This description, so nearly resembling that of a seal; the violent inclination Le Blanc retained for several years after coming to France, of throwing herself into the water, fishing there with her hands, swimming in it in spite of the cold and frost, and of eating every thing raw; and the weakness and faintings she was at first subject to on feeling the heat of the fire or sun, appear to me to be certain proofs of her being born in the north, somewhere near the Frozen Sea, where seals are fished for; and several other observations which I shall submit to the reader incline me to suspect that she is of the Esquimaux nation, which inhabits the country of Labrador, lying to the north of Canada.
Le Blanc acknowledges, that in the various relations she has made to me on different occasions, there are several particulars of which she retains but a confused and indistinct remembrance, and which she suspects to be blended with circumstances that she may have imagined after she began to reflect on the questions asked her at first, and constantly repeated to her afterwards.
She has, however, always affirmed, and expressed by signs before she could speak French; that she had twice crossed the sea: and of this fact she positively assured M. de la Coudamine inthe
