Notes on the Tinneh or Chepewyan Indians of British and Russian America (Classic Reprint)

The eastern Tinneh are of middle stature, squarely and strongly built. Although tall men are not uncommon in some of the tribes, the extremes in either direction are far from numerous. The lowest adult whom I have seen was four feet four inches in height, and the tallest, six feet nx inches, the fo: mera Flave, and the latter a Yellow Knife. As a whole they are tolerably fleshy, and their weight may be averaged at 140 pounds. The crania of these people are very large, with a tolerably good facial angle, the forehead rather high, and the skull elongated towards the occiput in most cases. The females appear to have the largest heads, and those of both sexes are covered with a matted profusion of black, coarse, and straight hair. They are, generally, long bodied, witli short, stout limbs, but without any disproportion between the lengths of the upper and lower ones. The extremities are small and well-formed, the hands thick, with short, tapering fingers, offering a strong contrast to the narrow, long, and bony hands of the Crees, and resembling a good deal in this particular the Eskimo of the Arctic circle. The most distinguishing feature in the race is the breadth of their faces between the cheek bones ;this, with a high and rather narrow forehead and elongated chin, gives them a pear-like appearance. They are possessed of considerable bodily strength, of which, as the Hudson s Bay Company employ them as boatmen, tliere are excellent opportunities of judging. They can carry 200 pounds, in a strap passed over the forehead, A vithout difficulty, but they are, as a whole, considerably under the average of the European servants in endurance and strength. There is no particular cast of features other than the large and high cheek bones. Large mouths are universal; the teeth are white and regular, even to old age; the chins are commonly pointed, but cleft ones are n
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)