spot at a greater distance; but they were so honest and good-natured,
that we had little cause to complain. Andrew suggested that though we
might not use the hut they had built, we might take a lesson from them,
and cover in our house with snow of the same thickness as their walls,
procuring from them slabs of ice for the windows.

No sooner was this proposed than we set about the work, at which, when
our indefatigable friends observed it, they were so pleased that several
of them came to assist us in forming the bricks of snow; and in a short
time a thick wall was run up, which made a very sensible difference in
the temperature of our room. The next day we covered in the roof,
leaving only a very small opening for the chimney. We also built a deep
portico before the door, with a second door to it, which prevented the
wind from whistling in as it had before done.

Besides this, we built a courtyard to our house, with the walls eight
feet high, to protect us from the wind; and at last we began to flatter
ourselves that we might be tolerably comfortable, though we had to own
that, notwithstanding all the means we had at our command, the Esquimaux
were better able to make themselves so.

Our fire, from the constant care it required and the difficulty of
procuring fuel, gave us most trouble; so remembering the lamp we had
seen in the tents, we resolved to adopt a similar plan.

We had been so busily engaged in improving our own house, that we had
not remarked the progress made by our friends in the construction of
their habitations. They now invited us to enter them again, when we
found all the families established comfortably in them.

After creeping through the two low passages, each with its arched
doorway, we came to a small circular apartment, of which the roof was a
perfect dome. From this, three doorways, also arched and of larger
dimensions than the outer ones, led into as many inhabited apartments,
one on each side, and the other facing us as we entered.

The scene presented by the interior was very interesting. The women
were seated on the beds at the sides of the huts, each having her little
fireplace or lamp, with all her domestic utensils about her. The
children crept behind their mothers, and the dogs, except the female
ones, which were indulged with a part of the beds, slunk out past us in
dismay.

The roof and sides of the inner rooms were lined with sealskin, neatly
sewed together and exactly