r provisions, or any other packages, if
they are not.

Their winter houses are low, long, ill-constructed huts, inhabited by
several families, and abominably filthy; they are dug deep in the
earth, but the walls above the surface never exceed three feet in
height, the roof is elevated in the middle, and the windows are placed
to look to the south: the entry can only admit a person to crawl in;
on one side of it is placed the kitchen, and on the other the
dog-kennel, but no partition separates the biped from the quadruped
inhabitant. If constrained to travel in winter, or to remain at a
distance from their usual homes, they build houses of snow, which
afford them a tolerably comfortable temporary abode. These habitations
are very ingeniously constructed; they first search out a heap of
firmly frozen snow, next they trace out a circular figure, of whatever
size they think requisite, and then proceed with their long thin
knives, to cut out square slabs, about three feet in length, two in
breadth, and one in thickness, and gradually contracting as they rise,
they form a dome about eight feet high; within, they leave an
elevation all round the walls of about twenty inches, which, when
covered with skins, serves both for a seat and a sleeping place; a
piece of ice serves for a window, and in the evening they close their
door with a board of snow; a lamp suspended from the roof gives light
and heat to the apartment.

When missions were first commenced among the Greenlanders, they had
had but little intercourse with Europeans: it was different when the
brethren visited Labrador--the Esquimaux had been long acquainted with
Europeans, but of the baser sort, and had lost many of the original
features of savage life, without, however, gaining any thing better in
their place. Their communication with these wretches, who disgraced
the term civilized, corrupted their morals, and did not improve their
knowledge, taught them wants, without teaching them how to supply
them, except by theft. When the missionaries latterly came in contact
with Esquimaux, who were previously unacquainted, or but little
acquainted, with white men, they found them comparatively mild and
honest. On a voyage of observation, they landed at Nachrack, and they
report, "We found," say they, "the people here, differing much in
their manners from the people at Saeglak. Their behaviour was modest,
and rather bashful, nor were we assailed by beggars and importunate