578 THE ESKIMOS. 



One sole population inhabits the immense icy plains which extend 

 into America even beyond the Polar circle. I refer to the Eskimos, 

 who are found encamped in summer under tents made of reindeer or 

 seal-skin, hidden in winter in their snow-huts from Behring's Strait 

 even to Cape Farewell. This race has the reddish-brown tint of the 

 North American Indians. In its small stature and physical forms it 

 does not differ from other Hyperboreans ; but in physiognomy and the 

 flattened skull it singularly recalls the men of lofty stature who 

 inhabit the other extremity of the American continent, the Pata- 

 gonians. The physiognomy, the character, and the manners of the 

 Eskimos have been frequently described. The courageous navigators 

 who have explored the Polar Sea in quest of a North-west Passage 

 have held frequent intercourse with these poor people, and all agree 

 in eulogizing their gentleness, their patriarchal life, their eagerness to 

 succour strangers. An American, Captain Hall, the last adventurer 

 who has set himself the task of discovering the wrecks of Franklin's 

 ill-fated expedition, spent a whole year in the midst of the Eskimos, 

 whose amiability and generosity he praises in no stinted terms. 

 Exclusively hunters and fishers, the Eskimos have no other domestic 

 animal than the dog ; they harness it to their sledges, and also 

 train it to chase the seal, the walrus, and the reindeer. It is in the 

 summer only that they hunt the latter animal. In that genial season 

 there is no lack of other game, terrestrial and marine. It is for them 

 a season of abundance, wherein they gorge themselves with flesh, 

 blood, and fat. During the winter they often fast several days at a 

 time, and remain immured in their huts like hybernating animals ; 

 but at length, driven by famine and by want of oil, they go forth 

 upon the ice in search of the seals which come up to breathe. 

 When they have been fortunate enough to kill one, the}?- divide it 

 amongst them amicably, and regale themselves upon it until only the 

 bones remain, after which they endure a new period of privation. 

 Thus they live from day to day, in continual alternations of gluttony 

 and abstinence, without injury to their health, and without shortening 

 their lives. And it is worthy of notice that Europeans who once 



