( 8r ) 



they are often reduced, and which extinguifhes iri 

 them all dcfire of having children. 



It is befides certain that they have great ad van* 

 tages over us, and I hold for the firft of all the ex- 

 treme perfection of their fenfes over us both in- 

 ternal and external. In fpite of the fnow which 

 dazles them, and the fmoak with which they are 

 peftered for fix months of the year, their fight 

 continues in all its- vigor ; they have the fenfe of 

 hearing extremely acute, and their fmelling is fo ex- 

 qulfite, that they fmell fire at a great diftance $ for 

 this reafon it is that they cannot fuffer the fmell 

 of mufk, or any other frrong fcent 5 and it is even 

 pretended that no fmell is agreeable to them, ex- 

 cept that of eatables. 



Their imagination is a fort of prodigy, it fuffices 

 them to have been once in a place to have an exact 

 idea of it, which is never effaced * let a foreft be 

 ever fo vaft and untrodden they will crofs it with- 

 out wandering out of the way, if they have made 

 their obfervations right at fetting out. The inhabi- 

 tants of Acadia, and places in the neighbourhood 

 of the gulph of St. Laurence, have often failed 

 in their canoes of bark, to make a defcent in the 

 country of Labrador, in queft of their enemies the 

 Efkimaux ; they have gone thirty or forty leagues 

 out in the open fea without any compafs, and hava 

 landed precifely at the place intended. In the moft 

 cloudy weather they will follow the fun for feveral 

 days, without miftaking ; the exa&eft fun-dial 

 would not inform us better of the courfe of that 

 beautiful ftar, than they will do by the infpection 

 of the heavens only •, thus let us do what we will 

 to put them out of their way, it is very rare they 

 miftake their road. They are born with this ta- 



Vol. II. G lent, 



