[Illustration: BUILDING AN ESKIMO HUT.] The rapidity with which these snow-huts are raised is quite surprising, and certainly affords a vivid illustration of the old saying that “practice brings perfection.” Captain M’Clintock for a few nails hired four Eskimos to erect a hut for his ship’s crew; and though it was twenty-four feet in circumference, and five and a half feet in height, it was erected in a single day. Much ingenuity is frequently displayed in their construction. Dr. Scoresby, in 1824, found some deserted huts on the east coast of Greenland, which showed no little constructive skill on the part of their builders. A horizontal tunnel, about fifteen feet in length, and so low that a person entering it was compelled to crawl on his hands and knees, opened with one end to the south, while the other end terminated in the interior of the hut. This rose but slightly above the surface of the earth, and being generally overgrown with moss or grass, could scarcely be distinguished from the neighbouring soil. It resembled, indeed, a large ant-hill, or the work of a mammoth mole! In some cases the floor of the tunnel was on a level with that of the hut; but more frequently it slanted downwards and upwards, so that the colder, and consequently heavier, atmospheric air was still more completely prevented from mixing too quickly with the warmer air within. The other arrangements exhibited the same ingenuity in providing against the inconveniences of a rigorous climate. From the huts of the Eskimos we pass to their boats. [Illustration: THE ESKIMO KAYAK.] The _kayak_ or _baidar_ is as good in its way as the light and swift canoe of the Polynesian islanders. It consists of a narrow, long, and light wooden framework, covered water-tight with seal-skin, with a central aperture for the body of the rower. Sometimes the frame is made of seal or walrus bone. The Eskimo takes his seat in his buoyant craft, with legs outstretched, and binds a sack--which is made from the intestines of the whale, or the skins of young seals--so tightly round his waist, that even in a rolling sea the boat remains water-tight. Dexterously and rapidly using his paddle, with his spear or harpoon before him, and preserving his equilibrium with marvellous steadiness, he darts over the waves like an arrow; and even if upset, speedily rights himself and his buoyant skiff. The _oomiak_, or woman’s boat, consists in like manner of a framework covered with seal-skins; but it is large enough to accommodate ten or twelve people, with benches for the women who row or paddle. The mast supports a triangular sail, made of the entrails of seals, and easily distended by the wind.