492 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



SOME FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX OF MELVILLE PENINSULA AND 

 THE ADJOINING ISLANDS ; MORE PARTICULARLY WINTER 

 ISLAND AND IGLOOLIK. 



The number of individuals composing the tribe of Esquimaux assembled at 

 Winter Island and Igloolik was two hundred and nineteen, of whom sixty-nine 

 were men, seventy-seven women, and seventy-three children. Two or three 

 of the men, from their appearance and infirmities, as well as from the age of 

 their children, must have been near seventy ; the rest were from twenty to 

 about fifty. The majority of the women were comparatively young, or from 

 twenty to five and thirty, and three or four only seemed to have reached sixty. 

 Of the children, about one-third were under four years old, and the rest 

 from that age upwards to sixteen or seventeen. Out of one hundred and 

 fifty-five individuals who passed the winter at Igloolik, we knew of eighteen 

 deaths and only of nine births. 



The stature of these people is much below that of Europeans in general. 

 One man, who was unusually tall, measured five feet ten inches, and the 

 shortest was only four feet eleven inches and a half. Of twenty individuals 

 of each sex measured at Igloolik, the range was — 



MEN. WOMEN. 



From 5 ft. 10 in. to 4 ft. 11 in. From 5 ft, 3j in. to 4 ft. 8f in. 

 The average height 5 ft. 5A in 5 ft. o| in. 



The women, however, generally appear shorter than they really are, both 

 from the unwieldy nature of their clothes, and from a habit which they 

 early acquire, of stooping considerably forward in order to balance the weight 

 of the child they carry in their hood. 



In their figure they are rather well-formed than otherwise. Their knees 

 are indeed rather large in proportion, but their legs are straight, and the 

 hands and feet, in both sexes, remarkably small. The younger individuals 

 were all plump, but none of them corpulent ; the women inclined the most to 

 this last extreme, and their flesh was, even in the youngest individuals, quite 

 loose and without firmness. 



