14 On Some Popular Errors in Regard to the Eskimos. [Jan. 
Let us compare with this statement the measurements given 
by those who have actually observed the Eskimos, 
who have written about the western Eskimos agree that 
they are, if anything, above the middle height (see the author- 
ities quoted by Bancroft). And this has been insisted upon 
as a point of difference between them and those of the east. 
This difference, however, does not hold good. Oldmixon’s 
figures (“ Report U. S. International Polar Expedition to Point 
Barrow,” p. 50) show that the average height of males at Point 
Barrow (5 feet 3 inches) falls a little short of Topinard’s “ taille 
moyenne,” while Parry gives 5 feet 514 inches for the average of 
males at Igloolik (“Second Voyage,” p. 492), and Schwatka 
states that the Eskimos of King William’s Land are above the 
Caucasian race in stature, speaking of individuals 6 feet, or even 
6 feet 6 inches, in height (Science, iv. p. 543). Parry, again, 
speaks of the men of Baffin Land, whom he met on his first 
voyage, as from 5 feet 414 inches to 5 feet 6 inches in height; 
and another early explorer, Lieutenant Chappell, speaking of the 
natives of the north shore of Hudson’s Strait, says, “ The males 
are, generally speaking, between five feet five inches and five feet 
eight inches high” (“ Voyage to Hudson’s Bay, 1817,” p. 59). 
According to Petitot (“ Monographie des Esquimaux Tchigtit,” 
p. xii.), “ Les grands Esquimaux des bouches du Mackenzie et de 
l’Anderson sont d’une taille plutôt au-dessus qu’au-dessous de la 
moyenne. Il est parmi eux des hommes fort grands.” 
I can find but one series of measurements that at all corrob- 
orate the popular opinion of the small size of the Eskimos, and 
these are those taken by Dr. Sutherland at Cumberland Gulf. 
Here the average height of twenty-three adult males was found 
to be 5 feet 2.4 inches (“ Journal Ethnological Society,” iv. p. 
213). Even this is above Topinard’s standard of “ petite taille.” 
Hovelacque and Hervé believe that the greater heights re- 
ported are due to admixtures of foreign blood, but it is worthy 
of notice that Schwatka’s “giants” were found among a people | 
who are far distant from any Indians, and have had little or no 
_ intercourse with the whites, and that most of the taller men 
at Point Barrow are of an age that precludes the possibility of 
Ge their being the descendants of white men. Petitot expressly 
_ states (in the work referred to above), ‘On ne trouve chez eux 
eee oe ee On the other hand, the 
