Polar Explorations. 147 



squared blocks of snow in different corners stand their stone 

 las. IDS, and over them the cooking vessels. When supplied 

 with a store for the present day, from the last day's sealing, 

 the hut of the Esquimaux exhibits the summit of their enjoy- 

 ment. The men sitting around mending their fishing tackle, 

 the women singing their wild songs, and busily engaged in 

 making clothing — sewing moccasins — playing with the chil- 

 dren — and rejoicing in their smoking kettles of food. At 

 other times their gluttonous practices render them equally 

 stupid and disgusting. 



They appear to have no idea of a Supreme Being, but 

 their superstitions refer to preternatural spirits, who, as they 

 imagine influence their affairs. Some of the " cunning men'' 

 pretend to converse with them, and thus gain an ascendency 

 over their tribes. Their great care to prevent the earth or 

 any heavy substance from pressing upon the dead, suggests 

 a suspicion that they have some notion of a future state ; 

 whether they have or not is problematical. Their arithmetic 

 extends only to counting six or seven, and at the utmost, ten. 



From an attentive comparison of the inhabitants of the 

 arctic regions with the lowest Indian tribes who come next 

 south of the Esquimaux, the gloomy Mongols who roam 

 over the vast tracts of Northern Asia, adjoining the south of 

 the Samoieds and Kamschatdales ; the Russian Boors and 

 the Finns, who border on the wandering Lappes ; it is obvi- 

 ous that they all rise in the intellectual scale, as they ad- 

 vance towards more temperate climates. Their powers of 

 observation are arrested by the greater variety of surround- 

 ing objects, and their ingenuity quickened in providing them- 

 selves with conveniences and comforts. Their physical ca- 

 pacities, free from the paralyzing effects of perpetual frost, 

 _ second their activity; their minds expand with various emo- 

 tions ; imagination finds a corner to reside in ; and in pro- 

 portion as their scope is enlarged, they also indulge in those 

 wild and cruel passions which darken and deform savage life. 



The scientific officers and gentlemen attached to the ex- 

 peditions were unremitting in making observations upon the 

 tides and currents, meteorological and astronomical phe- 

 nomena, the magnetic force, and the variation of the nee- 

 dle. " Professor Barlow remarks, that the magnetic experi- 

 ments cannot fail to be highly interesting to those who are 

 curious in this important branch of natural philosophy. The 

 needles were carefully watched, and the results registered 

 every hour ; and when it is considered that they were made 



