96 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Continent for at least 1000 years. It has generally been supposed 

 that they originally came across Behring Straits fi-om Asia, but the 

 race is one of which very little is known. Although scanty in num- 

 bers, they wander over a lai'ger extent of territory than do any other 

 people. They alone among savage races occupy both the old and the 

 new world ; they inhabit the shores of the Arctic Sea from Siberia to 

 Greenland and Labrador, and throughout this vast extent of countiy 

 the language, appearance and occupation of the natives are very 

 similar. Of course their habits have at some points been modified 

 by contact with the whites ; it could scarcely be expected that the 

 untutored savages who inhabit the shores of Hudson's Straits and the 

 Ai'ctic Coast line should entirely resemble the more favored portions 

 of their race, who have been, to a certain extent, educated by the 

 Moravian brethren on the Labrador coast or by the Danish mis- 

 sionaries in Greenland. 



In appearance the Eskimo somewhat resemble the Chinese and 

 Tartars ; they are generally small in stature, the average height of a 

 man being about 5 ft. 1 in. or 2 in., but I have seen a few who were 

 as much as o ft. 9 in. or 10 in. Their features ai-e broad and flat, 

 the hair is very coarse, invariably jet-black and quite straight ; few 

 of them have much hair on the face, but there are exceptions. In 

 color they are about as dark as the Indians, but the layer of dirt and 

 oil, which as a rule covers both face and body, makes it rather hard 

 to determine the exact shade. 



Sir John Lubbock, in a treatise on the Eskimc^, says that the 

 language is akin to the North American Indian in structure. This 

 may be the case, but the two languages are certainly diflferent in 

 sound. The opportunities afforded me of learning the language were 

 very limited, as I and my men were dumped down at the post among 

 the natives but a very short time after the interpreter was taken 

 aboard the ship atNachvach, on the north coast of Labrador. Dui'ing 

 the short time I spent with him I obtained the Eskimo words co)-- 

 I'esponding to certain English sentences, which I thought might come 

 in useful; for instance, "What is the name of this I" — " shoo-now- 

 nah," " Bring me some fox skins," — " Terry-gyn-yer-mik-p-u mo- 

 ouma." By means of the former I was enabled to obtain fi'om the 

 natives themselves the names of a large number of things of which 

 I made a vocabulaiy, and by first guessing at and afterwards 

 asking the meanins: of the sentences in most common use ainonfj 



