“ The face flat, and very broad between the zygomatic arches; the forehead depressed,
and the nasal openings ample: the occiput remarkably prominent, so that the distance
between the external occipital protuberance and the superior incisors is equal to nine
inches.”
The Samoiedes present ^as with a conformation of the cranium
approximating more closely to the Eskimo than any of the tribes
just mentioned. They are conterminous with the Tungus of North-
Eastern Asia, on the one hand, and the great Tchudic or Ugrian
tribes of European Russia, on the other. P a llas says of them, “ ils
ont le visage plat, rond, et large.” . . . . “ Ils ont de larges levres
retrousees, le nez large et ouvert, peu de barbe, et les cheveux noirs
et rudes.” T ooke ascribes to them “ a large head, flat nose and face,
with the lower part of the face projecting outwardsthey have large
mouths and ears, little black eyes, hut wide eyelids, small lips, and
little feet.”124 “ O f all the tribes of Siberia,” says L ath am , “ the
Samoiedes are nearest to the Eskimo or Greenlanders in their physical
appearance.” 125
B lumenbach tells us that a Samoiede cranium in his collection,
hears a striking resemblance to the skulls
of native Greenlanders, two of which are
figured in the Decades. The resemblance
is shown in the broad, flat face, depressed
or flattened ncrse, and general shape or
conformation of the skull. The nasal
bones are long and narrow. This head is
represented in Eig. 13, reduced from Tab.
LIV. of Blumenbach’s series.
Of all the Rorthern or Arctic races of
men, thus hastily passed in review, the
Eskimo alone appear to exhibit the pyramidal
type of cranium in its greatest intensity.
Viewed in conjunction with the
Fig. 13.
[Decades, Tab. LIV.).
following statements, this apparently isolated and accidental fact
acquires a remarkable significance.—On the shores of Greenland and
the banks of Hudson’s Straits, along the Polar coast-line of America,
and over the frozen tundras of Arctic Asia, on the desolate banks of
the Lena and Indigirka, and among the deserted Isles of Hew Siberia
— visited only at long intervals by the daring traders in fossil ivory
— everywhere, in fact, throughout the Polar Arch, are found the
same primitive graves and rude circles of stones, the same stone axes
and fragments of whalebone rafters — the ancient and mysterious
124 Russia, III., p. 12, quoted in Crania Americana, p. 51.
125 Varieties of Man, p. 267.
vestiges of a people presenting, in general, the same physical characters,
speaking dialects radically the same, and differing but little in
manners' and customs—a people once numerous, but now gradually
hastening on to extinction. Arctic navigators speak of the diminishing
numbers of the Eskimo, and Siberian hunters tell of the disappearance
of entire tribes, such as the Omoki, “ whose hearths were
once more numerous on the banks of the Lena than the stars of an
Arttm night.” The earlier whalers who dared the northern waters
of Baffin s Bay, often allude to the great numbers of the natives
seen on the land in this region, and from the recent intrepid seekers
of the ill-fated Sir John Franklin, we learn that the traces of these
people increase in numbers with the latitude. Thus, according to
Osborn, the northern shores of Barrow’s Strait and Lancaster Sound
bear numerous marks of human, location, whereas, upon the southern
side, they are comparatively scarce. He tells us, also, that from the
estuary of the Coppermine to the Great Fish River, the Eskimo
traces' are less numerous than on the north shore, of Barrow’s
trait. Again, the traditions of the Eskimo point to the north
as their original home. Erasmus York spoke of his mother as
having dwelt m the north; while the inhabitants of Boothia told
Ross that-their fathers fished in northern waters, and described to
hxm, with considerable accuracy, the shores of Horth Somerset.
Wnen Saeneuse told the natives of Prince Regent’s Bay, that he
came from a distant region to the south, they answered “ That cannot
b e ; there is nothing but ice there.” 127 So, the natives of North
Baffin s Bay were ignorant of the existence of numerous individuals
of their own race, living to the south of Melville’s Bay. According
to Egede and Crantz, the southern Eskimo of Greenland consider
themselves of northern origin. Their traditions speak of remote
regions to the north, and of beacons and landmarks set up as guides
upon the frozen hills of that dreaiy land. In connection with these
tacts, consider for a moment the unfavorable physical conditions to
which the Eskimo is exposed. G uyot thus forcibly alludes to these
conditions:
“ In the Frozen Regions,” says he, “ man contends with a niggardly and severe nature:
t is, a desperate struggle for life and death. With difficulty, by force of toil, he succeeds
n providing a miserable support, which saves him from dying of hunger and hardship
■ T 1 ‘ US W” terS 0f N | climate” And again, “ The man of the Polar Regions
is the beggar, overwhelmed with euffering, who, too happy if he but gain his daily bread
nas no leisure to think of anything more exalted.”
5 f” *“ Jo’m,al >' or> Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions. By Lieut. S. Osborn
Ross’s First Voyage to Baffin’s Bay, p. 84.
126 Earth and Man. By Arnold Guyot, Boston, 1850, p. 270.