174 THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



land and Labrador is partly responsible for the present scarcity 

 of seals ; but the disappearance of reindeer, foxes, and bears, 

 and the diminishing bird life, are due to the introduction of fire- 

 arms, and the indiscriminate destruction that always follows 

 improved methods of killing game. With a fair amount of 

 cautbn, there can be no doubt that even the present wild 

 animal life of Greenland, and the adjoining waters, would 

 supply a much greater population. If, however, the people 

 were taught to domesticate reindeer, blue foxes, and bears, or 

 import other fur-bearing animals, and carefully herd them, 

 there would be no limit to the animal life that might thrive 

 and multiply. 



The Greenlanders encountered on the voyage of the 

 Miranda were very fair specimens of the Danish Greenland 

 population, their physical characteristics ranging from a 

 typical Eskimo to a true Norseman. They varied in height 

 from 4 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 7 inches, the average man being 

 about 5 feet 5 inches high, and the woman 5 feet 2 inches. 

 The pure-blooded Eskimo is about three inches shorter. 



To the eye of the observer, the Eskimo is at once classed 

 in a racial scale midway between the American Indian and 

 the Asiatic Mongolian, and this is really his true position. 

 Further acquaintance and more careful observation will lead 

 an investigator into many puzzling moods, but he will always 

 look at the Eskimos as a branch of the Mongolian stem. Their 

 skeletons are the reverse of those of the negro. Their bones 

 present ill-defined muscular ridges, short appendages, partic- 

 ularly small hands and feet. The skull is short and broad, 

 the forehead very slightly retreating, the chin mildly pro- 

 truding, and the molar bones are prominent. The nose is 

 diminutive. 



In studying a nude Greenlander, one is first impressed 

 with the abbreviated appendages which the bony formation 

 suggests, a great deficiency of muscular outline, and a very 



