e now removed from the hut and the family move
off to build a cabin in another place which the evil spirit will not
enter.

"The Eskimo are clever in many ways. Nearly all the men are experts in
building canoes, while many are good carvers and draughtsmen. The writer
has a map of the Arctic region, drawn by one of the Kowak River natives,
which is one of the most complete things of the kind ever made. It shows
every river, creek, lake, bay, mountain, village and trail, from the
mouth of the Yukon River to Point Hope, and the native drew it in four
days.

"A hut here is simply an excavation, about three feet deep, twelve feet
long, and sixteen feet wide. Spruce saplings about four feet long and
four inches through are set upright side by side around the interior,
supported by the beams. Two posts six feet long and one ridge piece
support the arched roof, light saplings being used for rafters. An
oblique external portal, five feet long, two feet high, and eighteen
inches wide is constructed in the same manner as the hut. The opening
for the door is about eighteen inches wide by two feet high. This
addition has a twofold purpose: it shelters the entrance to the family
room of the hut, and the air which passes through the portal into the
apartment carries away the smoke and foul air through a hole in the
roof. The structure is finally banked and covered with dirt, and more
resembles a mound than a human habitation. The interior of these
dwellings is not luxurious. The floor is strewn with the pliant branches
of the Arctic willow. A few deerskins lie scattered about, and here the
men, women, and children of the tribe sit day after day, and month after
month, performing their tasks of labour, and it is here when fatigued
that they sleep in security and comfort. A miniature camp fire is kept
burning day and night during the winter months."

My unfavourable opinion of the specimens of this race whom we met at
Cape Prince of Wales is somewhat modified by the following anecdote,
also related by Mr. McElwaine:

"An Eskimo lad about sixteen years of age came into my cabin one morning
suffering with an acute bowel complaint. I happened to have a
preparation for this trouble in my medicine chest, and administered to
him a dose according to directions. It relieved him somewhat, and after
eating his dinner, he returned home, a distance of some ten miles. In a
week or ten days later he came back, bringing with him a number of
curio