On the Tribes inhabiting the N.-West Coast of America, 169 



families of the human race brought into intimate relation- 

 ship, and each retaining its own peculiarities. We find the 

 Esquimaux to the north and west, the Koluschians, on the sea- 

 coast, to the south, and, in the interior, the Carriers and 

 other tribes of the Athabascan family, extending eastward 

 toward Hudson's Bay, and spreading southward along the 

 western side of the Rocky Mountains to the head- waters of 

 Frazer's River. Notwithstanding the contiguity of these 

 three families or groups, and that they have interchanged se- 

 veral words of their respective vocabularies, the distinction 

 tween them in language, manners, and modes of living, is 

 very apparent, so that there is, in general, little difficulty in 

 ascertaining to which of the three families a tribe belongs. 

 Thus the Esquimaux of Greenland and Kodiac, although 

 thousands of miles apart, have more dialectic affinities than 

 the Kodiacs have with their neighbours, the Kenai or Kolus- 

 chians. There is nothing more remarkable than the perti- 

 nacity with which even small tribes of Indians adhere to 

 their language, retaining it, as Mr Gallatin observes, to the 

 last moment of their existence. The difference of customs, 

 as, for example, between a fishing and a hunting tribe, also 

 tends to prevent intercourse, and thus keep languages dis- 

 tinct. Mr Dunn informs us, when speaking of the tribes 

 situated around Puget's Sound, that " the coast tribes and 

 those of the plains observe a marked aversion to mutual in- 

 corporation, and confine themselves to distinct localities ; the 

 plain tribes not approaching the Sound, and the tribes bor- 

 dering on the Sound not extending their roamings into the 

 plains." In the same manner, the Athabascan and Esquimaux 

 races, in the northern regions, carry on a perpetual warfare. 

 We also find, among the Indian races to the east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, that amalgamations of dialects rarely, if ever, 

 take place ; their organization into tribes, and the necessity 

 of preserving the full extent of their hunting-ground causes 

 repulsion, not union, and is favourable to perpetual hostilities. 

 It will be seen, in the course of this paper, that a different 

 social condition has tended to obscure the marks of dialectic 

 distinctions in certain tribes. 



1. Esquimaux. — The ethnography of this race is now well 



