X.] THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 367 



grounds along the Pacific seaboard. The theory advanced by 

 some leading American anthropologists that these fishing-grounds 

 were first occupied by primitive man, who thence radiated along 

 the lines of least resistance over the continent, has not been 

 generally accepted. However plausible in itself, it seemed difficult 

 to harmonise it with some of the ascertained data, not the least 

 important of which was the discovery that the great Siouan family 

 had their original seats not on the Pacific but on the Atlantic slope 

 (Virginia, the Carolinas). Hence in this instance at least the early 

 migrations were not from the west to the Missouri, but from the 

 east apparently to and up the Mississippi to their later prairie 

 homes. The extraordinary abundance of nutritious and easily 

 captured food yielded by the Pacific estuaries need not be over- 

 looked as a determining cause. But a more potent one was pro- 

 bably the scouring action of fierce predatory steppe nomads, so 

 that here, as in Central Asia, most of the heterogeneous groups 

 huddled together in contracted areas may still be regarded as the 

 " sweepings of the plains." 



It was inevitable that such dislocations, which have occurred 

 everywhere in the New as well as in the Old World, 

 should give rise to endless interminglings of the two 



primary elements, causing that great variability Ethnical 

 within certain narrow limits which justifies Dr 

 Hamy's view regarding the diversity of the present American 

 ethnical groups 1 . First comes the distinctly round-headed type, 

 which comprises the mound-builders, the cliff-dwellers, and the 

 " pueblo Indians ' who belong to one and the same race. 

 Systematic research in the old graves and ruins invariably brings 

 to light the remains of a short, stout, round-headed people with 

 strong jaws, thin nose, and large cheek-bones, resembling the 

 Attacapans, the Uchies, and other survivors of several tribes in 

 the south-east. True brachycephaly increases southwards, as 

 amongst the Mayas, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and others of Central 

 America, perhaps also the old Chiriquis of Costa Rica, and 



"Ces divers groupes se comportent a peu pres de la meme maniere que 

 les Malaiques, et 1'on trouve, en Amerique comme en Oceanic, des types 

 humainsbien divers" (Les Races Mala'iques et Amtricaines, in 1} Anthropologie, 

 1896, p. 140). 



