THE FAMILY, 
425 
without his cap, to stand erect, and not touch the 
beams. The frame of the house is of Norway pine 
coated with tar, with its interspaces caulked with moss 
and small window-panes inserted in a deep casing ol 
wood. 
"The most striking decorative feature is a ledge or 
shelf of pine plank, of varying width, which runs round 
three of its sides. Its capacity is wonderful. It is 
the sofa and bed, on which the entire united family 
find room to loll and sleep ; and upon it now are hud- 
dled, besides a navy doctor and his writing board, one 
ink-bottle, sundry articles of food and refreshment, one 
sleeping child, one lot of babies not in the least asleep, 
one canary-bird cage with its exotic and most sorrow- 
ful little prisoner, and an infinite variety of other ar- 
ticles too tedious to mention, comprising seal-skins, 
boots, bottles, jumpers, glasses, crockery both of kitch- 
en and nursery, coffee-pots, dog-skin socks, canvas pil- 
lows, an eider-down comforter, and a sick bitch with 
a youthful family of whining puppies. 
" Una, the second daughter, has been sick and un- 
der treatment ; and she is now hard at work with her 
sisters, Anna, Sara, and Cristina, on a tribute of grati- 
tude to her doctor. They have been busy all the 
morning whipping and stitching the seal-skins with 
reindeer tendon thread. My present is to be a com- 
plete suit of ladies' apparel, made of the richest seal- 
skin, according to the standard mode of Proven, which 
may always be presumed to be the ' latest winter fash- 
ion.' It is a really elegant dress. To some the unmen- 
tionables might savor of mascularity ; but having seen 
something of a more polite society, my feminine asso- 
ciations are not restricted to petticoats. Extremes meet 
in the Esquimaux of Greenland and Amazons of Paris. 
