INTRODUCTION 1 



The Canadian Arctic Expedition, after leaving Esquimalt, British Colum- 

 bia, in June, 1913, sailed up the north-west coast of the American continent 

 into the Arctic Ocean. A short call of about two hours was made at Point 

 Hope, in northern Alaska, and a number of Eskimos boarded our vessel, the 

 Karluk. Thirteen of these natives were hastily gathered into a little deck cabin 

 and measured for stature, head length and head breadth. The MS. containing 

 this information was sent ashore at Barrow a few days later to be mailed to 

 Ottawa, most fortunately, because the Karluk was caught in the ice soon after- 

 wards and subsequently crushed. My anthropometric instruments went down 

 with the. vessel, and a year elapsed before a new set could be procured from 

 Ottawa by way of the Mackenzie river. We were then sailing towards Corona- 

 tion gulf, in which vicinity we spent the two years from 1914 to 1916. During 

 this period my work lay exclusively among the Copper Eskimos, and the only 

 physical measurements I was able to obtain from other groups were derived 

 from two Eskimos, both men, from the inland region west of Hudson, bay, and 

 five Eskimos, four men and one woman, from the Mackenzie river region. This 

 paper then will deal mainly with the Copper Eskimos, but the information 

 obtained from other regions will be used for comparative purposes, together 

 with such data as can be found in the scattered literature concerning the 

 Eskimos. 



The instruments used were the portable anthropometric set that is sold 

 by Messrs. P. Herman of Zurich. The anthropometer was the least satisfactory, 

 for, even with the aid of a plummet, it was difficult to maintain the rod abso- 

 lutely perpendicular while the measurements were being read; moreover there 

 was no level platform for the subject to stand on, and firm level floors are seldom 

 found in the north. Routine difficulties of this kind were increased in the case 

 of the Copper Eskimos owing to the climate of the region and the manner of 

 life of its inhabitants. Only during the winter months do they congregate 

 in large settlements; in summer they are scattered into small parties of two 

 or three families each, that wander day by day from one place to another. The 

 anthropometric work, therefore, had to be done indoors during the winter and 

 spring. The headquarters of our expedition at Bernard harbour consisted of 

 but one room 18' by 15' in which six men had to sleep and carry on their scientific 

 work. It will be readily understood that after the sleeping quarters, tables, 

 shelves and fire-place had been arranged and set in place, there was very little 

 room for the admission and examination of the Eskimos. Hence by far the 

 greater number of the measurements were taken in snow huts, generally in 

 the dance-houses of the settlements, since the ordinary dwelling was rarely 

 high enough to allow the anthropometer to be held perpendicular. The light 

 was always very indifferent, on certain days in fact quite insufficient for the 

 mere reading of the figures; moreover the temperature inside the snow hut was 

 either somewhere around freezing or considerably below it- In addition to 

 these physical disadvantages the dance-houses were generally filled with jostling 

 if good-humoured crowds of on-lookers who had no conception of the purpose 

 of the investigations but were always ready to tender advice and assistance, 

 and to provoke a little merriment by jesting remarks at the expense of the 

 investigator or his subjects. In spring the light was much better, and it was 

 found possible to examine more of the natives at headquarters; consequently, 

 while the actual measurements taken were the same as in the winter, fuller 



•In the preliminary grouping of the various parts of the reports of the expedition, the present report 

 was assigned to Volume XIII, Part A. For greater convenience in binding and issuing, it has been found 

 advisable to publish it as Part B of Volume XII, of which the first part, The Life of the Copper Eskimos, 

 by the same author, was issued January 12, 1922. 



