BIOLOGY. 313 



as, on the most careful consideration, I am unable to draw any 

 deiinite line in tiie above series, and to say with certainty that 

 here end the varieties and here begin the siiecies, I am therefore 

 irresistibly led to believe that the former gradually strengthen and 

 become developed into the latter, and that the difference between 

 them is merely one of mode and degree. — Amer. Journ. of Sci- 

 ence, Sept., 1865. 



NATIVE AMERICAN RACES. 



At the meeting of the Anthropological Society, April, 1866, Mr. 

 W. BoUaert read a paper on the "Anthropology of the New 

 World." The author, in embodying his experiences of the Red 

 Man, noticed the erroneous statement which had been made, that 

 the physical configuration of American natives was the same all 

 over the continent. This was not quite the case, even as regards 

 color; while as to form, feature, i^hysical and mental develop- 

 ment, there are marked differences and peculiarities, resulting 

 from causes investigated in detail. He gave minute descriptions 

 of the various theories which had been propounded to account for 

 the population of America, especially of the known facts regard- 

 ing the colonization of the northern parts by the Icelanders in the 

 tenth century. He condemned the theory which Rivero and 

 Tschudi had advocated, that such originators of American theo- 

 cracies as Quetzalcoatl of Mexico, Bochica of Bogota, and Manco 

 Capac of Peru, were Buddhist priests. His own researches on 

 this subject were not confirmatory of this hypothesis. The native 

 traditions of the aborigines were not confiniiatory of this theoiy 

 of Monogeny. He gave a minute description of the materials he 

 had been able to collect concerning the Red Man, before and after 

 the discovery of America by Columbus, adopting as examples the 

 inhabitants of the Russian possessions in America, British North 

 America, Newfoundland, the United States, West Indies, Texas, 

 Mexico, Central America, New Granada, Quito, Brazil, Chili, the 

 Pampas, and Peru. 



The native population of Amei-ica at the pei-iod of its discovery 

 was estimated as over 100,000,000 ; at present there may be from 

 10 to 11,000,000. They are said to have some 400 languages, and 

 2,000 dialects. He considered the time required for the evolution 

 of each of these to have been vast. He commented on the evi- 

 dence which had been aftbrded of ancient human remains at 

 Guadaloupe, in the West Indies (probably recent), the Florida 

 coral reef, Natchez on the Mississippi, and the Brazilian boue- 

 caves. Pottery had been found in Ecuador, under circumstances 

 which showed that it had been submerged for an unknown time 

 under the sea, and again upheaved. He pointed out some impor- 

 tant differences between the physiological characters of the White 

 and Red Man, and concluded by affirming that his inquiries into 

 the subject of species and varieties led him to abandon the unity 

 or monogenistic view, for the plurality or polygenistic theory of 

 separate creations. 

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