i6 



NATURE 



\_May 2, 1878 



On his entering as assistant-surgeon in India, a great 

 field was open to him, of which he happily availed him- 

 self. After a participation in some of the miseries of 

 the Cabul campaign, though not actually serving in 

 the expedition, and a narrow escape, in company with 

 Lady Sale, of endless captivity, he was able to devote 

 his time very much to science. He was employed in 

 1847 and 1848 in the Tibet Mission, a winter residence 

 at Iskardo, a perilous journey along the portion of the 

 Indus which runs beyond Iskardo, though, from the state 

 of the country, he could not pursue its course to Kashmir, 

 and the results of the previous journey gave him the 

 opportunity of publishing a most instructive volume 

 which, for soundness and multiplicity of information can 

 scarcely be surpassed. 



Dr. Thomson joined his friend Dr. Hooker in Dar- 

 jeling in the end of 1849, after the completion of his 

 arduous journeys in the North-West Himalaya and 

 Tibet, and they spent the rest of the year 1850 in travel- 

 ling and collecting, returning to England together in 1 85 1 . 

 Having obtained permission from the Indian Govern- 

 ment to distribute his botanical collections, which were 

 equal in extent and value to those of Dr. Hooker, after 

 taking part in the preparation of the Indian Flora, he 

 returned to India as Director of the Botanical Garden at 

 Calcutta. On his return to England, increasing infirmity 

 soon made him unequal to any constant participation in 

 the work, but up to a very few weeks before his death he 

 was employed as examiner, his qualifications for which 

 made him a most desirable and efficient colleague. 

 Though in a very failing state of health, he collected last 

 summer assiduously in the neighbourhood of Pitlochrie, 

 and was so fortunate after three times ascending the Sow 

 of Atholl as to rediscover the long-lost Menziesia carulea. 

 It remains only to add that his kind and affectionate dis- 

 position endeared him to all who knew him, and to none 

 more than to the writer of this short and imperfect 

 notice. M. J. Berkeley 



THE GREENLAND ESKIMO 



A COMMISSION was appointed by the Anthropolo- 

 -'*■ gical Society of Paris to examine the Eskimo whom 

 M. GeoffroyI St. Hilaire, the intelligent director of the 

 Jardin d'Acclimatation has brought from Greenland. This 

 Commission was composed of MM. Broca, Dally, Girard 

 de Rialle, Topinard, Masard, and Bordier {rapporteur). 

 The following are the details which I have given to the 

 Society as the result of the observations made by the 

 Commission. 



The Greenlanders, whom all Paris has been to see at 

 the Jardin d'Acclimatation, are six in number, viz., 

 Okabak, thirty-six years ; Majak, Okabak's wife, twenty- 

 three years ; their two daughters, Anna, twenty-five, and 

 Catarina, thirteen, months ; Kojank, twenty-three years ; 

 and Jokkik, forty-one years, who is recognised at once as 

 a half-breed between Dane and Greenlander. 



These Greenlanders came from Jacobshavn, on Baffin's 

 Bay, on the west coast of Greenland, about 69° N. lat., 

 not far from Disco Bay and Island. In that latitude the 

 temperature in winter falls as low as — 49° C. It differs 

 notably from that which has to be endured by other 

 Eskimo whose habitat extends to the south of Greenland, 

 from Labrador to Behring Strait. 



Jacobshavn, although belonging to the north district of 

 Greenland, is not, however, the most northern town ; for 

 Bessels has given, as the human habitat nearest to the 

 pole, the town of Ita, in 78° 16' N. ; Ita appears, however, 

 to be only a summer station. At Disco Bay the sun does 

 not rise from November 30 to January 15. It may not 

 be useless to give a rapid glance at the surroundings in 

 the midst of which these Greenlanders live. 



The flora is rudimentary. The Greenlanders have but 



little wood at their command ; the little they use is 

 imported from Denmark. 



The fauna, less poor, is composed, first of all, of the 

 seal, which constitutes the prime material of all their 



Fig. I.— 1 and 2. Toy dog and seal, cut in wood. 3. Knife to scrape fat 

 off seal-skins. 4. Seal-skin hunting girdle with ivory medallion. 

 5. Seal-skin pouch. 6. Obsidian lamp. 7. Bone fish-hooks with 

 iron points. 8. Tuft for catching vermin. 



civilisation — food, light, heat, clothing, boat-building, 

 various implements and utensils — the seal furnishes all. 

 The white bear is sought for its fur, but the flesh seems 

 to be reserved for the dogs. The reindeer is also found 

 in Greenland. According to Dr. Hayes the reindeer is still 

 very abundant in the interior of the land, but the Green- 



Fig 2. — I. Fur glove with bear claws. 2. Bone knife for cleaning boats. 

 3. Drinking-spoon. 4. Bone table-spoon. 5- Bone boxes with 

 bundles of thread made of birds' entrails. 6. Bone hook with iron 

 points. 



landers do not make use of it either as food or as a means 

 of locomotion. Birds are very abundant ; their plumage 

 is used as fur, and their sinews as thread. 



But the domestic animal is the dog, which they yoke to 

 sledges by means of a small harness of sealskin. The 

 nine dogs which the Eskimo have brought to Paris, and 



