50b 



Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



If now we arrange in ascending order the mean statures 

 Eskimo groups we have this table: — ■ 



from different 



Let us consider first the statures of the men. Except for Smith Sound, 

 the lowest are from SW. Greenland and Labrador, precisely the places which 

 have been longest in contact with European culture. There is a slight increase 

 in SE. Greenland and Hudson bay, where the contact has been more limited. 

 NE. Greenland (Ammassalik), Coronation gulf and Iglulik, all three places the 

 homes of presumably pure Eskimos, show a close correspondence; in all three 

 the mean statures are higher than among the part-Europeanized Eskimos, but 

 lower than in the three western places, Point Hope, Mackenzie delta and Noatak 

 river, where there are strong suspicions of Indian intermixture. 2 



Turning to the women, the gradation seems less marked, but still not 

 altogether absent. Thus the places where European influence have been most 

 in evidence, viz., Labrador, SW. Greenland and Hudson bay, all show distinctly 

 low means, while the Noatak river women are surpassed in stature only by 

 the women of Coronation gulf. 



The table shows certain anomalies; on the other hand, that seem to militate 

 against the theory that contact with Europeans has resulted in a decrease 

 in stature, while admixture with the northern Indians has produced an increase. 

 The most serious is the lowness of the statures in Smith sound and at Point 

 Barrow. Both these places, as far as we know, were inhabited by unmixed 

 Eskimos at the time the measuremerits were taken, yet in both the statures 

 are not only lower than among other pure Eskimo tribes, but even lower than 

 among tribes that have long been in contact with European culture. The Point 

 Barrow figures strike one as very anomalous when compared with the statures 

 of their neighbours at Point Hope and on the Noatak river, and also with Boas' 

 averages, men 1658 mm., women 1551 mm., for Alaska as a whole. 3 Beechey, 

 it may be remarked, estimated the average stature of Eskimo men in the 

 neighbourhood of Seward peninsula at 5' 1\" , i.e., 1715 mm., 4 and although 

 this estimate is almost certainly exaggerated, it at least indicates that the 

 natives in that region were not below the medium height. It should be remarked 

 that two of the Point Barrow women measured by Ray's party were dwarfs, 

 having statures of only 4' 0§" and 4' \\" respectively. If these two are elimin- 

 ated the mean stature for women would be 1536 mm., which would at once 



'The figures for Labrador are from Duckworth and Pain. Boas (Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1905, 

 p. 375) gives 1575 mm. for men and 1480 mm. for women. 



2 The high stature of the adjacent Indians is shown by Stone's measurements, which give 1663 mm. 

 as the mean of 7 Loucheux men, 1710 mm. for 17 Tahltan men, and 1603 mm. for 3 Tahltan women (Boas, 

 Bull. A.M.N.H., Vol. XIV, p. 57). 



'Boas, Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1895, p. 375. In the Annual Archaeological Export, Ontario, 1905, 

 p. 88, the same writer states that the average height of Eskimo men west of the Mackenzie is 1680 mm., 

 and of women 1580 mm. 



'Beechey, Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait, London, 1831, Vol. 2, p. 570. 



