The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-09-04 00:00:00

DESCRIPTION OF ..4.1C ESQUIDIAUX NUT.

It was not without the help of one of the by-standers
that I could guess that an opening hardly two feet high,
and covered with a skin, was the door. Puffs of hot air
loaded with fetid emanations reach me ; I feel my courage
waver, but at last I make :my way in, after crawling a
couple of yards through a sort of sewer with damp walls,
the foot of which rests in a muddy compost of blood, water,
oil, and grease. No ; I shall never forget the impression
made on me by what I saw, though I thought myself pre-
pared for everything by the numerous descriptions I had
read of these miserable hovels. This one, too, is in a place
comparatively civilised, where the example of Europeans
must, and does, create wants and notions of comfort un-
known to wandering tribes, in an establishment visited
every year by an inspector sent by the government of Co-
penhagen. A rectangular enclosure of stones, covered on
the outside with a thick layer of earth, and on the interior
with three or four planks, forms the body of the hut; at
each of the doors and at the further end, a sort of trellis, a
foot from the ground, and three or four feet wide, serving
for bed and table. In the middle space, of about three
feet, lies half a seal, from which the fat has been removed,
but the bloody flesh, trampled under foot, is there at hand
whenever the inmates of the hut feel disposed to eat.
On one side of the hut is an old woman nearly blind,
with grisly locks, bare legged and bare armed, sewing
skins, which she moves about with her feet and hands.
Her red eyelids, contrasting with her bistre skin, seem
still more prominent from the leanness which is only found
in individuals of her race. She looks the image of one of
the witches of Macbeth. Near her lies her son, who sits
up to do me the honours of his house. •At the further end
a young woman, nearly- naked, is suckling a naked infant,
which she holds with one hand, whilst with the other she
snatches up some skins which constitute her garments.
Two lamps fed with fetid oil do the double service of light-
ing and warming the apartment. Harpoons, lances, and
rolls of skin hang from the walls, or are laid against it,
the lower ends resting in rubbish and offal of all sorts.
There is no opening for the escape of smoke ; a single hole
near the entrance, glazed with thin intestinal membranes,
alone allows it to be seen that there is an outer world.

I feel suffocated; my nose, throat, eyes, all are affected,
but I want to see. I even try to conceal my sensations;
and when an oily hand is stretched out to me in token of
welcome, I hold out a handkerchief as a gift, and thus
avoid the good-natured grasp that threatens me. Some
trifling presents soon make friends of these poor disin-
herited children of nature ; and, like the diver preparing
for a long effort, I try to see as much as possible, holding
my breath and inhaling as little as I can of that atmos-
phere.

A kindly feeling is everywhere manifested
throughout these volumes, and that sweetness of
disposition for which he was so remarkable,
gained from even the " poor disinherited children
of nature," affection and esteem. The Esquimaux,
when informed of his death by Captain Inglefield,
on his way home, shed floods of tears, and in ac-
cents broken with emotion exclaimed, " Poor
Bellot ! poor Bellot !" They recalled to memory
many of those acts of kindness by which he had
endeared himself to their affections. Among
others they recounted how, on one occasion, when
he saw one of their people with a broken leg,
dragging himself slowly and painfully over the
snow, he contrived for him a wooden leg, and
had it made as a present for the poor cripple, by
the ship's carpenter.
The name of Bellot has long been favourably
known and highly cherished by the English
people. The feeling of respect and admiration
will be greatly augmented by the publication and

STIPPL

perusal of these memoirs, in which the artless-
ness and generosity of the man form such con-
spicuous and pleasing features.

A Campaign with the Turks in Asia. By
Charles Duncan. London : Smith, Elder, & Co.

These two volumes of interesting sketches, as
well as some others of considerable note, owe
their existence to the spirit of enterprise which
has actuated.the leading morning journals since
the outbreak of hostilities with Russia, and they
add materially to our information relative to men
and matters in the territories of our Turkish
allies. The author of these two tomes was cor-
tespondent for one of the London journals—
which of them we are not informed—and in pur-
suit of that revocation he made a tour of the
Asiatic border of the Black Sea, directing much
of his attention to, and spending a considerable
portion of his time at and in the neighbourhood
of, Kars—a place, which as the theatre of one set
of Russian operation is becoming daily of greater
and greater interest. The volumes to which we
now make reference do not pretend to having
been executed on any definite literary plan, but
consist chiefly of well-selected sketches, which
display in suggestive lines the appearances and
capabilities of the country—its resources in men
and material—and also the moral and physical
condition of its inhabitants. The writer, with a
fine eye to the picturesque and a lively perception
of 'the ludicrous, possesses also habits of keen
observation.

Of the Turkish soldiers and peasantry Mr.
Duncan speaks in terms of high approbation : he
represents them as honest, patient, and courage-
ous ; simple and amiable in their habits ; frugal
of their means ; well made and robust in person ;
long-lived find healthy, and strangers alike to
poverty and to crime. These virtues, however, he
in a great degree limits to the lower ranks, his
judgments weighing heavily against the higher
officers of the public service, civil as well as mili-
tary. Of the Anatolian army he speaks in terms
of high commendation, and of it gives such
accounts as must lead to a speedy dissolution of
any apprehension as to the issue of an Asiatic
campaign if this army were properly officered.
Concerning Zarif Pacha, the present commander-
in-chief, Mr. Duncan has collected much informa-
tion, which cannot fail to be peculiarly interesting
at the present moment, when it is borne in mind
that upon his decision it will in a great degree
depend whether an Anglo-French army shall or
shall not be sent into Armenia. It is understood
that, as an administrator of civil Government,
'Zarif Pacha has proved useful and, on the whole,
valuable ; his rule in Erzeroum was admittedly
beneficial in a high degree ; of his capabilities as
a military commander few opportunities have as
yet been supplied to guide us in forming a judg-
ment ; his present position however gives interest
to the following.