THE ESKIMO RACE. 163 



extremities of its great Continents, and in tlie 

 distant Islands which would be the last refuge 

 of the victims of violence and misfortune ? 

 "The New World" is the Continent which 

 presents the most uninterrupted stretch of 

 habitable land from the highest northern to 

 the lowest southern latitude. On the extrem.e 

 north we have the Eskimo,^ or Inuit race, 

 maintaining human life under conditions of 

 extremest hardship, even amid the perpetual 

 ice of the Polar Seas. And what a life it 

 is ! Watching at the blovv'-hole of a seal for 

 many hours, in a temperature of 75° below 

 freezing point, Is the constant work of the 



* I have adopted the form of this name (usually spelt 

 Esquimaux), which is adopted as the most correct by Sir J. 

 Richardson in his work on the Polar Seas. "Inuit" is the 

 native Eskimo name for their o^\•n race. 



M 2 



