Their winter houses are low, long, ill-constructed huts, inhabited by several families, and abominably filthy; they are dug deep in the earth, but the walls above the surface never exceed three feet in height, the roof is elevated in the middle, and the windows are placed to look to the south:  the entry can only admit a person to crawl in; on one side of it is placed the kitchen, and on the other the dog-kennel, but no partition separates the biped from the quadruped inhabitant.  If constrained to travel in winter, or to remain at a distance from their usual homes, they build houses of snow, which afford them a tolerably comfortable temporary abode.  These habitations are very ingeniously constructed; they first search out a heap of firmly frozen snow, next they trace out a circular figure, of whatever size they think requisite, and then proceed with their long thin knives, to cut out square slabs, about three feet in length, two in breadth, and one in thickness, and gradually contracting as they rise, they form a dome about eight feet high; within, they leave an elevation all round the walls of about twenty inches, which, when covered with skins, serves both for a seat and a sleeping place; a piece of ice serves for a window, and in the evening they close their door with a board of snow; a lamp suspended from the roof gives light and heat to the apartment.

When missions were first commenced among the Greenlanders, they had had but little intercourse with Europeans:  it was different when the brethren visited Labrador—­the Esquimaux had been long acquainted with Europeans, but of the baser sort, and had lost many of the original features of savage life, without, however, gaining any thing better in their place.  Their communication with these wretches, who disgraced the term civilized, corrupted their morals, and did not improve their knowledge, taught them wants, without teaching them how to supply them, except by theft.  When the missionaries latterly came in contact with Esquimaux, who were previously unacquainted, or but little acquainted, with white men, they found them comparatively mild and honest.  On a voyage of observation, they landed at Nachrack, and they report, “We found,” say they, “the people here, differing much in their manners from the people at Saeglak.  Their behaviour was modest, and rather bashful, nor were we assailed by beggars and importunate intruders.  We had no instance of stealing.  Thieves are considered by the Esquimaux in general with abhorrence, and with a thief no one is willing to trade.”  Latter voyagers have borne similar testimony to their brethren still further north; but their honesty seems to have arisen from the want of temptation; for the same missionaries add:  “We have discovered that this propensity is not altogether wanting in the northern Esquimaux, who now and then, if they think they can do it without detection, will make a little free with their neighbour’s property.”  And a further acquaintance with