36 Dr R. G. Latham on the 



purely philological, the author has drawn upon Baer's Statis- 

 tische und Ethnographische Nachrichten, (fee. Of a Russian set- 

 tlement in New California, although American, no notice is 

 taken. On the other hand, a nation inhabiting the extreme 

 promontory of Asia (the Tchuktchi) are, for reasons that will 

 make themselves apparent, dealt with as American. On the 

 southern extremity of Russian America, the native tribes are 

 known to their neighbours of New Caledonia, the Oregon 

 country, and to the Hudson's Bay Company, under the names 

 ofColooches, Tunghaases, Atnas, Coltshanies, Ugalentses, Ko- 

 nagis, Cadiacks, Tchugatches, and Kenays. For the north, 

 and the shores of the Arctic Sea, they are dealt with (and that 

 truly) as members of the great Esquimaux family. Further 

 investigation multiplies the names of these tribes, so that we 

 hear of Inkalites, Inkulukhlaites, Kiyataigmutis, Agolegmutes, 

 Pashtolegmutis, Magmutis, &c. &c. To these divisions may 

 be added the different varieties of the natives of the Aleutian 

 islands. In the classification of these numerous tribes, it is 

 considered that much remains to be done. 



For the tribes on the shore of the Northern Ocean, and for 

 the parts immediately south of Behring's Straits, the general 

 character, both physical and moral, seems to be Esquimaux. 

 The enormous line of coast over which this nation is extended 

 has long been known. The language and manners of Green- 

 land have been known to us since the times of the earliest 

 Danish missionaries ; so that details, both physical and moral, 

 of no savages are better understood than those of the Green- 

 landers. With this knowledge, it is easy to trace the exten- 

 sion of the race. The shores of Hudson's Bay are inha- 

 bited by the same stock. So also is the coast of Labrador. 

 The three forms of speech are but dialects of one language : a 

 fact that has long been known. Hence the Esquimaux and 

 Greenlanders have long been recognised as identical. From 

 Hudson's Bay, northward and westward, the wliole line of sea- 

 coast, as far as Mackenzie's River, is Esquimaux ; and that with 

 but little variety of type, either in physical conformation, man- 

 ners, or language. The interpreter to Captain Franklin was an 

 Esquimaux from Hudson's Bay, yet he had no difficulty in un- 

 derstanding the dialects west of Mackenzie's River, 137° W. 



