ILLUSTRATIONS (29). PEOPLING OF JAPAN. 133 



the Fox Islands, to Alaschka, or New California? As the 

 -western coasts of the American continent incline from north- 

 west to south-east, and the eastern coasts of Asia from north- 

 east to south-west, the distance between the two continents 

 in the milder zone, which is most conducive to mental deve- 

 lopment (45° lat.), would appear too considerable to admit 

 of an accidental settlement having been made in this lati- 

 tude. We must therefore assume that the first landing 

 took place in the ungenial climate of 55° and 65°, and that 

 cultivation, like the general advance of population in America, 

 progressed by gradual stations from north to south.* It was 

 even believed in the beginning of the sixteenth century that 

 the fragments of ships from Catayo, i.e. from Japan or China, 

 had been found on the coasts of the Northern Dorado, called 

 also Quivira and Cibora.f 



We know as yet too little of the languages of America 

 entirely to renounce the hope that, amid their many varieties, 

 some idiom may be discovered, that has been spoken with 

 certain modifications in the interior of South America and 

 Central Asia, or that might at least indicate an ancient affinity. 

 Such a discovery would undoubtedly be one of the most 

 brilliant to which the history of the human race can hope to 

 attain! But analogies of language are only deserving of 

 confidence where mere resemblances of sound in the roots are 

 not alone the object of research, but attention is also directed 

 to the organic structure, the grammatical forms, and those 

 elements of language which manifest themselves as the pro- 

 duct of the intellectual power of man. 



(30) p. 12 — "Many other forms of animal life'' 



The Steppes of Caracas abound in flocks of the so-called 

 Cervas mexicanus. This stag when young is spotted, and re- 

 sembles the roe. We have frequently met with perfectly white 

 varieties, which is a very striking fact when the high tempe- 

 rature of this zone is taken into consideration. The Cervas 

 mexicanus is not found on the declivities of the Andes in the 

 equatorial region, at an elevation exceeding from 4476 to 

 5115 feet, but another white deer, which I could scarcely 

 distinguish by any one specific characteristic from the 



* Relat. hist. t. iii. pp. 155—160. 



f Goinara, Hist, general cle las Indias, p. 117. 



