Time had done its work, says Dr. Kane, on the igloë of Anatoak, as among the palatial structures of more southern deserts. The entire front of the dome had fallen in, closing up the _tossut_, or tunnel, and forcing visitors and residents to enter at the solitary window above it. The breach was wide enough to admit a sledge-team; but the Eskimos showed no anxiety to close it up. Their clothes saturated with the freezing water of the floes, these men of iron gathered round a fire of hissing and flaring whale’s blubber, and steamed away in apparent comfort. The only departure from their usual routine was suggested probably by the open roof and the bleakness of the night; and therefore they refrained from stripping themselves naked before coming into the hut, and hanging up their dripping vestments to dry, like a votive offering to the god of the sea. Their kitchen implements were remarkable for simplicity. “A rude saucer-shaped cup of seal-skin, to gather and hold water in, was the solitary utensil that could be dignified as table-furniture. A flat stone, a fixture of the hut, supported by other stones just above the shoulder-blade of a walrus,--the stone slightly inclined, the cavity of the bone large enough to hold a moss-wick and some blubber; a square block of snow was placed on the stone, and, as the hot smoke circled round it, the seal-skin saucer caught the water that dripped from the edge. They had no vessel for boiling; what they did not eat raw they baked upon a hot stone. A solitary coil of walrus-line, fastened to a movable lance-head (_noon-ghak_), with the well-worn and well-soaked clothes on their backs, completed the inventory of their effects.” The Eskimos entertained Dr. Kane and his companions with a choral performance, singing their rude, monotonous song of “Amna Ayah” till the unfortunate white men were almost maddened by the discord. They improvised, moreover, a special chant in their honour, which they repeated with great gravity of utterance, invariably concluding with the sonorous and complimentary refrain of “_Nalegak! nalegak! nalegak-soak!_”--“Captain! captain! great captain!” The chant ran as follows:-- [Illustration: Am-na-yah! Am-na-yah! Am-na-yah! Am-na-yah!] In the early spring the Eskimos resume their hunting expeditions, and their snow-covered huts are transformed into scenes of the liveliest activity. Stacks of jointed meat, chiefly walrus, are piled upon the ice-foot; the women stretch the hide for sole-leather, and the men collect a store of harpoon-lines for the winter. Tusky walrus heads stare at the spectacle from the snowbank, where they are stowed for their ivory; the dogs are tethered to the ice; and the children, each one armed with the curved rib of some big walrus or seal, play ball and bat among the snow-drifts.