SETTLEMENTS— APPEARANCE OF THE MEN. 179 



Here, then, is a region where man too might find subsistence, 

 and here accordingly we meet with a hardy trihe of men, num- 

 bering, according to Dr. Kane's calculation, about 140 souls, 

 reduced, according to Hayes, to 100 in 1860. They are separated 

 in eight or more settlements, scattered along tbo coast from tbe 

 Humboldt to the Melville glacier. Tbo names of tbe settlements, 

 according to York, who marked all their positions on his chart, 

 are Anoritok, in Smith Sound; Etah, near Cape Alexander ; Pikierlu, 

 ElcaluTc, Pitorak, Natsilil; in Whale Sound ; Umenal; where the North 

 Star wintered ; Alnpa and Imnagen, at Cape York. These are tbe 

 permanent winter settlements, but in summer they pitch their tents 

 wherever they are likely to find the best hunting-ground. 



This remarkable tribe is decidedly of Asiatic affinities so far as 

 the outer man is concerned. The men we saw at Cape York 

 averaged about five feet five inches in height; but Dr. Kane de- 

 scribes tbe first native he met with as a head taller than himself, 

 and extremely powerful and well built. They are generally cor- 

 pulent and fleshy, and so heavy that it is difficult to lift a full- 

 grown man. The forehead is narrow and low ; nose very small ; 

 cheeks full and chubby ; mouth large, lips thick ; eyes small, 

 black and very bright; beard scanty, and hair black and coarse. 

 The hands and feet are small and thick. They are possessed of 

 great strength, endurance, and activit}' ; and are on the whole in- 

 telligent. This description, most of which I have copied from my 

 journal, would answer as well for some of the northern tribes of 

 Siberia as for the Arctic Highlanders ; and I may add that when 

 poor York went to tbe Great Exhibition, everybody thought he 

 was a Chinese. 1 



Their winter habitations mark them as a peculiar people, in 

 some respects distinct from the Eskimo of America ; for whilo tbo 

 latter live in snow huts, the Arctic Highlanders build structures 

 of stone. Tbese stone iglus, though quite unlike the winter 

 homes of tbe American Eskimo, are precisely the same as tbe 

 ruined yourts on the northern shores of Siberia, and as tho ruins 

 found in all parts of the Parry Islands. They thus furnish one 

 of several clues which point to Siberia as the original home of 

 these people. 



The iglu of the Arctic Highlander is built of large stones, 

 carefully and artistically arranged in an elliptical form. The 

 sides gradually approach each other, and the roof is covered over 



1 The descriptions *, r iv< n l>y Dr. Simpson of the tribes in Kotzebue Sound, and 



by Lieut. Hooper of the Tuski on the Asiatic i -t. show thai these people 



closely resemble the Arctic Highlanders in outward appearance. 



