hours' and a half
brisk travelling, we arrived at the huts, and were received by the
women (for all the men were absent) with every expression of
kindness and welcome. Each was desirous of affording us lodging,
and we had speedily arranged matters so as to put them to the
least possible inconvenience.

These huts, four in number, were, in the mode of their
construction, exact counterparts of those at Winter Island on our
first visit, but, being new and clean, presented a striking
contrast with the latter, in their present disordered and filthy
state. What gave a peculiarity, as well as beauty also, to the
interior appearance of these habitations, was their being situated
on the ice, which, being cleared of the snow, presented a flooring
of that splendid blue which is, perhaps, one of the richest
colours that nature affords. A seal or two having been lately
procured, every lamp was now blazing, and every _=o=otk~ose~ek_
smoking with a hot mess, which, together with the friendly
reception we experienced, and a little warmth and fatigue from
travelling, combined in conveying to our minds an idea of comfort
which we could scarcely believe an Esquimaux hut capable of
exciting.

On the arrival of the men, who came in towards evening with two
seals as the reward of their labour, we were once more greeted and
welcomed. _Arnaneelia_, in particular, who was a quiet, obliging,
and even amiable man, was delighted to find my quarters were to be
in his apartment, where _An=e=etka_, his wife, a young woman of
about twenty-three, had already arranged everything for my
accommodation; and both these poor people now vied with each other
in their attention to my comfort. The other two apartments of the
same hut were occupied by Kaoongut and Okotook, with their
respective wives and families; it being the constant custom of
these people thus to unite in family groups whenever the nature of
their habitations will allow it. Mr. Bushnan being established
with Okotook, and the two men with Kaoongut, we were thus all
comfortably lodged under the same roof.

Toolooak having been concerned in killing one of the seals just
brought in, it fell to his mother's lot to dissect it, the
_neitiek_ being the only animal which the women are permitted to
cut up. We had therefore an opportunity of seeing this filthy
operation once more performed, and entirely by the old lady
herself, who was soon up to her elbows in blood and oil. Before a
knife is put