542 AN UNATTRACTIVE RACE. 



great development of the chest, shoulders, and vertebral column ; 

 their arms are long, and out of proportion ; their legs small, and ill- 

 made. There is, in fact, little difference between the size of the 

 ankle and the leg ; and, when standing, the skin at the knee hangs 

 in a large loose fold. In some individuals the muscles of the leg 

 appear almost wanting, and possess very little strength. This want 

 of muscular development is owing to their constant sitting posture, 

 both in their huts and canoes. Their skin is sensibly colder than 

 ours. It is impossible to fancy anything in human nature more 

 filthy. They are an ill-shapen and ugly race. 



The Pecherais build their huts on the shore of boughs or small 

 trees planted in the earth, their tops woven together, and roofed with 

 grass or bark. Circular in form, they have generally a diameter of 

 seven to eight feet, and measure four or five feet in height, with an 

 oval aperture to serve for an entrance. The fire is built up in a 

 central excavation in the clay floor. The sole, or at all events the 

 principal, food of this people is shell-fish. They strike the fish, or 

 defend themselves, with rudely-fashioned spears and slings. The 

 women generally paddle the canoes. 



We also encounter, in the southern provinces of America, in the 

 midst of the copper-coloured races of whom I have already spoken, a 

 group of Indians, almost black, whom Prichard, the illustrious ethno- 

 logist, has designated the Mediterranean, and whose features recall in 

 a striking manner those of some of the Califoriiian tribes. Is this 

 resemblance a sign of the close relationship existing between two 

 peoples placed, as it were, at the two extremities of the world ? We 

 can hardly admit the supposition. It seems more probable that it 

 results from the analogy of the climates, and perhaps still more surely 

 from that of the soils, which appear to exercise a mysterious but a 

 powerful influence upon the modification of species and races. 



