,
especially in those of the women, a certain touch of ingratiating petted
softness.

To our way of thinking, such a face could scarcely be described as
beautiful; but how much prejudice there is in our ideas of beauty! I
soon came to find these brown faces, gleaming with health and fat,
really pleasing. They reflected the free life of nature, and suggested
to my mind pictures of blue sea, white glaciers, and glittering
sunshine.

It was, however, chiefly the young that produced this impression; and
they soon grow old. The shrunken, blear-eyed, hairless old women,
reminding one of frost-bitten apples, were certainly not beautiful; and
yet there was a certain style in them, too. Toil had left its traces
upon their wrinkled countenances, but also a life of rude plenty and a
habit of good-humoured, hopeless resignation. There was nothing of that
vitreous hardness or desiccated dignity which the school of life so
often imprints upon aged countenances in other parts of the world.

The half-caste race which has arisen upon the west coast, of mingled
European and Eskimo blood, is apt to be, according to our ideas,
handsomer than the pure-bred Eskimos. They have, as a rule, a somewhat
southern appearance, with their dark hair, dark eyebrows and eyes, and
brown complexion. A remarkably Jewish cast of countenance sometimes
appears among them. Types of real beauty are by no means rare--male as
well as female. Yet there is apt to be something feeble about these
half-breeds. The pure-bred Eskimos undoubtedly seem more genuine and
healthy.

It is a common error among us in Europe to think of the Eskimos as a
diminutive race. Though no doubt smaller than the Scandinavian peoples,
they must be reckoned among the middle-sized races, and I even found
among those of purest breeding men of nearly six feet in height. Their
frame produces, on the whole, an impression of strength, especially the
upper part of the body. The men have broad shoulders, strong, muscular
arms, and a good chest; but, on the other hand, one notices that their
