PALEOLITHIC RACES 27 



plements as those of the Magdalenian age. These races, he 

 remarks, continue down to our own days, in the circumpolar 

 regions, the age of the reindeer as it existed in France, Belgium, 

 and Switzerland. 



A similar view was subsequently supported by Prof. Boyd 

 Dawkins, 1 who pointed to the Eskimo as the one race which 

 makes the closest approach to the Magdalenian in the character 

 of its art, implements, and mode of life. Of late years, 

 however, this conclusion has been strongly contested. Laloy 

 remarks: " Cette theorie est absolutement contredit par les 

 faits " 2 ; Steensby, the latest writer on the origin of the Eskimo, 

 dismisses it as fantastic and impossible. 3 In face of such 

 conflicting judgments it becomes necessary to examine this 

 question in some detail. If we can find an existing race which 

 may fairly be regarded as the lineal descendants of the 

 Magdalenians, we shall have connected two dissevered ends in 

 human history, thus linking together by a single explanation 

 the fate of one race and the origin of another ; but the very 

 consciousness of our desire for continuity must warn us against 

 too facile an acceptance of testimony. 



As a useful preliminary to our inquiry we may begin with 

 a brief sketch of the habits and mode of life of the inhabitants 

 of the North American tundra. The belt of barren land which 

 is known as the tundra borders the Arctic Ocean both in the 

 Old World and the New : it supports a scanty vegetation of 

 mosses and lichens, together with a few trees, such as the 

 arctic willow, dwarf birch, and two species of conifers, which 

 are chiefly found in the neighbourhood of lakes and water- 

 courses. Towards the interior the tundra is succeeded by 

 a forest zone characterised by pines and other conifers, 

 but including patches of willow, poplar, and birch. Beyond 

 the forest follows the great prairie or steppe. The men 

 who inhabit these regions are the Red Indians 4 and the 



1 W. Boyd Dawkins, Cave Hunting, London, 1874, p. 353 et seq. 



2 Laloy, UAnthrop., 1898, vol. ix. p. 586. This author is mistaken in asserting^ 

 that in Greenland decoration is confined to lines and points. 



3 H. P. Steensby, Om Eskimokulturcns Ofirindelse, Copenhagen, 1905, pp. 1-2 19. 

 This work contains a very full bibliography. 



4 A pedantic objection has been raised to the use of this name on the ground 

 that it is applied to a people who are neither Indians nor red : " red," however, is a 

 term with very wide meaning, and there is a good historic reason for "Indian" ; the 

 nomenclature is consecrated by usage, and cannot lead to any serious misconception. 



