ARCTIC CORPS OF EXPLORERS. 165 



enlightened nations might desire to share in the expenses of such an exploration, 

 conducted on natural and common sense principles, and be entitled to reap mu- 

 tual advantages. 



The Arctic corps of explorers could be kept full, by enlisting and training 

 other young Innuits, as the demands of the service might require. When the 

 mysteries which have hung over the north pole so many centuries have been 

 solved, and the possibilities of that unknown region been determined and utilized 

 for civilization, the Arctic corps of explorers could be transformed into an Ant- 

 arctic corps of explorers, who could apply their skilled powers in solving the 

 mysteries of the south polar region which are as 'great perhaps as those of the 

 opposite pole. 



The Innuits, as a people, possess the natural qualities necessary for Arctic 

 exploration. They are a very hardy race, and nature has given them peculiar 

 qualities for enduring the rigors of an Arctic climate. Crantz describes those 

 living in Greenland as " small but well proportioned, broad shouldered, gener- 

 ally less than five feet high, with high cheek bones, flat faces, small, lusterless 

 black eyes, round cheeks, small flat noses, small round mouths, long, straight, 

 coal-black hair, large heads and limbs, and small, soft hands and feet." They 

 are a hardy, active, industrious and ingenious race, and show great skill in the 

 construction of their boats and sledges, weapons and utensils. Their dwellings 

 are located near the shore, as they subsist mostly on raw fish, and are constructed 

 of snow, ice or stone, cemented by turf, and covered by a flat roof of wood or 

 turf. Frobisher and Parry describe some of their houses which were built of the 

 bones of whales and walruses. In the preparation of their dress, which consists 

 principally of furs, they exhibit a degree of ingenuity greater than that of the 

 most skillful furrier. Their small boat for men is remarkable for its speed and 

 beauty, and the Innuit has such control over it that he can defy the storms of 

 ocean, and has such daring that he does not hesitate in Yvvs, kayak \o approach and 

 give battle to the polar bear, or the monsters of Arctic seas. They hunt with 

 bows and arrows, spears and slings, carve on ivory or walrus tusks with much 

 skill, and are scrupulously honest among themselves. There can be no doubt, 

 that under the influence of modern civilization, these Innuits could be educated 

 and inspired to execute polar exploration at a minimum cost of life and treasure, 

 and a maximum of all possible results desired in modern times. Such a corps of 

 Arctic explorers, skilled in the methods and results of modern scientific research, 

 and imbued with the spirit of the nineteenth century, would not be without their 

 influence in diffusing better ideas among the various tribes of Innuits scattered 

 through the Arctic regions, and give them the pulses of a new life. 



This new plan for Arctic exploration is offered, with some degree of hesi- 

 tancy, for the consideration of Arctic explorers, in the hope that although some 

 objections seem to lie against it, still it may contain the germ of a new plan of 

 exploration which may be developed in the skillful hands of explorers, to accom- 

 plish all desirable results, and still save the further great loss of life and treasure, 

 which nearly all civilized nations have suffered for more than eight hundred 

 years. 



