ESKIMO VISITORS 'J'J 



is almost fixed for the winter, and looks very cozy. We have 

 been busy putting up the rest of the blankets in our room, 

 and have closed the side window and one half of the end 

 window. As daylight has almost entirely departed this will 

 make no difference in the amount of our illumination, and the 

 room will be much warmer, although thus far we have had no 

 cause to complain, the thermometer not having registered 

 below 1 6° at any time. 



Our house is by no means a palace, nor do its interior fix- 

 ings even remotely suggest luxury. We have two rooms, the 

 smaller of which, measuring twelve feet by seven and a half, 

 has been reserved for Mr, Peary and myself, while the larger, 

 of not quite double the size, is used as the general " living- 

 room," besides affording sleeping-quarters to the boys. A 

 dining or " mess " table, a few rude chairs, a book-case, and 

 the "bunks" built to the east wall, constitute the furniture, 

 of which it can in truth be said there is no superabundance. 

 The red blanketing which has been tacked all over the inside 

 walls and the ceiling, seven feet overhead, imparts a warm 

 feeling to the interior, and relieves what would otherwise be a 

 cheerless expanse of boards and tar paper. Our stove in the 

 partition-wall between the two rooms is so placed as to give a 

 goodly supply of heat to the lowest stratum of the atmosphere. 



The shell of the house is made of inch boards, lined inside 

 and outside with two-ply and three-ply tarred paper, which 

 is made to fit as nearly air-tight as possible. To the inside of 

 the ten-inch rafters and posts Ave have nailed a lining of heavy 



