ERASMUS YORK— INDICATIONS OF ORIGIN. 185 



" when troubles came upon him and his people, never have friends 

 been more true than these Arctic Highlanders." 



We, of the old Assistance, can bear witness with regard to one of 

 the members of this northern race, who, by his constant cheerful- 

 ness and good humour, and his readiness to make himself useful, 

 became a great favourite on board. Through the kindness of 

 Admiral Oniinanney he received an education in England, and 

 went afterwards to Newfoundland, where he died in 1856. A lady, 

 who wrote to announce his death, thus speaks of poor Erasmus 

 York (Kallihirua) : " During his illness he was as patient and 

 gentle as ever, and thankful for all that was done to relieve him. 

 We all loved him for his true-heartedness, obedience, and kind- 

 ness of disposition ; and I trust that we may not forget the example 

 he gave us of forgiveness and forbearance under injury." The 

 Arctic Highlanders are savages, but they are ingenious and intelli- 

 gent — courageous as hunters, true and loyal to Mends in distress, 

 and capable, after instruction, of the highest virtues of civilised men. 



In conclusion, I will sum up the points which, after an examin- 

 ation of the ethnology of the Arctic Highlanders, tend to corro- 

 borate my theory of their origin and migrations. First, then, there 

 is the evidence that they are not branches of any Eskimo tribe of 

 America or its islands. The American Eskimos never go from 

 their own hunting range for any distance to the inhospitable north. 

 Except in the case of the Pond's Bay natives, who followed up the 

 whalers fur a specific reason in modern times, there is no instance 

 of their having gone north ; and it is unreasonable to suppose that 

 they would do so. The American Eskimos live in snow huts, the 

 Arctic Highlanders in iglus built of stone ; the former have kayaks 

 and bows and arrows, the latter have none; the Boothians use 

 sledges of rolled-up seal- skin ; the Arctic Highlanders have sledges 

 of bone. We have proofs, also, that the ancient wanderers who 

 left traces along the Parry Islands, were the same tribe as the 

 Arctic Highlanders, and distinct from the American Eskimos. 

 The ruins on the shores of the Parry Islands are identical with the 

 stone iglus of the Arctic Highlanders, and unlike tho habitations 

 of the American Eskimos. The pieces of bone sledge-runners 

 that were found among these ruins, are the same as those used by 

 the former tribe, while the Boothians (the nearest American 

 Eskimos) use seal-skin runners. Tho bone which had been cut to 

 form a duct for conducting melted snow into a cup, found by 

 myself on Griffith Island, and the lamp picked up by Osborn on 

 ('ape Lady Franklin, are precisely similar articles to thoso now 

 aeed by the Arctic Highland* re 



