OR RED INDIANS OP NEWFOUNDLAND. 163 



When the animal was struck the shaft would be detached, aud the animal going off with 

 the head sticking in him would be checked by the float and gradually exhausted, until 

 it became an easy prey. (See Plate X, 5.) This is the mode of hunting sea animals still 

 folloAved by the Eskimos and the Indians at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. 



VI. —Ethnological Relations. 



We come now to consider their ethnological relations. Here our means of investiga- 

 tion are very scanty. No accurate measurements of the bodies of any of them are at hand. 

 It is to be regretted also that so little information has been preserved regarding even the 

 appearance of the few members of the tribe who lived among the whites, aud so little 

 learned, by intercourse with them, of their habits and ideas. But it appears that they 

 were of ordinary height, or probably above it. Their hair was coarse and black, and 

 the men allowed it to fall over their faces, though in some it is said to have been as 

 soft as that of Europeans. Their complexion was lighter than that of the Micmacs, which 

 again is (now at least) lighter than that of the western Indians. But this I believe to be 

 simply the result of climate. Of the females who lived with the whites, the appearance 

 seems to have been generally agreeable aud their manner gentle aud affable. Their dress 

 consisted of two dressed deer-skins, or fur, thrown over their shoulders, forming a sort of 

 cassock, sometimes with sleeves. They had a plan of rendering the deer's skin soft and 

 pliable. Mr, James P. Howley says (Lloyd V, p. 22G) : " The Beothiks were a much finer 

 and handsomer race than the Micmacs, having more regular features and aquiline noses, 

 nor wera they so dark in the skin. They were of middle stature, say five feet ten inches, 

 and of a very active build. They did not appear to be so fond of gaudy colours as their 

 continental neighbours." Mr. Peyton's statement was : " The shape of the heads of males 

 aud females did not differ in appearance from those of ordinary Europeans. Their eyes, 

 which did not possess any marked pecviliarity of form like those of the Eskimo, were 

 black and piercing." 



Cormack, in his account of his expedition across the island in 1822, says : " In former 

 times when the several tribes were upon an equality in respect to weapons, the Red 

 Indians were considered invincible, and frequently waged war upon the rest, until the 

 latter got ilrearms put into their hands by Europeans. The Red Indians are even feared 

 yet, and described as very large, athletic men." The traditions of the oldest Micmacs, as 

 well as of the white settlers, agree in representing them as physically a large and power- 

 ful race. 



Only a few skulls have been preserved. Two that were taken to Britain by Mr. 

 Cormack have been very minutely described in a paper by Dr. George Bush, published 

 in the 'Journal of the Anthropological Institute' (v, 230-232). Of one he says, "It is 

 chiefly remarkable for the elevation of the frontal region and the comparatively sparing 

 elevation of the parietal region, which, however, cannot in this case be assigned to an 

 early closing of the sagittal suture. As in the female skull, the occiput is projecting. The 

 chief difference between them is the more upright forehead in the female skull. In both 

 there is no depression at the root of the nose, and in both the nasal spine is very promin- 

 ent. In both also the greatest width is in the squamosal above the auditory foramen." 



Two other skulls are in the local museum, besides one still attached to a skeleton. 



