Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, contained about
220,000 natives--about half as many people as are now
found in Toronto. They were divided into tribes or clans,
among which we may distinguish certain family groups
spread out over great areas.

Most northerly of all was the great tribe of the Eskimos,
who were found all the way from Greenland to Northern
Siberia. The name Eskimo was not given by these people
to themselves. It was used by the Abnaki Indians in
describing to the whites the dwellers of the far north,
and it means 'the people who eat raw meat.' The Eskimo
called and still call themselves the Innuit, which means
'the people.'

The exact relation of the Eskimo to the other races of
the continent is hard to define. From the fact that the
race was found on both sides of the Bering Sea, and that
its members have dark hair and dark eyes, it was often
argued that they were akin to the Mongolians of China.
This theory, however, is now abandoned. The resemblance
in height and colour is only superficial, and a more
careful view of the physical make-up of the Eskimo shows
him to resemble the other races of America far more
closely than he resembles those of Asia. A distinguished
American historian, John Fiske, believed that the Eskimos
are the last remnants of the ancient cave-men who in the
Stone Age inhabited all the northern parts of Europe.
Fiske's theory is that at this remote period continuous
land stretched by way of Iceland and Greenland from Europe