Arctic Exploration. 297 



Light may not improbably be thrown upon the mysterious 

 wanderings of those northern tribes, traces of which are found 

 in every bay and on every cape in the cheerless Parry group, as 

 well as up to the further point that has been reached beyond 

 Smith Sound ; and these wanderings may be found to be the 

 most distant waves of storms raised in far-off centres, and 

 among other races. Many circumstances connected with tho 

 still unknown northern tribes may tend to elucidate such in- 

 quiries. 



There are other investigations which would undoubtedly 

 yield valuable materials for the student of man. Such would 

 be carefully prepared notes on the skulls, the features, the 

 stature, the dimensions of limbs, the intellectual and moral 

 state of individuals belonging to a hitherto isolated and un- 

 known tribe ; also on their religious ideas, on their super- 

 stitions, laws, language, songs, and traditions ; on their 

 weapons and methods of hunting ; and on their skill in de- 

 lineating the topography of the region within the range of 

 their wanderings. 



The condition of an isolated tribe, deprived of the use of 

 wood or metals, and dependent entirely upon bone and stone 

 for the construction of all implements and utensils, is also a 

 subject of study with reference to the condition of mankind 

 in the stone age of the world ; and a careful comparison of 

 the former, as reported by explorers, with the latter, as 

 deduced from the contents of tumuli and caves, will probably 

 be of great importance in the advancement of the science 

 of man. 



Having thus epitomized the various scientific subjects which 



be easy to summon more instances from the same group of birds, 

 tending to show that beyond a zone where a rigorous summer reigns 

 there may be a region endowed with a comparatively favourable 

 climate. If so, surely the conditions which produce such a climate 

 are worth investigating:. 



