NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND. 
333 
it, and found on landing that it was one enormous 
homestead of the auks, dovekies, and gulls. 
We encamped on the 31st, on a low beach at the foot 
of a moraine that came down between precipitous cliffs 
of surpassing wildness. It had evidently been selected 
by the Esquimaux for a winter settlement: five well- 
NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND. 
built huts of stone attested this. Three of them were 
still tolerably perfect, and bore marks of recent habita¬ 
tion. The droppings of the birds had fertilized the 
soil, and it abounded in grasses, sorrel, and cochlearia, 
to the water’s edge. The foxes were about in greal 
numbers, attracted, of course, by the abundance of 
birds. They were all of them of the lead-colored 
variety, without a white one among them. The young 
