ETHNOLOGY. 15 



at any season. The principal ones are known as Nugumeute, Niantilic, 

 Newboyant, Kemesuit, Annanactook, Oosooadluin, Ejnjuajuin, Kikker- 

 tou, and Middliejuacktuack Islands, and Shaumeer, situate at different 

 l>oints on both sides of Cumberland Sound. During the winter they con- 

 gregate at these points in little villages of snow-huts. 



The present principal headquarters are at the Kikkerton Islands, or at 

 Niantilic, according to which point the whalers winter. The old harbor 

 of Kemasuit, once the winter harbor of whalers and a favorite resort of 

 the Eskimo, is now deserted, except by a few superannuated couples, 

 who manage to catch enough seal to live on. 



As a rule, the present race is of short stature, the men from five feet 

 tliree inches to five feet six. There are some exceptions, but they are 

 in favor of a less rather than a greater height. The women are a little 

 shorter. The lower extremities are rather short in proportion to the 

 body, and bow-legs are almost the rule. This probably arises from the 

 manner in which the children are carried in the mother's hood, as well 

 as the early age at which they attempt to walk. The habit of sitting 

 cross-legged may also have a tendency to produce this deformity. Their 

 li ands and feet are small and well formed. Their hands are almost covered 

 with the scars of cuts and bruises. It seems that in healing the inj ured part 

 rises, and is always afterwards disgustingly prominent. There is a great 

 ^'ariation in the color of their skin, and a description that would answer 

 for one might not apply at all to another. Even among those that are 

 of i)ure breed there are some whose skins are no darker than a white 

 man's would be if subjected to the rigors of wind and cold, and the 

 never-removed accumulation of soot and grease. Others again seem to 

 have been " born so." Tlie children, when young, are quite fair. The 

 eyes are small, oblique, and black or very dark brown. The hair is 

 black, straight, coarse, and very abundant. It is rarely wavy or curly 

 among the full-blooded Innuits. 



There are, of com-se, exceptions to the above in cases of half-breeds. 

 Their faces arc broad and flat, with rather large lips and prominent 

 cheek-bones. 



Infanticide is not practiced among the Cumberland Eskimo at the 

 present day. I have learned from some of the most intelligent that this 

 barbarous custom was in vogue in former times, however. Among the 

 natives of Kepulse Bay and those living on the north siiores of Hudson's 

 Straits, it is practiced to a considerable extent, especially with the tribe 

 known as the Pelly Bay natives. The practice is confined almost en- 



