SECTION II 



A. GENERAL DESCRIPTION 



In the preceding section, when describing the individual Eskimos who were 

 made the subjects of measurement, I separated them according to the localities 

 or social groups to which they considered themselves attached, lhese groups 

 have been described in detail in Volume XII of this series, The Lite of the 

 Copper Eskimos," Chapter III. As far as the physical characteristics of the 

 Copper Eskimos are concerned such a differentiation of the population into 

 local groups has absolutely no importance, for they are all closely connected by 

 ties of kinship and relationship; moreover the groups undergo a reshuffling 

 process every year, so that their composition continually changes and a man m the 

 course of his life-time may belong to as many as half-a-dozen different ones, lhis 

 is true not only of the basin of Coronation gulf proper, but of the slightly more 

 outlying areas like Prince Albert sound and Minto inlet; for the inhabitants 

 of these places also continually visit and intermarry with the Eskimos south 

 and east of them. It follows, therefore, that there can be no local variations 

 in physical type throughout this whole region, no features present, let us say, 

 in Prince Albert sound that are not equally present in Bathurst inlet; and this 

 is confirmed by the data given in the preceding section. If in spite of this I 

 there divided the natives according to their local groups, it was simply to em- 

 phasize the fact that every group is represented by at least one, and in most 

 cases by several individuals, and to facilitate the checking of the measurements, 

 if so desired, by other investigators. In the general discussion of the data which 

 is now to follow no attention will be paid to local groups, but the whole region 

 inhabited by the Copper Eskimos will be treated as a unit. This region lies 

 roughly between 67° and 72° north latitude and 102° and 120° west longitude, 

 having Coronation gulf as its geographical centre. / 



The inhabitants of this region, the Copper Eskimos, are of about the middle 

 stature, and sturdy and robust in build. The fur clothing in which they are 

 habitually enveloped gives them an exaggerated appearance of corpulence, 

 whereas in reality they incline towards slender ness, the body tapering a little 

 below the broad shoulders. 1 Many of the children, however, and a very few of 

 the adults, are distinctly pot-bellied, and no markedly thin person was seen by 

 the expedition, while, on the other hand, two women were found to measure 

 each as much as 14 inches around the forearm. The average weight seems to 

 be greater then that of Europeans; eleven men averaged 164 lbs. (deducting 

 8 lbs. for the weight of the clothing) and five women 167 lbs. 2 All the natives 

 are extremely active and hardy, capable of enduring greater exertions and 

 privations than most white men. The gait of the men resembles that of an 

 athletic European, but the women walk with an awkward rolling motion, partly 

 due, perhaps, to the bulkiness of their clothing, but still more to the fact that 

 they are invariably bow-legged, their toes, instead of turning out, as the men's 

 generally do, usually pointing straight ahead or even turning in. 3 



ir This seems characteristic of all Eskimos; cf. for Greenland, Holm, Meddelelser om Greenland, Vol. 

 XXXIX, p. 27, and for Point Barrow, Simpson, Arctic Papers for the Expedition of 1875, London, 1875, 

 p. 238. 



2 T*hese five women, however, were all rather big and stout, so that their average is almost certainly 

 too high. Ray (International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, Washington, 1885, p. 50) gives 153fr lbs. 

 as the average weight of 51 men at Point Barrow, and 135^$ lbs. as the average weight of 30 women. Boas 

 (Bulletin, American Museum of Natural History, Vol XV, pt. 1, p. 8) states that 9 men from the west 

 coast of Hudson bay" averaged 170 lbs. and 12 women 138 lbs. 



■Women in the Mackenzie delta and along the coast as far as Barrow have the game peculiar gait; 

 cf. Murdoch, Ninth Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1892, p. 38. 



