and fowling. They collect round their habitations vast refuse-heaps, of precisely the same kind as those of the Cave-men in Europe. Captain Lyon gives the following account of one of these which he visited in the summer at Igloolik:—[1]
"The ground all around was strewed with skulls and skeletons of animals; and human heads were picked up to the amount of at least a dozen! Bones indeed were so numerous that we literally trod on them. A large stagnant field of mud surrounded the place, adding its full share of sweets, as it was constantly ploughed up by all who walked through it to the huts: the bottom of this also felt as if covered with bones. Near at hand were several large tumuli, which had formerly been dwellings, but which were now solid moss-covered mounds. From their appearance in decidedly different states of antiquity, from the very slow progress either of vegetation or decay in a country which for at least nine months in the year is frozen as hard as a rock, and from the natives never recollecting them as being inhabited, I am led to suppose that the island of Igloolik must have been, for centuries, the residence of Eskimaux. It is strange that the skulls of men should have been left to lie neglected under foot amongst those of all kinds of animals; but the natives treated the matter with the utmost indifference, and a lad who accompanied me a few miles inland to shoot, carried down to the boat for me a couple of human heads I had found near a lake, with the same willingness as some ducks I had killed. In the course of my rambles I saw four more of these remnants of Eskimaux, which were eagerly pointed out by the boy when he saw I was interested in them.
- ↑ Lyon's Private Journal, p. 236.
