A pair of Inuit wooden snow goggles with a cotton cord tie strap attached to each side and knotted near the ends. One of the two anchor points on righthand side has become detached. The wood has been shaped to create two narrow slits to see through and is hollow enough on the inside to prevent the eyelashes from becoming attached to the goggles from frozen breath. The central part has been hollowed out to create a rounded and sloped groove to fit over and protect the nose.

This one of a number of objects brought back by Admiral Sir George Back (1796-1878) from Canada during one of the three overland expeditions that he participated in or, in the case of the 1833-1835 expedition, led. However, we do not know from which the Inuit snow goggles were acquired. John Franklin does recall the use of snow-goggles by Inuit on his second overland expedition, 1825-27, '...they called it "eetec-yawgah" (far eyes), the name they give to the wooden shade which is used to protect their eyes from the glare of the snow, and which, from the smallness of its aperture, enables them to see distant objects more clearly. ' [Franklin, 'Narrative of a second expedition to the shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1825, 1826, and 1827', page 195-196].