Sir John Ross declares, that if they only
ate moderately, any given district would support 'double their number,
and with scarcely the hazard of want.' He says that an Esquimaux eats
twenty pounds of flesh and oil a day, and, in fact, never ceases from
devouring until compelled to desist from sheer repletion. Speaking
of one meal taken in their company, we have this edifying
observation:--'While we found that one salmon and half of another were
more than enough for all us English, these voracious animals (the
Esquimaux) had devoured two each. At this rate of feeding, it is not
wonderful that their whole time is occupied in procuring food: each
man had eaten fourteen pounds of this raw salmon, and it was probably
but a luncheon after all, of a superfluous meal for the sake of our
society!.... The glutton bear--scandalised as it may be by its
name--might even be deemed a creature of moderate appetite in
comparison: with their human reason in addition, these people, could
they always command the means, would doubtless outrival a glutton and
a boa-constrictor together.
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