186 THE NATURAL niSTOKY JlEYIEW. 



Like some previous writers, Capt. Hall thinks that the Esquimaux 

 are rapidly dying out. " Not many years more," he says, " and the 

 " Innuits will be extinct." It may seem presumptuous to differ from 

 Capt. Hall on such a question as this, but he has certainly given no 

 sufficient reason for such a belief It has arisen, we think, from the 

 numerous ruins of old huts, and vestiges of ancient occupation which 

 are every where to be found on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and 

 which at first sight certainly appear to indicate a much larger popu- 

 lation than that now in existence. But we must remember that the 

 Esquimaux are essentially a nomad people, whose huts are the work of 

 a few hours, and when a locality has been occupied for a few weeks, 

 the traces of it would remain almost unaltered, for years and years 

 afterwards. 



Capt. Hall appears to have been greatly impressed with the 

 beauty and magnificence of tlie Aurora Borealis. He ranges him- 

 self on the side of those who maintain that this glorious phenomenon 

 is unaccompanied by noise: and he gives, we think, a probable 

 illustration of the manner in w^hich the contrary opinion may have' 

 originated. " Hark, hark," he says, " such a display ! almost as if 

 " a warfare was going on among the beauteous lights above, so 

 " palpable, so near, seems impossible without noise. But no noise 

 " accompanied this wondrous display. All was silence." 



It is evident that a less careful and accurate observer would have 

 supposed that he heard thoie sounds which Capt, Hall as evidently 

 expected, and at the absence of which he seems to have been almost 

 disappointed. 



There are some few cases, however, in which we are compelled 

 to call in question the accuracy of Capt. Hall's observations, or at 

 l«ast, the manner in which they are expressed. Thus he tells us, 

 that on one occasion, the cold wind " froze the water of the eyes, 

 " locking them up in ice, so that it was only by vigilance and eftbrt 

 " that I could keep myself in seeing order." If, however, the water 

 of his eyes had really been frozen, no vigilance or care would ever 

 have brought them into " seeing order" again. Probably, however, 

 he only means the moisture on his eye-brows, and eye-lashes. Again 

 he tells us that having inadvertently touched his bi^ss sextant with 

 the bare hand, " the eftect was precisely the same as if I had touched 

 " red hot iron. The ends of my finger nails were like burnt bone 

 " or horn, and the fleshy part of the tips of m}^ fingers and thumbs 

 *' were, in appearance and feeling, as if suddenly burnt by fire." It 



