[39] Their houses are 'moveable tents, constructed of poles and skins.' Brownell's Ind. Races, p. 469. 'Neither wind nor watertight.' Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 361. At Cape Smythe, Hooper saw seven Eskimo tents of seal skin. Tuski, p. 216. 'We entered a small tent of morse-skins, made in the form of a canoe.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 226. At Coppermine River their tents in summer are of deer-skin with the hair on, and circular. Hearne's Travels, p. 167. At St Lawrence Island, Kotzebue saw no settled dwellings, 'only several small tents built of the ribs of whales, and covered with the skin of the morse.' Voyage, vol. i., pp. 190-191.
[40] 'In parallelograms, and so adjusted as to form a rotunda, with an arched roof.' Silliman's Jour., vol. xvi., p. 146. Parry's Voy., vol. v., p. 200. Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 44.
[41] 'These houses are durable, the wind has little effect on them, and they resist the thaw until the sun acquires very considerable power.' Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 350.
[42] The snow houses are called by the natives igloo, and the underground huts yourts, or yurts, and their tents topeks. Winter residence, 'iglut.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 310. Beechey, describing the same kind of buildings, calls them 'yourts.' Voy., vol. i., p. 366. Tent of skins, tie-poo-eet; topak; toopek. Tent, too-pote. Ibid., vol. ii., p. 381. 'Yourts.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 59. Tent, topek. Dall says Richardson is wrong, and that igloo or iglu is the name of ice houses. Alaska, p. 532. House, iglo. Tent, tuppek. Richardson's Jour., vol. ii., p. 378. Snow house, eegloo. Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 47.
[43] They are so fond of the warm blood of dying animals that they invented an instrument to secure it. See Beechey's Voy., vol. i., p. 344. 'Whale-blubber, their great delicacy, is sickening and dangerous to a European stomach.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 192.
[44] Hearne says that the natives on the Arctic coast of British America are so disgustingly filthy that when they have bleeding at the nose they lick up their own blood. Travels, p. 161. 'Salt always appeared an abomination.' 'They seldom cook their food, the frost apparently acting as a substitute for fire.' Collinson, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxv., p. 201. At Kotzebue Sound they 'seem to subsist entirely on the flesh of marine animals, which they, for the most part, eat raw.' Kotzebue's Voy., vol. i., p. 239.
[45] 'During the two summer months they hunt and live on swans, geese, and ducks.' Richardson's Nar., vol. i., p. 346.
[46] 'Secures winter feasts and abundance of oil for the lamps of a whole village, and there is great rejoicing.' Richardson's Pol. Reg., p. 313. 'The capture of the seal and walrus is effected in the same manner. Salmon and other fish are caught in nets.' Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. ii., p. 61. 'Six small perforated ivory balls attached separately to cords of sinew three feet long.' Dease & Simpson, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. viii., 222.
[47] Near Smith River, a low piece of ground, two miles broad at the beach, was found enclosed by double rows of turf set up to represent men, narrowing towards a lake, into which reindeer were driven and killed. Simpson's Nar., p. 135.
[48] 'Ce qu'il y a encore de frappant dans la complexion de ces barbares, c'est l'extrême chaleur de leur estomac et de leur sang; ils échauffent tellement, par leur haleine ardente, les huttes où ils assemblent en hiver, que les Européans, s'y sentent étouffés, comme dans une étuve dont la chaleur est trop graduée: aussi ne font-ils jamais de feu dans leur habitation en aucune saison, et ils ignorent l'usage des cheminées, sous le climat le plus froid du globe.' De Pauw, Recherches Phil., tom. i., p. 261.