MURDOCH. ] PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PEOPLE. 33 
THE PEOPLE. 
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
In stature these people are of a medium height, robust and muscular, 
“inclining rather to spareness than corpulence,”? though the fullness 
of the face and the thick fur clothing often gives the impression of 
the latter. There is, however, considerable individual variation among 
them in this respect. The women are as a rule shorter than the men, 
occasionally almost dwarfish, though some women are taller than many 
of the men. The tallest man observed measured 5 feet 94 inches, and 
the shortest 4 feet 11 inches. The tallest woman was 5 feet 3 inches in 
height, and the shortest 4 feet inch. The heaviest man weighed 204 
pounds and the lightest 126 pounds. One woman weighed 192 pounds 
and the shortest woman was also the lightest, weighing only 100 pounds.® 
The hands and feet are small and well shaped, though the former soon 
become distorted and roughened by work. We did not observe the 
peculiar breadth of hands noticed by Dr. Simpson, nor is the shortness 
of the thumb which he mentions sufficient to attract attention.¢ Their 
feet are so small that only one of our party, who is much below the 
ordinary size, was able to wear the boots made by the natives for them- 
selves. Small and delicate hands and feet appear to be a universal 
characteristic of the Eskimo race and have been mentioned by most 
observers from Greenland to Alaska.’ 
The features of these people have been described by Dr. Simpson,® 
and are distinctively Eskimo in type, as will be seen by comparing 
the accompanying portraits (Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, from photographs by 
Lieut. Ray) with the many pictures brought from the eastern Arctic 
‘Op. cit., p. 264. 
2Simpson, op. cit., p. 238. 
3See Report of Point Barrow Expedition, p. 50, for a table of measurements of a number of indi- 
viduals selected at random from the natives of both villages and their visitors. 
4Op. cit., p. 238. 
Davis (1586) speaks of the ‘‘small, slender hands and feet” of the Greenlanders. Hakluyt’s Voya- 
ges, etc. (1589), p. 782. 
“Their hands and feet are little and soft." Crantz, vol. 1, p. 133 (Greenland). 
Hands and feet ‘‘extremely diminutive," Parry 1st Voy., p. 282 (Baffin Land). 
“Their hands and feet are small and well formed.” Kumlien Contrib., p. 15 (Cumberland Gulf). 
“Feet extraordinarily small." Ellis, Voyage, ete., p. 132 (Hudson Strait). 
Franklin (Ist Exp., vol. 2, p. 180) mentions the small hands and feet of the two old Eskimo that he 
met at the Bloody Fall of the Coppermine River. 
*“. . . boots purchased on the coast were seldom large enough for our people.’ Richardson 
Searching Exp., i, p. 344 (Cape Bathurst). 
“Their hands and feet are small.'’ Petroff, Report, ete., p. 134 (Kuskoquim River). 
Chappell (Hudson Bay, pp. 59, 60) has a remarkable theory to account for the smallness of the 
extremities among the people of Hudson Strait. He believes that “the same intense cold which 
restricts vegetation to the form of creeping shrubs has also its effect upon the growth of mankind, 
preventing the extremities from attaining their due proportion”! 
®Op. cit., p. 238. 
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