PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 125 



The Pitcairn islanders are tall, robust, and healthy. 

 Their average height is five feet ten inches ; the 

 tallest person is six feet and one quarter of an inch ; 

 and the shortest of the adults is five feet nine inches 

 and one-eighth. Their limbs are well-proportioned, 

 round, and straight ; their feet turning a little in- 

 wards. The boys promise to be equally as tall as 

 their fathers ; one of them whom we measured was, 

 at eight years of age, four feet one inch ; and an- 

 other, at nine years, four feet three inches. Their 

 simple food and early habits of exercise give them a 

 muscular power and activity not often surpassed. 

 It is recorded among the feats of strength which 

 these people occasionally evince, that two of the 

 strongest on the island, George Young and Edward 

 Quintal, have each carried, at one time, without in- 

 convenience, a kedge anchor, two sledge hammers, 

 and an armourer's anvil, amounting to upwards of 

 six hundred weight; and that Quintal, at another 

 time, carried a boat twenty-eight feet in length. 

 Their activity on land has been already mentioned. 

 I shall merely give another instance which has 

 been supplied by Lieutenant Belcher, who was ad- 

 mitted to be the most active among the officers on 

 board, and who did not consider himself behind- 

 hand in such exploits. He offered to accompany 

 one of the natives down a difficult descent, in spite 

 of the warnings of his friend that he was unequal to 

 the task. They, however, commenced the perilous 

 descent, but Mr. Belcher was obliged to confess his 

 inability to proceed, while his companion, perfectly 

 assured of his own footing, offered him his hand, 

 and undertook to conduct him to the bottom, if he 

 would depend on him for safety. In the water they 



