Their wide Extension-Climate of the Regions they inhabit-Their physical Appearance-Their Dress-Snow Huts-The Kayak or the Baidar-Hunting Apparatus and Weapons-Enmity between the Esquimaux and the Red Indian -The Bloody Falls'-Chase of the Reindeer-Bird Catching-Whale Hunting -Various Stratagems employed to catch the Seal-The Keep Kuttuk-Bear Hunting-Walrus Hunting-Awaklok and Myouk-The Esquimaux DogGames and Sports-Angekoks-Moral Character--Self-reliance-IntelligenceIligliuk-Commercial Eagerness of the Esquimaux-Their Voracity - Seasons of Distress.

OF

F all the uncivilised nations of the globe none range over a wider space than the Esquimaux, whose various tribes extend from Greenland and Labrador, over all the coasts of Arctic America, to the Aleütic chain and the extreme north-eastern point of Asia. Many are independent, others subject to the Russian, Danish, or British rule. In Baffin's Bay and Lancaster Sound, they accost the whale-fisher; they meet him in the Icy Sea beyond Behring's Straits; and while their most southerly tribes dwell as low as the latitude of

Vienna, others sojourn as high as the 80th degree of northern latitude-and probably roam even still higher on the still undiscovered coasts beyond-a nearness to the pole no other race is known to reach.

The old Scandinavian settlers in Greenland expressed their dislike for them in the contemptuous name of Skraelingers (screamers or wretches); the seamen of the Hudson's Bay ships, who trade annually with the natives of northern Labrador and the Savage Islands, have long called them Seymos' or Suckemos,' names evidently derived from the cries of Seymo,' or 'Teymo,' with which they greet the arrival of the ships; they speak of themselves simply as Inuit,' or men.

With few exceptions the whole of the vast region they inhabit lies beyond the extremest limits of forest growth, in the most desolate and inhospitable countries of the globe. The rough winds of the Polar Sea almost perpetually blow over their bleak domains, and thus only a few plants of the hardiest nature-lichens and mosses, grasses, saxifragas, and willowsare able to subsist there, and to afford a scanty supply of food to a few land animals and birds.

Ill indeed would it fare with the Esquimaux, if they were reduced to live upon the niggardly produce of the soil; but the sea, with its cetaceans and fishes, amply provides for their wants. Thus they are never found at any considerable distance from the ocean, and they line a considerable part of the coasts of the Arctic seas without ever visiting the interior.

It may easily be supposed that a race whose eastern branches have for several centuries been under the influence of the Danes and English, while in the extreme west it has long been forced to submit to Russian tyranny, and whose central and northern tribes rarely come into contact with Europeans-must show some variety in its manners and mode of life, and that the same description is not applicable in all points to the disciples of the Moravian brothers in Labrador or Greenland, to the Greek-Catholic Aleüts, and to the far more numerous heathen Esquimaux of continental America, or of the vast archipelago beyond its northern shores. Upon the whole, however, it is curious to observe how exactly, amidst

all diversity of time and place, these people have preserved unaltered their habits and manners. The broad, flat face, widest just below the eyes, the forehead generally narrow and tapering upwards; the eyes narrow and more or less oblique; all indicate a mongol or tartar type, differing greatly from the features of the conterminous Red Indian tribes. Their complexion, when relieved from smoke and dirt, also approaches more nearly to white than that of their coppercoloured neighbours. Most of the men are rather under the medium English size, but they cannot be said to be a dwarfish race. Thus Simpson saw in Camden Bay three Esquimaux who measured from five feet ten inches to six. feet; and among the natives of Smith Strait, Kane met with one a foot taller than himself. The females, however, are all comparatively short. The Esquimaux are all remarkably broad shouldered, and though their muscles are not so firm as those of the European seamen, yet they surpass in bodily strength all the other natives of America. In both sexes the hands and feet are remarkably small and well formed. From exercise in hunting the seal and walrus, the muscles of the arms and back are much developed in the men, who are moreover powerful wrestlers. When young the Esquimaux looks cheerful and good humoured, and the females exhibit, when laughing, a set of very white teeth. Could they be induced to wash their faces, many of these savage beauties would be found to possess a complexion scarcely a shade darker than that of a deep brunette; but though disinclined to ablutions, for which the severity of their climate may serve as an excuse, they are far from neglecting the arts of the toilette.

Unlike the Hare Indian and Dog Rib females, in whom the hard rule of their lords and masters has obliterated every trace of female vanity, the Esquimaux women tastefully plait their straight, black, and glossy hair; and hence we may infer that greater deference is paid to them by the men. They also generally tattoo their chin, forehead, and cheeks, not, however, as in the South Sea Islands, with elaborate patterns, but with a few simple lines, which have a not unpleasing effect.

From Behring's Straits eastward, as far as the Mackenzie,