might presume to draw from them: therefore I would run the chance of being thought jejune, or even tedious, rather than incur the greater risk of misleading others by my own weak conclusions.

Embarking again, we pulled along shore, towards the west, among barren rocky islands, until we at last got sight of some huts on an eminence at the bottom of a creek; and putting ashore, we examined them minutely. They are more properly tents

than huts, because they are erected much after the fashion of a marquee: a triangle supports the tent at one end, and two poles, fastened at the top, at the other: over all is thrown a covering of seals'-skins sewed together, the hair being scraped off: they are

equally

equally impervious to air or water, and the light is much the same as in the interior of an European linen tent. At the lower end of their dwellings is a flap of seal's-skin, left loose, to answer the purpose of a door; and when this is thrown back, a person must stoop low to enter. If a whole family happen to be absent from their home at the same time, the only security for their property, during the time they are away, consists in a few loose stones piled against the flap of sealskin which covers the entrance to the tent: and although they be not rigidly honest towards strangers, yet the Esquimaux appear to have a great respect for each other's property. At the top of their huts is a piece of wood, in an horizontal position, for the purpose of supporting slips of the sea-horse's hide to dry in the sun; and of this hide they form a sort of rope, possessing uncommon strength, and useful to them in a variety of ways.

With respect to the interior of their habitations, it is a general custom to appropriate the lower end or entrance of the tent to answer the purpose of a larder, where all their delicacies are displayed; such as, deer's flesh, oil, and whale blubber. The upper end of the tent, under the triangle, was thickly carpeted with skins of different animals, particularly the deer, and it is set apart for their resting and sleeping place. I noticed, that whenever I entered a tent, which had not been previously visited by any of our party, the owner of it ran forward, with great precipitation, to conceal something under the skins at the farther end of the tent. Curiosity prompted me to inquire into this mysterious conduct; and, on removing the skins, I discovered his bow and arrows, in a sort of seal-skin quiver. The owner stood quite tranquil during my search, and he did not appear angry when the arms were produced; but when

when I offered him a knife, with the usual expression, “Chymo (barter)," he smiled, as I thought, rather suspiciously; and taking the quiver gently out of my hand, he replaced it under the skins; at the same time, offering me an unfinished bow, without a string, in exchange for the knife. As often as I continued to point to the quiver, and make signs that I wished to purchase the set complete, he seemed to feel confused, and endeavoured instantly to draw off my attention from the subject. I tried at each tent, with no better success; and it struck me, from appearances, that the Esquimaux have some superstitious veneration for their bows and arrows: but their hiding them may be intended as a compliment to their visitors, or an assurance of their security whilst under that roof. None of the canoes that visited us, during our stay in Hudson's Straits, had either bow or arrows on board; conse

quently,

quently, they are only used by the Esquimaux in their wars, and not for the purpose of killing birds or fishes. After having said this respecting their singular attachment to their weapons, perhaps it will be expected that those articles are curiously manufactured and ornamented: but the bow is merely made of two pieces of plain wood, firmly corded together, and rarely strengthened at the back with thongs of the sea-horse's hide; the string is formed of two slips of hide or dried gut; the arrows are headed, either with iron, sea-horse's teeth, sea-unicorn's horn, or, in some few instances, with stone*; and the whole fabrication of the bow and arrows does not surpass the workmanship of an English school-boy.

In

• Some of the arrows brought to England by the Author were barbed with flint, and exactly resemble the arrow-heads found in the Tomb of the Athenians in the Plain of Marathon.