FURNITURE AND UTENSILS. 257 



ing other household duties. The entrance and bed-place are at 

 opposite ends ; and on either hand is an oil-burner or fireplace, 

 having a slender rack of wood suspended over it, on which articles 

 of clothing are placed to dry, aho a block of snow to melt and drip 

 into a large wooden vessel. Beneath the last again are other vessels 

 for different purposes, some of them frequently containing skins to 

 undergo preparation for being dressed. These vessels are each 

 made of a thin board of the breadth required, bent into the form of a 

 hoop, and the ends sewed together neatly with strips of whalebone, 

 the bottom being retained in its place by a score like the end of an 

 ordinary cask. The oil-burner is the most curious, if not the most 

 important piece of furniture in the establishment. It is purchased 

 ready made from the eastern Eskimo, who procure it from a more 

 distant people. It is a flat stone of peculiar shape, three to 

 four and a half feet long, and four inches thick, pointed at the ends 

 by the union of the two unequally convex sides somewhat like the 

 gibbous moon. The upper surface is hollowed to the depth of three- 

 quarters of an inch to contain the oil, leaving merely a thin lip all 

 round, and several narrow ridges dividing the hollow part both 

 lengthwise and transversely. It is placed on two horizontal pieces 

 of wood fixed in the side of the hut, about a foot from the floor, with 

 the most convex side towards the wall, the other being that where 

 a broad flame of any extent required is sustained from whale or 

 seal-oil by means of dry moss for wicks. When the length of one 

 side of a lamp of this description is considered, it will readily be 

 conceived that not only a good light but also a great deal of heat 

 may be produced, so that the temperature of a hut is seldom below 

 70° of Fahr., though we have hardly ever seen a flame of more than 

 a foot in extent ; and as great care is taken to keep it trimmed, no 

 offensive degree of smoke arises, though the olfactories are saluted 

 on first entering by a combination of scents any tiling but agreeable. 

 Ventilation is not altogether neglected, as there is near the middle 

 of the roof a hole in which a funnel of stiff hide is inserted to carry 

 off the vitiated air from the interior of the hut. When the place is 

 much crowded or the temperature too high, a corner of the mem- 

 brane can be raised ; but we have seen it more speedily effected by 

 the master of a house at Nu-wuk, in his impatience to contribute to 

 our comfort, by making an incision with his knife through the 

 middle of it — a proceeding which did not seem to be entirely 

 approved of by his wife, to whose lot it would doubtless fall to 

 repair it. 



Such are the usual habitations on the coast of the Arctic Sea ; but 

 tlurc are also others of a greater extent and different form, one of 



