266 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



port until another was placed beside it, the lightness of the slabs 

 greatly facilitating the operation. When the building was covered 

 in, a little loose snow was thrown over it, to close up every chink, 

 and a low door was cut through the walls with the knife. A bed- 

 place was next formed, and neatly faced up with slabs of snow, which 

 was then covered with a thin layer of pine branches, to prevent them 

 from melting by the heat of the body. At each end of the bed a 

 pillar of snow was erected to place a lamp upon, and lastly, a porch 

 was built before the door, and a piece of clear ice was placed in an 

 aperture cut in the wall for a window. 



The purity of the material of which the house was framed, the 

 elegance of its construction, and the translucency of its walls, which 

 transmitted a very pleasant light, gave it an appearance far superior 

 to a marble building, and one might survey it with feelings some- 

 what akin to those produced by the contemplation of a Grecian 

 temple, reared by Phidias ; both are triumphs of art, inimitable in 

 their kinds. 



Annexed there is a plan of a complete Esquimaux snow-house, 

 with kitchen and other apartments, copied from a sketch made by 

 Augustus, with the names of the different places affixed. The only 

 fire-place is in the kitchen, the heat of the lamps sufficing to keep 

 the other apartments warm. 



Several deer were killed near the house, and we received some 

 supplies from Akaitcho. Parties were also employed in bringing 

 in the meat that was placed en cache in the early part of the win- 

 ter. More than one half of these caches, however, had been 

 destroyed by the wolves and wolverines ; a circumstance which, in 

 conjunction with the empty state of our store-house, led us to fear 

 that we should be much straitened for provisions before the arrival 

 of any considerable number of rein -deer in this neighbourhood. 



