MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS, 179 



If It was the design of Nature, that the dreary wastes of 

 Lapland, the naked and barren shores of the Icy Sea, the 

 ice-bound coasts of Greenland and Labrador, and the 

 frightful deserts of Tierra del Fuego, should not be left 

 entirely uninhabited, it is impossible to suppose that either 

 a vegetable or even a mixed diet is necessary to human 

 subsistence. How could roots, fruits, or other vegetable 

 productions be procured, where the bosom of the earth is 

 closed the greater part of the year, and its surface either 

 covered with many feet of snow, or rendered impenetrable 

 by frost of equal depth ? Experience shews us that the 

 constant use of animal food alone is as natural and whole- 

 some to the Eskimaux, the Samoides, the inhabitants of 

 Tierra del Fuego, &c. &c. as the most careful admixture of 

 vegetable and animal matters is to us. We even find that 

 the Russians, who winter on Nova Zembla, are obliged to 

 imitate the Samoides, by drinking fresh rein-deer blood, and 

 eating raw flesh, in order to preserve their health. In the 

 Memoir already quoted. Dr. Aikin informs us that these 

 practices were found most conducive to health in those high 

 northern latitudes. Hence, we shall be less surprised at find- 

 ing men in certain situations living and enjoying health on 

 what seem to us the most filthy and disgusting objects. The 

 Greenlander and the inhabitant of the Archipelago, between 

 north-eastern Asia and north-western America, eat the 

 whale, often without waiting for cookery. The former bury 

 a seal, when they catch one, under the grass in summer, and 

 the snow in winter, and eat the half- frozen half-putrid flesh 

 with as keen a relish as the European finds in his greatest 

 dainties. They drink the blood of the seal while warm, and 

 eat dried herrings moistened with whale oil *. 



In the torrid zone, on the contrary, circumstances are 

 very unfavourable to raising and supporting those flocks 

 and herds of domesticated animals, which would be neces- 

 sary to supply the numerous population with animal 

 food. The number, fierceness, and strength of beasts of 

 prey, the periodical alternations of rains and inundations, 



* CuANz, Gesch. von Gronland. 



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