with the main building, that are used as bedrooms. The
entrance to the igloe is effected through a winding covered passage,
which stands open by day, but is closed up at night by placing slabs
of ice at the angle of each bend, and thus the inmates are perfectly
secured against the severest cold.

The Esquimaux use no fuel in winter; their stone lamps afford
sufficient heat to dry their boots and clothes, or warm their blubber
and raw meat when they are so inclined. They are inured to cold by
early habit; the children are carried about in the hoods of their
mothers' jackets until three years of age; during this period they
remain without a stitch of clothing, and the little things may be
sometimes seen standing up in their nests, exposing themselves in the
coldest weather, without appearing to suffer any inconvenience from
it. The Esquimaux never sleep with their clothes on, not even when
without any other shelter than the cleft of a rock.

It is well known that they eat their food, whether fish or flesh,
generally in a raw state; hence their appellation, "Ashkimai," in
the Cree and Sauteux, means, eater of raw meat, and is doubtless
the origin of the name Esquimaux first applied by the earlier French
discoverers, and since then passed into general use. They sometimes,
indeed, warm their food in a stone kettle over a stone lamp, but they
seem to relish it equally well when cut warm from the carcase of an
animal recently killed, which they may be seen devouring while yet
quivering with life.

In winter they prefer raw meat, especially fish, which is considered
a great delicacy in a frozen state; the Esquimaux stomach, in fact,
rejects nothing, raw or boiled, that affords sustenance. Like the
inland Indians, they can bear hunger for an amazing length of time,
and afterwards gorge themselves with more than brutal voracity without
suffering inconvenience by it.

The Esquimaux breed of dogs are wolves in a domesticated state, the
same in every characteristic, save such differences as may be expected
to result from their relative conditions; the dog howls, never barks.
These animals are of the most essential service to their masters,
and are maintained at no expense. How they manage to subsist appears
inexplicable to me; not a morsel of food is ever offered to them at
the camp, and when employed hauling sledges on a journey, a small
piece of blubber given them in the evening enables them to perform the
laborious work of