opulation with a similarly inhospitable country, it is only
the coast of that vast region which is thus tenanted. On Hudson's
Straits there are Eskimo; on the Straits of Belleisle there are Eskimo;
along the intervening coast there are Eskimo, and as far south as
Anticosti there are Eskimo, but in the interior there are no Eskimo.
Instead of them we find the Skoffi, and the Sheshatapush--subsections
(as stated before) of the same section of the great Algonkin stock. In
them we have a measure of the effect of external conditions upon
different members of the same class. Between the Skoffi of Mosquito Bay
and the Pamticos of Cape Hatteras we have more than 25 deg. of latitude
combined with a difference of other physical conditions which more than
equals the difference between north and south. Yet the contrast between
the Algonkin and other inhabitants of Labrador is as evident (though
not, perhaps, so great) as that between the Greenlander and the
Virginian; so that just as the Norwegian is distinguishable from the
Laplander so is the Skoffi from Eskimo.

Dirtier and coarser than any other Algonkins, the Nascopi hunts and
fishes for his livelihood exclusively; depending most upon the autumnal
migrations of the reindeer; and, next to that, upon his net. This he
sets under the ice, during the earlier months of the winter. After
December, however, he would set them in vain; the fish being, then, all
in the deep water. Woman, generally a drudge in North America, is
pre-eminently so with the Nascopis. All that the man does, is the
_killing_ of the game. The woman brings it home. The woman also drags
the loaded sledges from squatting to squatting, clears the ground, and
collects fuel; whilst the man sits idle and smokes. Of such domestic
slaves more than one is allowed; so that as far as the Nascopi
recognizes marriage at all, he is a polygamist. In this sense the
contracting parties are respectively the parents of the couple--the
bride and bridegroom being the last parties consulted. When all has been
arranged, the youth proceeds to his father-in-law's tent, remains there
a year, and then departs as an independent member of the community.
Cousins are addressed as brothers or sisters; marriage between near
relations is allowed; and so is the marriage of more than one sister
successively.

The Paganism of the Nascopi is that of the other Cree tribes; their
Christianity still more partial and still more nominal. Sometimes
rolli