° OF THE POLAR SEA. 29 
ships, and few of these were elderly persons, or 
male children. | 
Their faces were broad and flat, the eyes 
small. The men were in general stout. Some 
of the younger women and the children had rather 
pleasing countenances, but the difference between 
these and the more aged of that sex, bore strong 
testimony to the effects which a few years produce 
in this ungenial climate. Most of the party had 
Sore eyes, all of them appeared of a plethoric habit 
of body ; several were observed bleeding at the 
nose during their stay near the ship. The men’s 
dresses consisted of a jacket of seal-skin, the 
trowsers of bear-skin, and several had caps of the 
white fox-skin. The female dresses were made 
of the same materials, but differently shaped, 
having a hood in which the infants were carried. 
We thought their manner very lively and agree- 
able. They were fond of mimicking our speech 
and gestures ; but nothing afforded them greater 
amusement than when we attempted to retaliate 
by pronouncing any of their words. 
The canoes were of seal-skin, and similar in 
every respect to those used by the Esquimaux in 
Greenland ; they were generally new and very 
complete in their appointments. Those appro- 
priated to the women are -of ruder construction, 
and only calculated for fine weather; they are, 
