What is your impression of Eskimo abodes now you have seen their interiors?  Well, they are not prepossessing to a European with the ordinary notions of what belongs to the necessaries of life, yet they are airier and cleaner than I had expected from their exterior aspect.  I am assured that there is much Christian life in those queer homes, and that in many a heart there a “candle of the Lord” has been lighted, which shines for the illumination of the dark North.  If honoured with an invitation to a meal in some Eskimo hut, I would rather it were not at Ramah.  In the southern stations there are some tidy log-houses, where one need not hesitate to sit down to table with Christian Eskimoes, who have learnt cleanly and tidy habits from intercourse with and the example of missionaries.  Here there are no tables; the people have scarcely learnt the use of forks, and are apt to handle the knives in eating in a somewhat uncouth fashion.  The meat is taken in the teeth and cut off near the mouth, so that the upward motion of the blade seems to endanger the nose at every bite, especially in the case of very small children with a very big knife.

Do my readers want to know about the gardens?  There are none.  Gardening is no employment for the Eskimoes; the severity of the climate and their migratory habits forbid it.  Nor do they seem to have much taste for flowers, though they see them in the missionaries’ gardens.  They appreciate the vegetables grown there, but they do not care for the trouble of raising them for themselves.

ON THE BEACH AT RAMAH.

Returning along the beach we see Matthew’s skin-covered canoe lying upside down on the grass, and we induce him to give us a specimen of kayak navigation.  He picks up the end of his light craft, runs round so as to bring it right end foremost to the sea, and pushes it over the beach till three-fourths or more are in the water.  Then he steps lightly over the flat top, paddle in hand, sets himself deftly in the man-hole, and in a moment he is afloat, paddling to and fro with quiet powerful strokes.  Returning at full speed, he runs his kayak, which only draws a few inches, straight on to the shore; stepping lightly over the front of it, he stands dry shod on the beach and drags his kayak out of the water.

Further along a little group of Eskimoes have just finished unloading a boat, which has brought goods from the ship.  Let us join them, for I want to see a whip, such as they use in driving the dog-sledge.  My request is interpreted and one of the natives runs to fetch his.  Truly it is a formidable instrument.  The wooden handle is only a few inches in length, but the lash is more than thirty feet.  It is made of many thongs of stout, tough sealskin sown together, and tapering till a single thong goes off almost to a point.  The owner gives us a specimen of its powers by cracking it, but I am glad he does not practice