TRACES OF A PRE-INDIAN PEOPLE. 321 



of the American Indian, because there is evidence warranting the be- 

 lief that " the Indian was a late comer upon the extreme eastern bor- 

 der of North America indeed, the oldest distribution of the Ameri- 

 can races does not antedate the tenth century," and therefore " the 

 appearance of the Skraelling (Esquimau) in the Sagas, instead of the 

 Indian, is precisely what the truth required " * basing the supposition 

 thereupon, it was suggested f that in the Esquimaux we should find the 

 descendants of that oldest of all mankind homo fialozolithicus. 



Having given the strictly archaeological reasons for dissociating 

 certain of the stone implements found in New Jersey, let us now 

 briefly refer to the historical evidence bearing upon this question. 

 Have we any references to Esquimaux dwelling in regions significant- 

 ly south of their present habitat ? If there are such, then it is at 

 once evident that the weapons and domestic implements of such 

 people must now be buried in the dust of their ancient southern 

 dwelling-places, and, these same spots being subsequently tenanted by 

 the Indian, his handiwork must also be mingled with that of his pred- 

 ecessors. 



The literature of this subject can be sufficiently outlined by refer- 

 ence to two authors. Major W. H. Dall, in " Tribes of the Extreme 

 Northwest," \ remarks : " There are many facts in American ethnology 

 which tend to show that originally the Innuit of the east coast had 

 much the same distribution as the walrus, namely, as far south as New 

 Jersey." I submit the rude argillite arrow-heads found in certain 

 localities in such abundance, and at a significant depth, as an addi- 

 tional fact, tending in the same direction. 



In Rev. B. F. De Costa's admirable resume, of Icelandic literature * 

 there is given abundant evidence ay, proof that the people dwelling 

 along the coast of Massachusetts, 900 to 1000 a. d., were not the same 

 race that resisted the English on the same coast six centuries later. 

 The descriptions of the people seen by the Northmen show that, of 

 whatever race, they were well advanced in the art of war, and used 

 not only the bow, but hatchets and the sling. They were "men of 

 short stature, bushy hair, rude, fierce, and devoid of every grace." || 



It need, therefore, only be remembered that the relationship be- 

 tween the true palaeolithic implements and those of more advanced 

 finish and design is evident to every one who carefully examines a com- 

 plete series. At the same time, the student is confronted with reliable 

 historical evidence of the occupancy of the Atlantic sea-board by the 

 Esquimaux as far south as New Jersey. 



Does not the impression derived from strictly archaeological 



* " Popular Science Monthly," vol. xviii, No. 1, p. 38, November, 1880, New York, 

 f "Peabody Museum Report," vol. ii, p. 252, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



% "Contributions to North American Ethnology," vol. i, p. 98, Washington, 1877. 



* "Pre-Columbian Discovery of America," Albany, 1868. 



|| "Popular Science Monthly," November, 1880, p. 38, New York. 

 vol. xxn. 21 



