ESKIMO OF Hudson's strait. 221 



Trading with one anotliHr and with those at distant parts of the 

 coast is a common practice, the money standard used being a white 

 fox skin. Most of their furs however are sent by one or two trusted 

 ti'aders to Captain Spicer's post on the north side of the strait and to 

 the Hudson's Bay Company's post at Fort Chimo, Ungava Bay, and 

 it is remarkable that, although these traders carry as many as thirty 

 or forty parcels of furs owned by different families, they seemed quite 

 able to remember on their return, to whom the goods they obtained in 

 exchange belonged, apparently the only note made being a few marks 

 with their teeth upon some of the articles. 



It is generally supposed that the Indians and the Eskimo are conti- 

 nually at enmity with one another. This may be the case on the most 

 northern coast of America, but it is certainly not so with those living 

 on either the Labrador coast or Hudson's Strait all of whom 

 spoke in the highest terms of the Indian, or Udler, as they call them, 

 and several Eskimo were wearing articles tliey had purchased from 

 them when visiting Fort Chimo. 



As it is the case with all, or most uncivilized races, many of the 

 senses are not well developed in the Eskimo. Pain, for instance, 

 under which we would groan is borne without flinching and in this 

 we had ample means of judging as I was called in to dress several 

 painful wounds. Deep cuts, too, made by the accidental slip of a 

 knife were simply bound up with a piece of .sinew and no further 

 notice taken of them. 



Their power of hearing is very good and it was often noticed that 

 sounds at a distance unheaixl by ourselves could be distinctly heard 

 by them. 



Although many suffer with weak eyes their sight is wonderfully 

 keen, especially at long distances, as was often noticed by their being 

 able to count the seals upon the ice that appeared to us as small 

 specks seen very indistinctly. As the winter advanced many of them 

 became snow blind and all were aff'ected more or less with the glitter 

 of the sun upon the snow. In one house visited three children wei'e 

 found perfectly blind, and although we did all we could for them, 

 they did not recover their sight for nearly twenty days. 



Regarding their sense of taste we need only reuiark, there was 

 nothing we would eat that they could not relish, and much more we 



