VII. 



PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 303 



dispose the corpse upon a platform of wood, and raise chap. 

 a pile over it with young trees. The position in which 

 the bodies are laid also differs ; the head being placed 

 to the westward by this nation, while in the eastern 

 tribes it lies to the north-east. 



They are taller in stature than the Eastern Esqui- 

 maux, their average height being about five feet seven 

 and a half inches. They are also a better looking race, 

 if I may judge from the natives I saw in Baffin's Bay, 

 and from the portraits of others that have been pub- 

 lished. At a comparatively early age, however, they 

 (the women in particular) soon lose this comeliness, 

 and old age is attended with a haggard and care-worn 

 countenance, rendered more unbecoming by sore eyes, 

 and by teeth worn to the gums by frequent mastica- 

 tion of hard substances. 



They differ widely in disposition from the inhabi- 

 tants of Igloolik and Greenland, being more continent, 

 industrious, and provident, and rather partaking of the 

 warlike, irascible, and uncourtcous temper of the 

 Tschutschi. Neither do they appear by any means so 

 deficient in filial affection as the natives of Ingloolik, 

 who as soon as they commenced their summer excur- 

 sions left their aged and infirm to perish in the vil- 

 lages ; of whom it will be recollected that one old man, 

 in particular, must have fallen a victim to this unna- 

 tural neglect, had not his horrible fate been arrested 

 by the timely humanity of the commander of the polar 

 expedition. 



With the Western Esquimaux, as indeed with al- 

 most all uncivilized tribes, hospitality seems to form 

 one characteristic feature of the disposition ; as if Na- 

 ture, by the gift of this virtue, had intended to check, 

 in some measure, that ferocity which is otherwise so 

 predominant. 



