212 Distinctive Characteristics of the 



ously belong to the Polar family of Asia, pass insensibly into 

 the American race, and thus form the connecting link be- 

 tween the two. But without repeating what has already been 

 said in reference to the Indian, we may briefly advert, for the 

 purpose of comparison, to the widely different characteristics 

 of the Eskimaux. These people are remarkable for a large 

 and rather elongated head, which is low in front and project- 

 ing behind ; the great width and flatness of the face is noted 

 by all travellers : their eyes are small and black, the mouth 

 small and round, and the nose is so diminutive and depressed, 

 that on looking at a skull in profile the nasal bones are hardly 

 seen. Their complexion, moreover, is comparatively fair, and 

 there is a tendency throughout life to fulness and obesity. 

 The traveller Hearne, while in company with a tribe of north- 

 ern Indians, mentions a circumstance which is at least curious, 

 because it shows the light in which the Eskimaux are regaid- 

 ed by their proximate neighbors on the south. He was the 

 unwilling witness of a premeditated and unprovoked massa- 

 cre of an entire encampment of Eskimaux, men, women, and 

 children ; and it is curious to remark that the aggressors apolo- 

 gised for their cruelty not only on the plea of ancient feud, 

 but by asserting that their unoffending victims were a people 

 of different nature and origin from themselves, even in respect 

 to sexual conformation. 



The moral character of the Eskimaux differs from that of the 

 Indian chiefly in the absence of the courage, cunning, cru- 

 elty and improvidence so habitual in the red man, who, in turn, 

 is inferior in mechanical ingenuity, and above all in aquatic 

 exercises. The Eskimau, notwithstanding the intense cold 

 of his climate, has been called an amphibious animal, so read- 

 ily and equally does ho adapt himself to the land or water. 

 His boat is an evidence of mechanical skill, and the adroit 

 manner in which he manages it is a proverb among mariners. 

 The women are not less expert and enterprising than the 

 men : each possesses a boat of peculiar and distinctive con- 

 struction ; and Crantz informs us that children of the tender 

 age of seven or eight years commence the unassisted man- 

 agement of their little vessels. 



