LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
201 
four of whom had never been on board before. They were taken 
into the cabin, where they appeared literally petrified with wonder. 
They stared about them with all the vacancy of an idiot, and their 
eyes wandered from one object to another, but when they saw their 
own figures in the looking glass, they uttered the most extraordi¬ 
nary expressions of excessive joy and astonishment. One of them 
stepped cautiously behind the glass, expecting to find the object 
which it represented, but being disappointed, he shook his head, 
and advancing forward took another glance at his reflected figure, 
and then burst out into an extravagant fit of laughter. Their 
height was taken, the tallest was found to be five feet five inches, 
and the shortest five feet one inch. The average height of the 
Esquimaux, may be considered to be about 5 feet 5 inches; the 
women are in general shorter than the men, and more inclining 
to obesity. 
The Esquimaux had scarcely left the ship, when the crew were 
exhilirated by the appearance of the sun, his upper limb rising 
beautifully on the horizon, and shining for the period of twenty 
minutes with all his lustre. Beautifully applicable were then 
the words of the poet: 
Thou art O God, the life and light 
Of all this glorious world we see; 
Its glow by day, its smile by nigh \ 
Are but reflections caught from thee, 
Where’er we turn thy glories shine, 
And all things bright and fair are thine, 
When day with farewell beam delays, 
Among the opening clouds of even, 
And we can almost think we gaze 
Through golden vista’s into heaven; 
So soft, so radiant, Lord! are thine. 
When night, with wings of starry gloom. 
Overshadows all the earth and skies, 
Like some bright, beauteous bird, whose plume 
So sparkling with unnumbered eyes ; 
That sacred gloom, those fires divine, 
So grand, so countless 3 Lord! are thine. 
2 D 
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