41g BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



influence of climate upon white men or upon the Indian is entirely 

 accurate. 



Dr. BoYNTON, I do not rise for the purpose of defending any 

 position taken in Avhat I said this evening. I am very happy in- 

 deed to see that my views call forth criticism. If you had received 

 what I stated without any comment, I should have been forced 

 into one of two conclusions, either that it was not considered 

 worth noticing, or that it was so wild that it was not best to 

 notice it. 



In regard to the point brought forward, to suppose that the in- 

 fluences which I have hinted may be traceable directly to climate, 

 should have the same effect upon the Caucasian who came to this 

 counti'y and upon the aborigines who were found here, necessitates 

 a supposition antecedent to that, which is, that they should each 

 be susceptible to the same impressions and to the same modifica- 

 tions ; a position which I think the gentleman would be unwilling 

 to take. There was a different antecedent condition. The capaci- 

 ties of the two people for impressions were vastly diflerent, and 

 consequently widely different results followed. 



As regards the effect on complexion, the difference in latitude 

 oetween the Penobscot river and the mouth of the Mississippi is 

 hardly wide enough to afford the necessary data to decide whether 

 the Indian found at the mouth of the Mississippi river should be 

 darker than the one found on the Penobscot. But if you will take 

 a wider range, and go north of Hudson's bay, and compare the 

 ■ complexion of the Esquimaux with what you will find near the 

 equator, you will have a range of latitude wide enough to test this 

 question. The general fact is, that the complexion deepens as you 

 approach the equator. 



In reference to the other point advanced, in regard to the gen- 

 eral intelligence found among the Indian tribes as you approach 

 the borders of the Mexican Gulf, being greater than tliat found 

 among the more northern tribes, and that the southern Indians 

 have left evidences of a stage of civilization in advance of the 

 northern tribes, that, also, involves another important question, 

 and that is, Avhether the aborigines as found through the northern 

 ■section of wliat we now know as the United States, descended from 

 a common origin with those Avhich Cortez found in Mexico. I 

 believe it is now considered a pretty well settled fact by ethnolo- 

 gists, that whetlier we believe in the unity of the race, or that man- 

 kind had several centres of origin, the people found upon the soil 



