210 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
plan of the tunnel is ingenious. It always lias 
its opening directed to the southward, both that 
the meridian rays of the spring and autumn sun 
may pierce it with their genial warmth, and that 
the north, east, and west winds, whose severity 
must be most intense, may blow past without 
penetrating. In some cases, the bottom of the 
tunnel is on a level with the floor of the hut; 
but, in others (when there is, perhaps unwitting¬ 
ly, a practical application of a scientific principle) 
the tunnel is so much below' the hut, that the 
roof of the former coincides with the floor of the 
latter. On this plan, the cold air which creeps 
along the tunnel, being denser than the air in the 
hut, can have no tendency to rise into it, but the 
contrary, unless a circulation were intentionally 
encouraged, by allowing the escape of the warm 
air from the window's or roof. In general, it ap¬ 
pears, that the interchange of air must be effected 
by the slow and almost imperceptible currents 
passing and repassing in the contracted tunnel. 
In the hamlet now described, six of the huts 
were in a row, and very near together, on the 
southern bank of the plain, with openings or tun¬ 
nels pointing to the southward : the easternmost 
of these was at the corner of the bank, where it 
began to trend to the northward; and, near this, 
were three others, on the eastern bank, with their 
