220 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 4a 



Simpson, 1875 : 02 



These people are by no means the dwarfish race they were formerly sup- 

 posed to be. In stature they are not inferior to many other races and are 

 robust, muscular, and active, inclining rather to spareness than corpulence. 

 The tallest individual was found to be 5 feet 10y 2 inches, and the shortest 

 5 feet 1 inch. The heaviest man weighed 195 pounds, and the lightest 125 

 pounds. The individuals weighed and measured were taken indiscriminately 

 as they visited the ship, and were all supposed to have attained their full 

 htature. Their chief muscular strength is in the back, which is best displayed 

 in their games of wrestling. The shoulders are square, or rather raised, 

 making the neck appear shorter than it really is, and the chest is deep ; but 

 in strength of arm they can not compete with our sailors. The hand is 

 small, short, broad, and rather thick, and the thumb appears short, giving 

 an air of clumsiness in handling anything ; and the power of grasping is not 

 great. The lower limbs are in good proportion to the body, and the feet, 

 like the hands, are short and broad with a high instep. Considering their 

 frequent occupations as hunters, they do not excel in speed nor in jumping 

 over a height or a level space, but they display great agility in leaping to 

 kick with both feet together an object hanging as high as the chin, or even 

 above the head. In walking, their tread is firm and elastic, the step short 

 and quick ; and the toes being turned outward and the knee at each advance 

 inclining in the same direction, give a certain peculiarity to their gait difficult 

 to describe. 



The hair is sooty black, without gloss, and coarse, cut in an even line across 

 the forehead, but allowed to grow long at the back of the head and about the 

 ears, whilst the crown is cropped close or shaven. The color of the skin is 

 a light yellowish brown, but variable in shade, and in a few instances was 

 observed to be very dark. In the young, the complexion is comparatively fair, 

 presenting a remarkably healthy sunburnt appearance, through which the 

 rosy hue of the cheeks is visible ; before middle life, however, this, from 

 exposure, gives place to a weather-beaten appearance, so that it is difficult to 

 guess their ages. 



The face is flat, broad, rounded, and commonly plump, the cheek bones high, 

 the forehead low, but broad across the eyebrows, and narrowing upwards; 

 the whole head becomes somewhat pointed toward the crown. The nose is 

 short and flat, giving an appearance of considerable space between the eyes. 

 The eyes are brown, of different shades, usually dark, seldom if ever alto- 

 gether black, and generally have a soft expression; some have a peculiar 

 glitter, which we call gipsylike. They slope slightly upwards from the nose, 

 and have a fold of skin stretching across the inner angle to the upper eyelid, 

 most perceptible in childhood, which gives to some individuals a cast of coun- 

 tenance almost perfectly Chinese. The eyelids seem tumid, opening to only a 

 moderate extent, and the slightly arched eyebrows scarcely project beyond 

 them. The ears are by no means large, but frequently stand out sideways. 

 The mouth is prominent and large, and the lips, especially the lower one, 

 rather thick and protruding. The jawbones are strong, supporting remark- 

 ably firm and commonly regular teeth. In the youthful these are in general 

 white, but toward middle age they have lost their enamel and become black 

 or are worn down to the gums. The incisors of the lower jaw do not pass be- 

 hind those of the upper, but meet edge to edge, so that by the time an indi- 



05 Simpson, John, Observations on the Western Eskimo and the Country They Inhabit. 

 In A Selection of Papers on Arctic Geography and Ethnology; Pres. by the Roy. Geogr. 

 Soc, London, 187.J. pp. 238-240. 



