The native inhabitants of Labrador are _mountaineers_ and Esquimaux, between whom there subsists an invincible aversion. The former, who inhabit the interior districts towards the north, are of dark colour, and robust constitution, though their limbs are small. They subsist chiefly on rein-deer, which they are very dexterous in killing: they also kill foxes, martens, and beavers. As these people live a wandering life, they never build houses; but they construct a kind of tents, and cover them with branches of trees, and with deer-skins. Their summer dress consists of skins freed from the hair; and their winter-dress is formed of beaver and deer-skins, with the hair on. During the summer they traverse the country, in canoes, along the rivers and lakes. These canoes are covered with the bark of the birch-tree; and, although they are so light as to be easily carried, some of them are large enough to contain a whole family, together with the materials of their traffic. In winter the mountaineers of Labrador pass over the snow, by means of what are called snow-shoes. These mountaineers are esteemed an industrious people. They bear fatigue with almost incredible resolution and patience; and will often travel two successive days without food. They, every year, come to the Canada merchants, who have seal-fisheries on the southern coast, and bargain their furs, in exchange for blanketing, fire-arms, and ammunition; and they are immoderately fond of spirits. Some of them profess to be Roman Catholics; but their whole religion seems to consist in reciting a few prayers, and in counting their beads. It is customary with these Indians, to destroy such persons among them as become aged and decrepit. This practice they endeavour to vindicate from their mode of life: for they assert that those who are unable to procure the necessaries requisite for their existence, ought not live merely to consume them. The _Esquimaux_, who inhabit the northern parts of the country, are a race similar to the Greenlanders. They have a deep tawny or rather copper-coloured complexion; and are inferior in size to the generality of Europeans. Their faces are flat, and their noses short. Their hair is black and coarse; and their hands and feet are remarkably small. Their dress, like that of the mountaineers, is entirely of skins; and consists of a sort of hooded shirt, of breeches, stockings, and boots. The dress of the different sexes is similar, except that the women wear large boots, and have their upper garment ornamented with a kind of tail. In their boots they occasionally place their children; but the youngest child is always carried at the back of its mother, in the hood of her jacket. The women ornament their heads with large strings of beads, which they fasten to the hair above their ears.