44b Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



Eskimos is as much dependent on the shape and height of the nose as on the 

 prominence of the cheekbones.. A broad, low nose makes the face seem flat; 

 conversely a nose that runs straight with a slight hump to a high, narrow tip 

 neutralizes the effect of the broad, high cheekbones and narrow forehead and 

 makes the face seem longer, even somewhat Indian in type. Collinson remarked 

 aquiline noses and a Jewish cast of countenance among the Eskimos of Walker 

 bay on Victoria island, but says that it was not apparent among the natives of 

 Cambridge bay in Dease strait; 1 yet the Cambridge bay natives travel freely 

 all over Coronation gulf, and it was among the gulf natives that I myself par- 

 ticularly remarked its presence. Aquiline noses, indeed, seem to occur in all 

 Eskimo tribes; Rasmussen noticed this feature at Cape York in northern Green- 

 land and Murdoch at Point Barrow in Alaska. 2 



Haemorrhage of the nose is very common, though the exact cause is uncertain. 

 It used to be ascribed to the unvaried diet of meat and fish, but the western 

 Eskimos of North Alaska and of the Mackenzie delta now live largely on imported 

 foods, flour, cereals, etc., and still suffer from haemorrhage in the same manner. 3 

 The Copper Eskimos, like their kinsmen elsewhere, stop the flow by plugging 

 the nostrils with caribou-hair. I have seen them do this while travelling in 

 the depth of winter, and have been surprised that the nose never seemed to 

 freeze in consequence. 



Lips 



The lips are usually rather full. Eversion, not frequent in the upper lip, 

 is the rule in the lower, which is also somewhat thicker than the upper. The 

 protrusion of the lips frequently gives an unreal semblance of recession to the 

 chin, which is nearly always straight. 



Teeth 



The teeth are usually regular and pearly white. The incisors of the old 

 women are often worn down almost to the gums, the result of constant chewing 

 on seal-skins and other hard objects. Toothache seems rare; the remedy is to 

 jerk out the tooth with a thread of sinew. Several old men were found to have 

 lost teeth in this way, and one child was seen extracting a milk tooth. 



*Collinson, Journal of the H.M.S. Enterprise, London, 1889, p. 285. 



"Rasmussen, People of the Polar North, London, 1908, p. 38; Murdoch, op. cit., p. 37. 



3 Krogh, A. and M. (Meddelelser om Gr<£nland, Vol. 51, p. 15) state that in Greenland "periods with 

 abundant food are characterised by outbreaks of furunculosis, and it has been noticed further by medical 

 officers and by the natives themselves that in such periods many of them become extremely liable to 

 profuse and frequent bleedings from the nose." 



