rs 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
now 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 colors that nature affords. A seal or two having been lately
procured, every lamp was now blazing, and every _ootkooseek_
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 labor, we were once more greeted and welcomed.
Arnaneelia in particular, who was a quiet, obliging, and even amiable,
man, was delighted to find that my quarters were to be in his apartment,
where Aneetka, 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. Bushman being established
with Okotook, and the two men with Kaoongut, we were thus all
comfortably lodged under the same roof....

On the 22d a number of the Esquimaux came to the ships with a sledge,
and among the rest my late host Arnaneelia and his wife, the latter
having the front of her jacket adorned with numberless strings of beads
that we had given her, arranged with exact uniformity, to which, in the
fashion of their dresses and the disposition of their ornaments, these
people always rigidly adhere. Aneetka had scarce