334 Hall's Second Arctic Expedition. [ May, 
an interesting account of two voyages made from Philadelphia in 
1753—54, by a schooner of about sixty tons, fitted out by sub- 
scription by merchants of Maryland, Pennsyivana, New York and 
Boston to discover the Northwest passage. 
Although Capt. Hall on his first voyage was unable to reach 
King William’s Land or obtain any definite information regarding 
the records of the Franklin Expedition, he returned home inured 
by the hardships of life amongst the Esquimaux, and well pre- 
pared by this experience for the much greater trial of his cour- 
age and perseverance which awaited him. After nearly two 
years spent in efforts to obtain funds and supplies, he again sailed 
on July 1, 1864, in the whaling brig Monticello for Hudson’s bay, 
taking with him the Esquimaux, Joe Ebierbing, and his wife, 
Too-koo-li-too. After stopping at Depot island, he finally landed 
at a point on the shore of Roe’s Welcome, near Wager bay, 
on the 31st of August. He was obliged to remain in this neigh- 
borhood with a tribe of Innuits all winter, living in an igloo or 
snow hut. 
“The construction of one of these snow houses, built by the 
Innuits of this region, is described by him substantially as 
follows: After making trial of several banks of show, by plunging 
in their long knives, on finding the proper compactness, they cut 
blocks two to two and a-half feet in length and about eighteen 
inches in thickness. One set is cut from the spot on which the 
igloo is to be built, its floor being thus sunken eighteen inches 
below the general surface. In placing the blocks around this 
excavation, of about ten feet diameter, the first tier is made up of 
those which, by increasing regularly in width, form a spiral from 
right to left. They are laid from within, each being secured by 
a bevel on the one last laid and another bevel on the next one 
below. The joints are well broken. The blocks incline inwardly, 
thus regularly diminishing the diameter of the ig/oo and fitting it _ 
for the dome or keystone. Thirty-eight blocks were here used. 
For ventilation, a small hole is usually made by the spear. The 
crevices are well filled with snow within and without, making it 
nearly an air-tight structure. For a window, a small opening cut 
in the dome is filled in usually with a block of clear ice; in some — 
cases with the scraped inner linings of the seal; this last makes 
a light on which the frost does not settle as upon the ice-blocks. 
The passage-way to the ig/oo is always long and points toward the 
south. The Repulse bay natives shovel up much more snow upon 
the hut than the Greenlanders do. The zg/oo lamp is sometimes 
nothing more than a flat stone, about six inches in length, placed 
in a niche cut out of the wall, and having on it a little dry moss 
for a wick, which is supplied with oil by a slice of blubber from 
