The entrance is towards the south, and
consists of a passage ten feet long, and not more than two in height and
breadth, built of flat slabs of stone, having the same external covering
as that of the huts. The beds are raised by stones two feet from the
ground, and occupy about one third of the apartment at the inner end;
and the windows and a part of the roofs had been taken away for the
convenience of removing their furniture in the spring. It was a natural
inference, from the nature of these habitations, that these people, or
at least a portion of them, were constant residents on this spot, which,
indeed, seemed admirably calculated to afford in luxurious profusion all
that constitutes Esquimaux felicity. This, however, did not afterward
prove to be absolutely the case; for though Igloolik (as perhaps the
name may imply) is certainly one of their principal and favourite
rendezvous, yet we subsequently found the inland entirely deserted by
them at the same season.
In every direction around the huts were lying innumerable bones of
walruses and seals, together with sculls of dogs, bears, and foxes, on
many of which a part of the putrid flesh still remaining sent forth the
most offensive effluvia. We were not a little surprised to find also a
number of human sculls lying about among the rest, within a few yards of
the huts; and were somewhat inclined to be out of humour on this account
with our new friends, who not only treated the matter with the utmost
indifference, but, on observing that we were inclined to add some of
them to our collections, went eagerly about to look for them, and
tumbled, perhaps, the craniums of some of their own relations into our
bag, without delicacy or remorse.
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