots never develop to be of much service. 



Outside of the palisade, and on the river's bank, is a large oil 

 refinery where the blubber from the walrus and porpoise is " tried 

 out." This building contains large cast iron tanks, and is other- 

 wise equipped for reducing blubber on a large scale. It contained 

 a number of casks of oil, and a few hogsheads of blubber, all of 

 which emitted an odour not in anywise desirable. A long pier or 

 wharf extends from this refinery out into the stream, by means of 

 which boats are loaded and unloaded. Down on the south shores of 

 the harbour there are two other refineries, both larger than that to 

 which I have just referred. 



I had intended to say something concerning the commercial im- 

 portance of Churchill, — to speak of the trade with the natives, and 

 the oil industry which is being rapidly developed, and will do so 



