[Footnote 224: For example, Dr. De Costa refers to Dr. Abbott's
discoveries as indicating "that the Indian was preceded by a
people like the Eskimos, whose stone implements are found in
the Trenton gravel." _Pre-Columbian Discovery_, p. 132. Quite
so; but that was in the Glacial Period (!!), and when the edge
of the ice-sheet slowly retreated northward, the Eskimo, who is
emphatically an Arctic creature, doubtless retreated with it,
just as he retreated from Europe. See above, p. 18. There is
not the slightest reason for supposing that there were any
Eskimos south of Labrador so lately as nine hundred years ago.]

[Sidenote: Personal appearance of the Skraelings.]

Our chronicle describes the Skraelings of Vinland as swarthy in hue,
ferocious in aspect, with ugly hair, big eyes, and broad cheeks.[225]
This will do very well for Indians, except as to the eyes. We are
accustomed to think of Indian eyes as small; but in this connection it
is worthy of note that a very keen observer, Marc Lescarbot, in his
minute and elaborate description of the physical appearance of the
Micmacs of Acadia, speaks with some emphasis of their large eyes.[226]
Dr. Storm quite reasonably suggests that the Norse expression may refer
to the size not of the eye-ball, but of the eye-socket, which in the
Indian face is apt to be large; and very likely this is what the
Frenchman also had in mind.

[Footnote 225: "Their voru svartir menn ok illiligir, ok havdhu
illt har a hoefdhi. Their voru mjoek eygdhir ok breidhir i
kinnum," i. e. "Hi homines erant nigri, truculenti specie,
foedam in capite comam habentes, oculis magnis et genis latis."
Rafn, p. 149. The Icelandic _svartr_ is more precisely rendered
by the identical English _swarthy_ than by the Latin _niger_.]

[Footnote 226: "Mais quat a noz Sauvages, pour ce qui regarde
les ieux ilz ne les ont ni bleuz, ni verds, mais noirs pour la
pluspart, ainsi que les cheveux; & neantmoins ne sont petits,
come ceux des anciens Scythes, mais d'une grandeur bien
agreable." Lescarbot, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, Paris,
1612, tom. ii. p. 714.]

[Sidenote: The Skraelings of Vinland were Indians,--very likely
Algonquins.]

These Skraelings were clad in skins, and their weapons were bows and
arrows, slings, and stone