been taught to fetch and carry; a qualification which seemed to excite unbounded astonishment; and the children could scarce contain themselves for joy when Captain Lyon gave them a stick to throw for the dog to bring back to them.  A child of five or six years old, thus amusing itself, on such a day and in such a climate, formed by no means the least characteristic figure of our motley group.  An old and infirm man, supported by a stick, which, indeed, he much needed, was soon left behind us, his companions seeming to take no notice of his infirmities, and leaving him without reluctance or apology to find his way home at his own pace.  When we had approached the huts within a few hundred yards, three of the Esquimaux went on before us, having previously explained that they were going to confine their dogs, lest, being frightened at our coming, they should run away.

When it is remembered that these habitations were fully within sight of the ships, and how many eyes were continually on the look-out among us for anything that could afford variety or interest in our present situation, our surprise may in some degree be imagined at finding an establishment of five huts, with canoes, sledges, dogs, and above sixty men, women, and children, as regularly and, to all appearance, as permanently fixed as if they had occupied the same spot for the whole winter.  If the first view of the exterior of this little village was such as to create astonishment, that feeling was in no small degree heightened, on accepting the invitation soon given us to enter these extraordinary houses, in the construction of which we observed that not a single material was used but snow and ice.  After creeping through two low passages, having each its arched doorway, we came to a small circular apartment, of which the roof was a perfect arched dome.  From this three doorways, also arched, and of larger dimensions than the outer ones, led into as many inhabited apartments, one on each side, and the other facing us as we entered.  The interior of these presented a scene no less novel than interesting.  The women were seated on the beds at the sides of the huts, each having her little fireplace or lamp with all her domestic utensils about her; the children crept behind their mothers, and the dogs, except the female ones, which were indulged with a part of the beds, slunk out past us in dismay.  The construction of this inhabited part of the huts was similar to that of the outer apartment, being a dome formed by separate blocks of snow, laid with great regularity and no small art, each being cut into the shape requisite to form a substantial arch, from seven to eight feet high in the centre, and having no support whatever but what this principle of building supplied.  I shall not here farther describe the peculiarities of these curious edifices, remarking only that a cheerful and sufficient light was admitted to them by a circular window of ice neatly fitted into the roof of each apartment.