Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal (Volume 63) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Art. II.?On the Period of Puberty in Esquimaux Women. By John Roberton, Manchester. Opposite to Cape Bauld, the most northerly point of Newfoundland, across the Strait of Belle Isle, lies the dreary Atlantic coast of Labrador,?a coast which, commencing in latitude 52, stretches (so vast is the extent,) in a north-westerly direction, presenting a rampart of naked rocks to the fury of the ocean, until it terminates ten degrees higher at Hudson's Strait. This, without exaggeration, may be considered one of the most inhospitable regions of the globe. The shore guarded by numerous islands, and penetrated by bays, consists of little besides bold masses of splintered rocks, in many parts rising above the sea to an astonishing elevation. The country in general, instead of grass, is coveredwith the rein-deer moss; while at the heads of the bays, and in some of the valleys are found a few pines, and several kinds of stunted arctic trees and shrubs. Everywhere streams, lakes, and ponds abound, which swarm with fish, as does likewise the neighbouring sea; and the shores and islands are the greatest resort known of the various animals belonging to the seal tribe. The climate is acknowledged to be one of the severest, the reign of winter continuing with but little intermission three-fourths of the year; when streams, lakes, bays, and sea, are alike bound in ice; and the snow is reported by the missionaries as being sometimes twenty-four feet and upwards in depth. As evidence of the intenseness of the cold, the thermometer not unfrequently sinks to 30 below zero. The native inhabitants consist of Esquimaux, who, here, as wherever they are found, frequent the sea-bord, and a few families of miserable Indians, which hunt in the interior. As the physical characteristics of the Esquimaux...