are frank and sanguine in their manner, averse to theft, fraud and falsehood,
improvident and insensible in their social relations.
The Takaguires traverse tjie icy region between the Takouts and the Frozen
ocean, and avoid all other people.
The Kamschatkans have the physical traits of the adjacent Polar tribes,
excepting that their women are handsomer; hut their moral and intellectual
character is different. They are said to possess a strong memory, and a remarkable
tact at mimicry; despise labor, which they resume only from the necessities
of the passing hour, and are cowardly in the extreme. I t must he admitted that
the southern Kamschatkans, in common with the southern tribes of Tungusians
and Ostiaks, have so long mixed with the proximate Mongol-Tartar hordes, that
it is in some measure arbitrary to class them definitively with either family, for
their characters are obviously derived from both.
The Koriaks, who inhabit north of the Kamschatkans, are dull of comprehension,
obstinate and revengeful, yet industrious and susceptible of friendship.
Their language, though in many respects peculiar, has a near affinity to that of
their neighbors the Tchukchi.
The Tchukches resemble the Koriaks in person, manners and language, and
form the intermediate link-between the latter. nation and the Polar tribes, of
America. They are barbarous and cruel, and repugnant to every form of civilisation.
“In short,” says Mr. Tooke, “ they are naturally as wicked and as dangerous
as the Tungusians are mild and gentle.”* In person they are small and spare,
yet have the round, flat face of the other people of this race. Their chief riches
consist in herds of reindeer, of which animals it is not uncommon for individuals
to possess ten thousand.t
The Kurilians inhabit the Kurile islands, which stretch from the peninsula
of Kamschatka almost to Japan. These people have good complexions and a
cojrjtius beard, but in other particulars resemble the adjacent hordes.
Crossing to the American continent we find the Polar .race composed of the
Eskimaux and Greenlanders, who are both generally included in the former name,
an Algonkin word signifying “eaters of raw flesh;” but their own national designation
is Keralit. They are the sole inhabitants of the shores of all the seas, bays,
inlets and islands of America, north of the 60th degree of north latitude, from the
eastern coast of Greenland in longitude 21°, to the straits of Behring in longitude
127° west. On the Atlantic they also skirt the coast of Labrador, and are even
Russia, III, p. 177. t Ibid. I ll, p. 187.
seen as far south as the Straits of Belle-Isle and the Gulf St.Lawrence. In
the west they extend along the shores of the Pacific Oceaff southwards as far as
Mount St. Elias and Behring’s Bay, embracing the Konaji and some other tribes,
including the islanders of Kadjack* They seldom wander more than a hundred
miles from the sea, and subsist in a* great measure by fishing.
The western Eskimaux, or those living to the west of Mackenzie’s river, are
said by Captain Beechey to be taller in stature than the eastern tribes, their,
average height being about five feet seven and a half inches. They are also
better looking, more industrious, and more irascible and warlike. Their countenances,
however, are' represented as much deformed by habitual sore eyes, and
teeth worn down by the constant mastication of hard substances; and above all by
the barbarous custom of slitting the lower lip, and wearing in the aperture an
elliptical piece of wood or bone.f
Captain Lyon, in his account of the Eskimaux seen by him at Igloolik and
Winter Island, on the northeast coast, has given a detailed and graphic description
of the American division of this race. “ They may,” says he, “ more properly be
termed a small than even a middle sized race: for though in some few instances,
and in particular families, the men are tall and stout, yet the greater portion are
beneath the standard of what, in Europe, would be called small men. The tallest
I saw was five feet nine inches and three quarters in height; the shortest only
four feet ten inches; and the highest woman was five feet six inches, while the
smallest was four feet eight inches only. Even in the young and strong men the
muscles are not clearly defined, but are smoothly covered, as in the limbs of
Women. However prominent and well shaped the chest may be, the neck is
small, weak, and often shrivelled. They all stand well on their feet, walking
erect and freely, with the toes rather turned inwards, and the legs slightly bowed.
The peck and shoulders of the young women are generally in good, though large
proportion; and the arm and wrists are sometimes handsome. The feet of both
sexes are small and neat, well joined at the ankle, and free from blemishes. The
complexion of the Eskimaux, when clearly shown by a previous washing, is not
darker than that of a Portuguese; and such parts of the body as are constantly
covered, do not fall short in fairness to the generality of the natives of the Mediterranean.
A very fine healthy blush tinges the cheek of females and young
children, but the men are more inclined to a sallow complexion.
“ The inner corner of the eye points downwards, like that of a Chinese; and
* Gallatin, in Archseolog. Amer. II, p. 10.
14
t Beechey, Voy. II, p. 570.