Dr King oti the Physical Characters of the Esquimaux. 301 



good nature, and frankness, and that some of the women had 

 agreeable and delicate features. Sir John Franklin and Dr 

 Richardson considered the young women and children hand- 

 some, some of them having a considerable share of beauty, and 

 one in particular, who would have been deemed pretty even in 

 Europe ; and, like our own belles, they spared no pains to shew 

 themselves off to advantage. Sir Edward Parry makes the 

 same observations of the natives of the river Clyde, and of 

 Melville Peninsula, and then adds, that " one of the prettiest 

 women of the latter people had a face more oval than that of 

 Esquimaux in general, very pretty eyes and mouth, teeth re- 

 markably white and regular, and possessing in her carriage 

 and manners a degree of natural gracefulness which could not 

 be hid even under the disguise of an Esquimaux woman's 

 dress." Two young men, about twenty years of age, and stand- 

 ing five feet seven inches, were both " handsome and prepos- 

 sessing, and their limbs well formed and muscular ; qualities 

 which, combined with their activity and manliness, rendered 

 them, to speak like a naturalist, perhaps as fine specimens of 

 the human race as almost any country could produce. A man 

 named. Tea, his brother, his wife, and two daughters had good 

 Roman noses, and one of the latter was an extremely pretty 

 young woman." The natives of Prince William's Sound are 

 described as having generally broad flat faces, small eyes, and 

 white and regular teeth, though there is considerable variety in 

 this respect. Those of Kotzebue's Sound have forbidding 

 countenances, and an expression of wantonness, but not of stu- 

 pidity, their features being characterized by small eyes and very 

 high cheek-bones ;* while, according to Captain Beechy, they are 

 a good looking race, although, at a comparatively earlyage, they 

 (the women in particular) soon lose their comeliness, and old 

 age is attended with a haggard and care-worn appearance, 

 rendered more unbecoming by sore eyes, and by teeth worn to 

 the gums by frequent mastication of hard substances. Th« 

 same state of the teeth has been observed in the aged of all 

 the difibrent communities. The natives of Mackenzie River, 

 to Sir John Franklin's western limit, were found to have the 



♦ KoUebue. 



