ls of which it is built, the ouimiack
stands a much heavier sea than our best sea-boat. This kind of craft
is rowed by women, and used for the purpose of conveying families
along the coast.

The few implements these people use for hunting or fishing, display
much taste and ingenuity. Their caiaks are proportioned with
mathematical exactness, the paddles often tastefully inlaid with
ivory; their spears are neatly carved, and their bows are far superior
to any I have seen among the interior tribes, combining strength and
elasticity in an eminent degree.

Their mode of capturing the white whale is extremely ingenious. A
large _dan_, or seal-skin inflated with wind, is attached to the
harpoon by a thong some twenty feet in length. The moment the fish is
struck the _dan_ is thrown overboard, and being dragged through the
water, offers so great a resistance to the movement of the fish that
it soon becomes exhausted by the exertion, and when it emerges lies
exposed on the water, to take rest ere it dive again. The Esquimaux
then approaches from behind, and often secures his game with
one thrust of the spear. The Esquimaux also uses a javelin with
considerable skill, and some are so dexterous in the use of the sling
as to bring down wild fowl on the wing.

The complexion of the Esquimaux is swarthy; I have seen some of their
children, however, as fair as the children of the fairest people
in Europe, yet these become as dark as their parents when advanced
in years. This circumstance cannot be accounted for by filthiness
or exposure to the weather; for I have observed, on the coast of
Labrador, the descendants of an Esquimaux mother and a European father
of the third generation as dark as the pure Esquimaux; and these, too,
enjoyed the comforts of civilized life, were cleanly in their persons,
and not more exposed to the weather than others.

The Esquimaux are low of stature, but I do not think the epithet
"dwarfish" applies to them with propriety. With the view of
ascertaining this point, I once took five men promiscuously from a
party of twenty, and found their average height to be 5 feet 5 inches.
Some individuals of the remainder measured 5 feet 7 or 8 inches, and
one exceeded 6 feet. The fact is, the Esquimaux are generally thicker
than Europeans; their peculiar dress also adds greatly to their bulk,
so that they appear shorter than they really are. They are so bound up
in their seal-skin garments that their movements a