y described themselves as having come across
land from a northern sea. One tribe, who named themselves
_Ahwhacknanhelett_, he supposes may come from Repulse Bay; another,
designated _Ootkooseek-kalingmoeoot_, or Stone-Kettle Esquimaux, reside
more to the westward; and the third, the _Kang-orr-moeoot_, or White
Goose Esquimaux, describe themselves as coming from a great distance,
and mentioned that a party of Indians had killed several of their tribe
on the summer preceding their visit. Upon comparing the dates of this
murder with that of the last massacre which the Copper Indians have
perpetrated on these harmless and defenceless people, they appear to
differ two years; but the lapse of time is so inaccurately recorded,
that this difference in their accounts is not sufficient to destroy
their identity; besides the Chipewyans, the only other Indians who could
possibly have committed the deed, have long since ceased to go to war.
If this massacre should be the one mentioned by the Copper Indians, the
Kang-orr-moeoot must reside near the mouth of the Anatessy, or River of
Strangers.

[4] See Introduction to HEARNE'S _Journey_, page xxiv.

The winter habitations of the Esquimaux, who visit Churchill are built
of snow, and judging from one constructed by Augustus to-day, they are
very comfortable dwellings. Having selected a spot on the river, where
the snow was about two feet deep, and sufficiently compact, he commenced
by tracing out a circle twelve feet in diameter. The snow in the
interior of the circle was next divided with a broad knife, having a
long handle, into slabs three feet long, six inches thick, and two feet
deep, being the thickness of the layer of snow. These slabs were
tenacious enough to admit of being moved about without breaking, or even
losing the sharpness of their angles, and they had a slight degree of
curvature, corresponding with that of the circle from which they were
cut. They were piled upon each other exactly like courses of hewn stone
around the circle which was traced out, and care was taken to smooth the
beds of the different courses with the knife, and to cut them so as to
give the wall a slight inclination inwards, by which contrivance the
building acquired the properties of a dome. The dome was closed somewhat
suddenly and flatly by cutting the upper slabs in a wedge-form, instead
of the more rectangular shape of those below. The roof was about eight
feet high, and the last aperture wa