Ti'RNEE] ABOUND FORT CHIMO. 185 



couutries as far as their stature is concerned. The lower extremities of 

 both sexes really are shorter than the general appearance would indi- 

 cate, and thus the body is somewhat longer. The great individual 

 variation in the jiroportional length of the legs is doubtless the result 

 of the way infants are carried in the hood on the backs of the mothers. 

 In this constrained position the limbs were obliged to conform to the 

 shape of the body on which the child, in a manner, grew. While the 

 limbs are not decidedly curved, yet they are not so nearly under the 

 body as those of the whites. In walking, the inner edges of the feet 

 often touch each other, and, in a manner, tend to cause the boots to 

 slip outward ou the feet. 



The head, hands, and feet appear fairly proportioned ; although, as a 

 rule, they have small hands and feet. The females have proportionally 

 smaller feet than hands. The head may seem larger than it really is, 

 on account of the flattened features of the face. 



The average nose is large and flat, and the prominence of this organ 

 is often diminished by the wide clieeks and overhanging forehead. In 

 most cases the chin projects less than the nose. The average face is 

 round and flat, but there are exceptions, as I have seen one or two 

 persons whose faces were a regular oval, and with the exception of the 

 flat front, seen from a side view, were as well formed as one will meet 

 among other people. 



The skin has the same diflereuces of color as among white people. 

 The greater number of people are moderately dark, but this depends 

 very greatly on the season of the year. I have not seen any white 

 people so much changed as these are by the exposure to the summer 

 sunshine. In the winter they are confined to their huts and bleach to 

 a lighter color. A couple of weeks' exjiosure renders them scarcely re- 

 cognizable as the same persons. The young children are usually lighter 

 than the adults, although some are quite dark. The hair is coarse, 

 long and abundant, and always straight. 



The few half-breeds seen at Fort Chimo are the young children of 

 the male servants of the company, who have in two instances taken 

 full-blooded Eskimo women tov wives and who were married by the 

 agent of the company. These children are quite pretty, the male fa- 

 voring the mother and the girl resembling the father. With these, as 

 with the children of natives, much depends on the cleanliness of the 

 person. The soot and other filth accumulating on their faces and 

 hands, seldom washed, of course modifies the appearance of the ex- 

 posed portions of the body. Some of the girls would be attractive 

 enough if a copious amount of water was used to remove the ridges of 

 dirt which are too plainly visible. The hands are often much disfig- 

 ured from numerous cuts and bruises, which, when healed over, leave 

 a heightened scar of a whitish color quite difterent in color from the 

 surrounding tissue and often presenting an unsightly appearance. 



By the time puberty is attained the girls quickly change, and in a few 



