IN THÉ EAST AND WEST INDIES.
305
fhort.    Wherever they happen to be fomething long- book
er, they are proportionably well covered.    Under this   xvn-
gloomy Iky, all liquors become folid by freezing, and *—*----'
break the veffels they are in. Even fpirit of wine
lofes its fluidity. It is not uncommon to fee frag-
ments of large rocks loofened and detached from the
great mafs, by the force of the froft. All thefe phe-
nomena common enough during the whole winter,
are much more terrible at the new and full moon,
which in thefe regions has an influence upon the wea-
ther, the caufes of which are not known.
In this frozen zone, iron, lead, copper, marble, and
a fubftanee refembling fea-coal, have been difcovered.
In other refpeds, the foil is extremely barren Ex
cept the coafts, which are for the moft part marffir
and produce a little grafs and fome foft wood; the
reft ofthe country affords nothing but very high mois,
and a few weak fhrubs very thinly feattered.
This deficiency in  nature  extends itfelf to every
thing.    The human race are few in number, and there
are fcarce any perfons above four feet high.    Their
heads bear the fame enormous proportion to the reft
ot their bodies, as thofe of children do.    The fmall-
nefs of their feet makes them awkward and tottering
m their gait.    Small hands and a round mouth, which
in Europe are reckoned a beauty, feem almoft a de-
formity in thefe people, becaufe we fee nothing here
Dut the effeds of a weak organization, and of a cold
climate, that contrads and reftrains the principles of
grovvth, and is fatal to the progrefs of animal as well
as ot vegetable life.    All the men, even the youngeft
ot them, though they have neither hair nor beard
have the appearance of being old.    This is partly oc-
cafioned from the formation of their lower lip, which
«thick,  flefhy,  and projecting  beyond  the  upper,
auch are the Efquimaux, who inhabit not only the
coaft of Labrador, from whence they have taken their
name, but likewife all that trad of country which ex-
tends from the point of Belleifle to the moft northern
parts of America.
Vol V.                                      U